Articles on the Teachings of Sri Ramana

  1. Introduction
  2. Search the blog
  3. List of Articles — arranged under the following headings:
  4. Italian translations of these articles

Introduction

This page is intended to form the principal link between this website and its extension, a blog named Sri Ramana Teachings, which is a growing archive of articles written by Michael James on the philosophy and practice of the spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana.

Search the blog

To search for any particular word or words in the entire blog, including both the articles and the comments, you can use the following search box, which will return all the results in a separate tab:

List of Articles — arranged under the following headings:

In the following list, links to all the main articles in this archive are arranged under different headings, but this arrangement is far from perfect, because many of these articles could well be classified under more than one heading. In particular, the practice of ātma-vicāra — self-investigation, self-scrutiny or ‘self-enquiry’ — is a theme that runs through most of them, but under the heading The practice of ātma-vicāra: self-investigation or self-enquiry I have included only those articles that focus strongly on this central topic.

In addition to being listed here, the articles are indexed clearly in the left margin of every page of the archive, firstly according to date in reverse chronological order under the heading Article Archive, and secondly in greater detail according to subject arranged alphabetically under the heading Index of Topics.

Some of the articles listed below are extracts from Happiness and the Art of Being (HAB), because they are portions that were not in the first PDF edition but were added either in the second PDF edition or in the third PDF edition, which is the same as the first edition of the printed book. I have therefore indicated all such articles by placing in brackets after each of them the initials HAB followed by a link to the chapter in which it appears.

    Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai

  1. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai: pāyiram, kāppu and verse 1 (Thursday, 10 March 2022)
  2. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 2 (Thursday, 31 March 2022)
  3. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 3 (Thursday, 14 April 2022)
  4. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 4 (Sunday, 17 April 2022)
  5. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 5 (Friday, 22 April 2022)
  6. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 6 (Thursday, 28 April 2022)
  7. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 7 (Friday, 17 June 2022)
  8. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 8 (Saturday, 2 July 2022)
  9. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 9 (Thursday, 21 July 2022)
  10. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 10 (Thursday, 4 August 2022)
  11. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 11 (Wednesday, 24 August 2022)
  12. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 12 (Tuesday, 6 September 2022)
  13. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 13 (Friday, 23 September 2022)
  14. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 14 (Friday, 7 October 2022)
  15. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 15 (Thursday, 27 October 2022)
  16. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 16 (Wednesday, 9 November 2022)
  17. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 17 (Friday, 25 November 2022)
  18. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 18 (Wednesday, 7 December 2022)
  19. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 19 (Saturday, 24 December 2022)
  20. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 20 (Friday, 27 January 2023)
  21. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 21 (Wednesday, 8 February 2023)

    22. Śrī Aruṇācala Navamaṇimālai

  22. Śrī Aruṇācala Navamaṇimālai: Tamil text, transliteration and translation (Sunday, 16 February 2025)
    23. Contents
    1. Verse 1: when that śakti subsides back in his motionless form, Arunachalam rises high
    2. Verse 2: the meaning of the name aruṇācalam, which bestows liberation when thought of
    3. Verse 3: those who steadfastly seek clarity, the sublime grace of the supreme Lord who dwells in Arunachalam, will subside in the ocean of bliss
    4. Verse 4: Annamalai, so that I do not perish as earth thinking the filthy body to be I, looking at me with your cool love-filled eyes, abide in my heart
    5. Verse 5: Lord who are cit-svarūpa shining gloriously as Sonagiri, bearing with all my great wrongs, as a mother does for a child, give me your look of grace so the I do not fall again in this desolation of birth and death but instead rise up on the shore
    6. Verse 6: Arunachaleswara, you are kāmāri, the slayer of carnal desire, so though it is powerful, how can such desire enter a mind that takes refuge in the fortress of your feet?
    7. Verse 7: Annamalai, whatever be your wish, do that, but just give me a flood of love for your pair of feet
    8. Verse 8: his heart overflowing with joy, the Red Hill God gave me his state so that the miserable distress in the wickedness of the vile senses perishes
    9. Verse 9: what a wonder of your grace, Arunachala, who are cinmaya, drawing me to yourself, you fixed me at your feet

