The following excerpt is from the text Aham Sphurana 18th August 1936 – you can download the entire text here

Questioner: I also want to Realise the Self and become a Jnani like Sri Bhagavan. What should I do?

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Do not do anything. Step aside and permit the Light to Shine.

Q.: I do not understand what I should do to Realise the Self.

B.: Summa Iru. It means, ‘Remain naturally without thinking.’

Q.: As distinct from suppression or control of thought?

B.: Yes.

Q.: In my case effort is needed to remain without thinking.

B.: That is the problem.

Q.: How am I to reach the state wherein I am able to effortlessly remain in the state of absence of thoughts?

B.: Only by pursuing the investigation ‘Who-am-I?’.

Q.: How long to investigate?

B.: Until investigation is no-longer possible.

Q.: If I am able to effortlessly remain in the state wherein there are no thoughts, can I also become a Jnani?

B.: Undoubtedly.

Q.: God’s Grace is said to be necessary for it.

B.: Yes.

Q.: How to win God’s Grace?

B.: Only by relentlessly pursuing the investigation.

Q.: Is not everything predetermined?

B.: That argument is not meant to be used to justify anticipation of failure.

Q.: So long as the idea or belief ‘The world is real’ is sustained within the mind, vichara will yield no benefit. Am I correct?

B.: Yes. But the vichara itself will progressively facilitate you to see the truth.

Q.: Is it belief in the objective reality of the world that is preventing me from Realising?

B.: Not only that idea, all arbitrary-mental-conceptualisations [vrittis] must be eradicated from the mind before there can be any possibility of Realisation.

Q.: Why so?

B.: Vrittis [mental modifications or arbitrary-mental-conceptualisations] act as water in a cauldron which reflects the Sun as an image upon its surface. Thoroughly empty the cauldron. That is the nivritti state of mind. When the cauldron has been toppled and broken into pieces, chance of reflection – any further – is permanently ruined. This is the Sahaja-stithi of the Jnani. [Tom: Sri Ramana is stating that all vrittis (mental modifications or thoughts) must cease for realisation. When the mind is destroyed (through self-enquiry) and can no longer generate thoughts, that is the Sahaja or natural state of self-realisation, also known as self-knowledge]

Bhagavan then turned to the attendant and asked him to pick out a certain volume of the Bengali work Sri Ramakrishna Kathamritha. But that gentleman could not succeed in identifying the same from the book-case. Bhagavan himself retrieved the same and presently read out for the Hall in Tamil:

‘One attains the state of Brahmajnana when the mind has been destroyed. When the mind disappears and the ego has scarpered without leaving behind the least residue, that which was repeating I,I is discovered to have always been non-existent. It is possible to reach this state through bhakti or jnana. The Jnana-anveshaka considers the world as a mere dream or hallucination. Once perception of the world has ceased, only the ‘I-Consciousness’ remains. Imagine that there are 10 cauldrons filled with water. They all reflect the Sun. Now, totally how many suns do you see?

A Devotee – Ten reflected suns and the one true Sun.

Sri Ramakrishna – Imagine now that one of these cauldrons shatters into pieces. Now how many suns do you see?

The Devotee – Nine reflected suns and the one true Sun.

Sri Ramakrishna – Well, supposing that nine cauldrons are broken, how many suns would you see?

The Devotee- One reflected image of the sun and the one true Sun.

Sri Ramakrishna – What remains after the last cauldron is broken?

The Devotee – The one true Sun.

Sri Ramakrishna – No. No words can possibly describe what remains. It is what really IS. When there is no reflected sun, how can you tell that there is the real sun? In the state of samadhi the ‘I’ vanishes. What a man experiences then cannot be expressed through ideas when he comes down to a lower plane.

Q.: Is Bhagawan now talking to us from a lower plane, then?

B.: Sri Ramakrishna is describing nirvikalpa samadhi. In the Sahaja-stithi there is no lower plane or higher plane. [Tom: some say there are 2 aspects of reality – that which is with form and changed, and the unchanging formless, and that these 2 are actually a single inseperable whole. However, this is not the actual truth – it is an idea of truth that the ego may like and understand, but not the truth itself. Bhagavan is telling us that the Self, devoid of name, movement and form, that alone is the reality, and that is beyond words and ideas and concepts, that cannot be understood or conceived]

Q.: The example befuddles me. The Sun is never obscured by its reflection on any number of surfaces. Reflections of the Sun do not affect the Sun itself in any way.

B.: Exactly.

Q.: But the Self is obscured by the ego.

B.: Did the Self complain of being obscured by the ego?

Q.: So bondage is a fact only from the ego’s point of view.

B.: Quite so.

Q.: In that case how did the ego arise?

B.: Whose ego?

Q.: Mine. But who am I?

B.: Find out.