‘Who Am I?’ was originally composed by Sri Ramana Maharshi. It provides a summary of all the teachings one needs for liberation. This version is translated by Sri Sadhu Om and read by Anne, a devotee of Sri Ramana’s who attends Satsang meetings with Tom Das.
Many people are unable to fully understand the teachings given in ‘Who Am I?’. It is therefore recommended you read The Path of Sri Ramana by Sri Sadhu Om (free download here): which more fully explains the teachings and/or find yourself a teacher.
The following is the first teaching from a large unedited manuscript, well over 1000 pages long, called ‘Aham Sphurana’.You can download the entire text here.
Aham Sphurana [‘I Shining’ or ‘I vibration’ or ‘I Am shining’ or ‘Shining of the I AM’] claims to contain a collection of previously unpublished talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi as apparently recorded by a visitor to Sri Ramana Ashrama, Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer, in 1936.
The authenticity of the teachings as being genuinely from Sri Ramana Maharshi cannot be confirmed, a fact acknowledged in the manuscript preamble itself, but I share these teachings here in case they are of interest to you.
5th July 1936
Questioner: How to prevent falling asleep in meditation?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: If you think “I must not fall asleep; I am meditating now. Falling asleep would spoil my meditation”, your meditation will be spoilt, for thinking is the anti-thesis of meditation. If you try to consciously prevent sleep, therefore, it will lead to emergence of thought.
However, if you slip into sleep while meditating, the meditation will continue even during and just after sleep. Since thoughts about sleep are also distracting thoughts, such thoughts must also be got rid of, for the native thought-free state has to be obtained consciously in jagrat [Tom: jagrat means the waking state]. The resultant state of thought-free subjective consciousness sustained effortlessly and volitionlessly is known as jagrat-sushupthi [Tom: waking sleep or conscious sleep, see here for more], and it is the same as samadhi.
Never forget that dreaming, apparent wakefulness and sleeping are mere pictures upon the screen of the inherent, effortless thought-free state. Let them pass unnoticed.
You focus on Being the abiding Reality that serves as the permanent substratum underlying the 3 states, and let the 3 states, and what transpires in them, take care of themselves. Never worry about them.
The state of absence of thought and the state in which there are no ideas present is the primordial, natural state of mind for all; this is the original state of peace, which we subsequently spoil by bringing in thoughts.
The following is a poem written by Maureen, an attendee at Satsang meetings with Tom Das. After an interaction with Tom, Maureen wrote these following verses:
What am I?
What am I but well-being? What am I but peace verging on an easy joy? What am I but natural silence? What am I but everything and nothing?
I am but spirit-air moving as one being moved, air moving in and out as one being breathed.
I am gone and spaciousness has taken my place.
Easily I pray, with one-pointed devotion, mind so clear that it is a mirror whose shininess is only temporarily clouded by vapor, and then again made clear!
I feel space between the shoulders, a place that before was void of ease. I think all is well in every part of the planet, as it should be. I cannot be rushed, nor can I be pulled from center by anyone or anything.
From whence is this grace? What have I touched or said or done that so much goodness has kissed me?
Mind so very clear, the idea of happiness so foreign, joy coming and going that is so foreign to me now. I am joy itself, freedom itself, everything.
Spaciousness, untouchable yet intrinsic to the flow of everything, behind every action and thought, this is my home! This is my home!
I’m being carried now, like a kitten, by the scruff*, by its mother, hanging there, loved, totally cared for. Doing is foreign. I’m simply being carried!
*the reference to a kitten being carried by its scruff is from a teaching by Sri Ramana Maharshi on Kittens and Monkeys from Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 696:
696. Those who, in this very birth And with no effort on their part, By force of grace divine, attain Desire-free Awareness Pure May look like passive kittens now But in a former birth they were Young monkeys clinging hard to mother
And see this video where the teaching is more fully explained:
Take time to breathe, Beloved, and spread your wings to dry in the sun so you can again soar, again and again…!
Let life unfold like a book, pages turning with ease and sometimes turning with a breeze… even a book can breathe!
Relax… Trust the process… Trust your guidance… Trust Spirit.
Take Spirit’s hand and travel to where you want to go. Remembering all is available to you, that you are held, and loved. Loved.
What have you need of? and what does your soul crave? The inner yearning continues to bring you home, again and again, to the heart.
Don’t be confused by this! For ultimately, all satisfaction lies here. After achieving, grasping, having and knowing, there is a heart remembrance, a calling from the depths of being. It is the Self, Spirit, Eternal!
Wait no longer, but surrender to this presence with heart and soul! Receive all you’ve ever wanted at the table spread before you here, this place of refuge!
After this nesting within, no questions arise, for thoughts and confusions vanish only to be replaced by peace, your own eternal, everlasting Self!
They say all roads lead home. Find your Self there, waiting with open arms!
The above is a poem written by Maureen, an attendee at Satsang meetings with Tom Das, published here with permission of the author
Tom Das 