The following excerpt is taken from the text Aham Sphurana 7th August 1936. You can download the entire text for free here.

Questioner: Those who have a great, insatiable taste or longing thirst for art, those who are profoundly moved by the intricate and subtle beauties of art: is it true that they find it easier to introvert the mind?

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi: Yes.

Q.: Why so?

B.: Being moved by art renders the mind sensitive. Its dross-content burns up. But the intensity of the passion must be extreme… The idea is that the mind must NOT [be permitted to] peacefully rest content with the present state of Body-am-I consciousness. The Grace of the Guru or the company of a Jnani sparks off the commencement of a regular war within the mind between the 2 elements of sattvagunam and tamogunam. Really the battle is between satvas and tamas only; rajas is merely a form of manifestation of tamas. [Tom: this is a wonderful and deep insight here – tamas is ignorance, and rajas is the projecting or active power that results for springs forth from ignorance; note that nescience, mentioned below, is a synonym for ignorance] So, we are fighting against sleep. Sleep or oblivion is the worst enemy of man. Sleep is the anti-thesis of Realisation. Permanent destruction of sleep or nescience is Realisation.

Q.: Only a Jnani can dispense with sleep altogether.

B.: True. The sadhaka, excluding the neophyte, should try to restrict sleep to 6 hours; very gradually this may be reduced to 4, and then after yet more time has elapsed, 3, hours. It is possible provided the correct lifestyle and dietary patterns are followed. Needless to say it requires vairagyam. All changes introduced should be gradual. Any violent upheaval will toxify the mind and may kill the body. Suddenly trying to reach perfection men try to remain without sleep and food for long periods, imagining they are yogis. Retribution, bodily and mental, is swift and harsh; he is frightened off the spiritual-path forevermore; this is a duplicitous stratagem followed by the mind to prevent its own extinction.

Q.: I sleep for 10 hours a day, but still feel sleepy whilst I am awake.

B.: More sleep produces more craving for more sleep.

Q.: Yes, I observe it to be so. How to break the addiction to sleep?

B.: Change in lifestyle and diet.

Q.: Am I to give up my sybaritic and sedentary pattern of living?

B.: Yes.

Q.: Am I to give up my daily appetite for barbecued hogget?

B.: Yes.

Q.: Will it not be painful to give up these long-cherished habits?

B.: Yes!

Q.: How to avoid the pain?

B.: Do not think, ‘I am feeling pain.’.

Q.: Merely imagining pain to go away does not make it go away.

B.: You are not asked to imagine pain to go away. You are asked to cease imagining the presence of pain.

Q.: The body’s pains are very real to me. I am not able to dismiss it away as fiction.

B.: Get rid of the root cause.

Q.: Which is?

B.: The idea that you are this body or are in it.

Q.: How to get rid of the idea?

B.: Formulas are so as for accquisition not discardal. [Tom: it is the ego-mind that wants the formula, so the seeking of a formula, rather than simply letting go or being still, is an ego-preservation strategy. The ego may pose as if it is sincerely asking ‘How do I let go?…How do I be still?’, but this is actually all a delaying tactic, an ego-preservation strategy]

Q.: But what am I to do to be rid of misery?

B.: Doing is misery. Doing cannot get rid of misery. More doing brings more misery. Try non-doing. See what a refreshing change it brings.

Q.: Well, then, how to not do anything?

B.: [laughing] Can non-doing be accomplished by doing? If it were possible there would be no such thing as non-doing and therefore no possibility of Realisation. You have become so used to doing that when asked to put an end to it all, you ask how this is to be accomplished! Can non-doing be accomplished? Give up everything. Summa iru. That is non-doing.

Q.: Is Summa-iruththal the most efficacious means to Self-Realisation?

B.: It is Self-Realisation [itself].

Q.: Doing and non-doing in Bhagavan’s vocabulary refer to the mind alone; am I correct?

B.: Yes.

Q.: The body is to be kept active in some worthy pursuit or the other, preferrably one of an altruistic nature. Am I correct?

B.: Leave the body to its prarabdha and attend to yourself. One destined to work cannot keep idle. One destined to keep idle cannot find work. It is not in our hands at all. [Tom: whatever is destined to happen will happen, whatever is destined not to happen will not happen; relatively speaking, all happens according to God’s will at all times in all places, thus has Bhagavan taught us]

Q.: May I be assured of Bhagavan’s blessings upon my endeavours?

B.: There cannot be any fruitful endeavour in the absence of Bhagavan’s blessings.

Q.: Are my efforts fruitful or not?

B.: Do not bother with this question; it does not lead anywhere.

Q.: I want some support or encouragement that I am on the right track.

B.: If the mind remains simply AWARE, without being aware of anything, you are on the right track. [Tom: ie. mind turned inwards, away from all objects/phenomena, merely being self only]