The following are all excerpts from works written by Sri Ramana Maharshi directly himself (as opposed to being teachings of Ramana’s noted down by others). Most of the teachings we have of Ramana’s were recorded and written down by others around him, and Ramana wrote very little himself. I have selected the following quotes only from texts that Ramana wrote directly himself.
Please take your time with each quote, there is no need to rush.
In this video below I have read each quote aloud, which I hope is of benefit for some of you:
Can the body, which is insentient as a piece of wood, shine and function as ‘I’? No. Therefore, lay aside this insentient body as though it were truly a corpse. Do not even murmur ‘I’, but enquire keenly within what it is that now shines within the heart as ‘I’.
Underlying the unceasing flow of varied thoughts, there arises the continuous, unbroken awareness, silent and spontaneous, as ‘I-I’ in the Heart. If one catches hold of it and remains still, it will completely annihilate the sense of ‘I’ in the body, and will itself disappear as a fire of burning camphor. Sages and scriptures proclaim this to be Liberation.
~Sri Ramana Maharshi, Vichara Sangraham (Self Enquiry)
It is true wisdom
For the mind to turn away
From outer objects and behold
Its own effulgent form.
~Sri Ramana Maharshi, Upadesa Saram, Verse 16
Having known one’s nature one abides
As being with no beginning and no end
In unbroken consciousness and bliss.
~Sri Ramana Maharshi, Upadesa Saram, Verse 28
For loosening Karma’s bonds and ending births,
This path is easier than all other paths.
Abide in stillness, without any stir
Of tongue, mind, body. And behold
The effulgence of the Self within;
The experience of Eternity; absence
Of all fear; the ocean vast of Bliss.
~Sri Ramana Maharshi, Atma-Vidya (Self-Knowledge), Verse 5
For him who is the Bliss of Self arising from extinction of the ego, what is there to do? He knows nothing other than this Self. How to conceive the nature of his state?
~Sri Ramana Maharshi, Ulladu Narpadu, Verse 31
The natural and true Reality forever resides in the Heart of all. Not to realise It there and stay in It but to quarrel ‘It is’, ‘It is not’, ‘It has form’, ‘It has not form’, ‘It is one’, ‘It is two’, ‘It is neither’, this is the mischief of maya.
~Sri Ramana Maharshi, Ulladu Narpadu, Verse 34
To discern and abide in the ever-present Reality is true attainment. All other attainments are like powers enjoyed in a dream. When the sleeper wakes, are they real? Those who stay in the state of Truth, having cast off the unreal – will they ever be deluded?
~Sri Ramana Maharshi, Ulladu Narpadu, Verse 35
Tom Das 