Ramana Maharshi - That bliss of the Self is always with you

Q: In this life beset with limitations can I ever realize the bliss of the Self ?

Ramana Maharshi - That bliss of the Self is always with you, and you will find it for yourself, if you would seek it earnestly. The cause of your misery is not in the life outside you, it is in you as the ego. You impose limitations on yourself and then make a vain struggle to transcend them.

All unhappiness is due to the ego; with it comes all your trouble. What does it avail you to attribute to the happenings in life the cause of misery which is really within you? What happiness can you get from things extraneous to yourself ? When you get it, how long will it last ?

If you would deny the ego and scorch it by ignoring it, you would be free. If you accept it, it will impose limitations on you and throw you into a vain struggle to transcend them. To be the Self that you really are is the only means to realize the bliss that is ever yours.

Q: If truly there is neither bondage nor liberation, what is the reason for the actual experience of joys and sorrows?
Ramana Maharshi - They appear to be real only when one turns aside from one's real nature. They do not really exist.

Ramana Maharshi : Who is the Doer of All actions

Question : But is God really the doer of all the actions I perform?
Ramana Maharshi : The present difficulty is that man thinks he is the doer. But it is a mistake. It is the higher power which does everything and man is only a tool. If he accepts that position he is free from troubles, otherwise he courts them. Take, for instance, the sculpted figure at the base of a gopuram [temple tower], which is made to appear as if it is bearing the burden of the tower on its shoulder. Its posture and look are a picture of great strain which gives the impression that it is bearing the weight of the tower. But think. The tower is built on the earth and it rests on its foundations. The figure is a part of the tower, but it is made to look as if it is bearing the weight of the tower. Is it not funny ? So also is the man who takes on himself the sense of doing.

Ramana Maharshi : best way of killing the Ego

Question : What is the best way of killing the ego?
Ramana Maharshi : To each person that way is the best which appears easiest or appeals most. All the ways are equally good, as they lead to the same goal, which is the merging of the ego in the Self. What the bhakta [devotee] calls surrender, the man who does vichara calls jnana. Both are trying only to take the ego back to the source from which it sprang and make it merge there.

Ramana Maharshi : How did the Ego arise?

Question : How did the ego arise?
Ramana Maharshi : Ego is not. Otherwise do you admit of two selves? How can there be avidya in the absence of the ego? If you begin to enquire, the avidya, which is already non-existent, will be found not to be, or you will say it has fled away.

Ignorance pertains to the ego. Why do you think of the ego and also suffer? What is ignorance again? It is that which is nonexistent. However the worldly life requires the hypothesis of avidya. Avidya is only our ignorance and nothing more. It is ignorance or forgetfulness of the Self.

Can there be darkness before the sun? Similarly, can there be ignorance before the self-evident and self- luminous Self ? If you know the Self there will be no darkness, no ignorance and no misery. It is the mind which feels the trouble and the misery. Darkness never comes nor goes. See the sun and there is no darkness. Similarly, see the Self and avidya will be found not to exist.

Ramana Maharshi on ego in deep sleep, Ego and Body

Ramana Maharshi on ego in deep sleep, Ego and Body

Question : A young Mysorean asked: How did I get this body?
Ramana Maharshi : You speak of ‘I’ and the ‘body’. There is the relationship between the two. You are not therefore the body. The question does not occur to the body because it is inert. There is an occasion when you are not aware of the body - namely, in deep sleep. The question
does not arise then. Nevertheless you are there in sleep. To whom does the question arise now?

Question : The ego.
Ramana Maharshi : Yes. The body and the ego rise up together and sink together. There is an occasion when you are not associated with the ego in deep sleep. Now you are associated with the ego. Of these two states which is your real state? You are present in sleep and the same “You” is present now too. Why should the doubt arise now and not then?

You are right in saying that it is for the ego. You are not the ego. The ego is intermediate between the Self and the body. You are the Self. Find out the origin of the ego and see if the doubt persists. Sri Bhagavan added after a few minutes: The answer, according to sastras, will be that the body is due to karma.

The question will be how did karma arise? We must say “from a previous body” and so on without end. The direct method of attack is not to depend on invisible hypotheses but to ask “Whose Karma is it? Or whose body?” Hence I answered in this manner. This is more purposeful.