    Śrī Aruṇācala Padigam

  23. Śrī Aruṇācala Padigam: Tamil text, transliteration and translation (Sunday, 23 March 2025)
    24. Contents
    1. Verse 1: be gracious, giving me sight of you, so that my heart may blossom like a lotus seeing the sun
    2. Verse 2: give me such love for you, the very form of love, that I melt like wax in fire thinking of you
    3. Verse 3: fulfilling your intention to kill me without leaving an iota of life, shine forever as the only one
    4. Verse 4: protecting me, this worthless wretch, from falling into desolation, you kept me fixed permanently at your feet
    5. Verse 5: so that I am not like a deer trapped in a net, destroy my weary suffering
    6. Verse 6: make me, who have been like a frog clinging to the stem of a lotus, be a flower-bee drinking the fine honey of your state of awareness
    7. Verse 7: since nothing is other than you, the space of light, who am I who come out as if another? Come out, Arunachala, placing your feet on the head of this ego
    8. Verse 8: though possessed by madness of love for you, I am bereft of the fruit of this madness, so give me the rare medicine by which to reach your feet
    9. Verse 9: taking my burden as yours and ordaining my activity to cease, do not allow me henceforth to be away from your feet
    10. Verse 10: when we think of Arunachala once, it will subdue our mental activity, pull us inwards to face itself, thereby making us motionless like itself, and then consume us as a sacrificial offering
    11. Verse 11: there is on Earth one rare medicine, namely this Aruna Hill, that when thought of once within the mind will kill without killing

    Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam

  24. Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam: Tamil text, transliteration and translation (Sunday, 7 September 2025)
    25. Contents
    1. Verse 1: When, by its wonderful act of grace, Arunachala enchanted and pulled my mind close, I saw as this is acalam
    2. Verse 2: When investigating within the mind who he who saw is, I saw what remained when he who saw was completely non-existent
    3. Verse 3: When without thinking one thinks deeply of your form, one’s form will cease to exist like a salt doll touching the ocean
    4. Verse 4: Seeking God leaving you, who exist and shine (in one’s heart), is just seeking darkness taking a lamp
    5. Verse 5: Like grinding a gem, when one grinds the mind on the stone called mind for its blemishes to be removed, the light of your grace will shine forth
    6. Verse 6: There is only you, the one substance, the heart, the light of awareness, but in you is an extraordinary power, from which series of subtle shadow thoughts have been seen as a shadow world-picture both inside and outside, like a shadow-picture projected by a lens
    7. Verse 7: If the thought called ‘I’ does not exist, even one other thing will not exist, so until then, if other thought rises, merge investigating to whom; to me; what is the place from which I rose
    8. Verse 8: The embodied soul, which rises from you, will not stop until it reaches you, so when it goes back the way it came, it will rejoin you, the ocean of happiness
  25. Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam verse 1: When, by its wonderful act of grace, Arunachala enchanted and pulled my mind close, I saw as this is acalam (Tuesday, 30 September 2025)
    26. Contents
    1. The efficacy and benefit of thinking of Arunachala
    2. Though Arunachala seems to be a hill bereft of awareness, the action of its grace is pre-eminent
    3. Arunachala’s அருட்செயல் (aruḷ-seyal), the action of its grace
    4. Before Bhagavan he knew anything else, he was aware of Arunachala as ‘what is exceedingly great’, but he did not know what it actually is
    5. Arunachala made Bhagavan see what it actually is by enchanting and pulling his mind within to face itself, the one motionless reality
    6. ‘I saw as this is acalam’ means that he saw Arunachala as pure being, which is what is eternally motionless (acalam)
    7. Seeing ‘as this is acalam’ is motionless being-awareness, which is pure subjectless and objectless seeing
    8. Arunachala made Bhagavan see itself ‘as this is acalam’ by pulling his mind inwards to investigate who the seer is
  26. Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam verse 2: When investigating within the mind who he who saw is, I saw what remained when he who saw was completely non-existent (Wednesday, 1 October 2025)
    27. Contents
    1. If we investigate ourself, the seer, keenly enough, we will cease to be the seer and remain as pure awareness
    2. What we will see is not the disappearance of the seer but only what remains when it has ceased to appear
    3. Seeing what remains when the seer has ceased to exist is an intransitive seeing, in which the seer, the seen and the seeing are just the same one awareness
    4. To say either ‘I have seen’ or ‘I have not seen’ an ‘I’ must rise, so both are ground for ridicule
    5. Only his grace, the infinite power of silence, can give us the clarity and love to understand his words and apply them in practice
    6. As Dakshinamurti, Arunachala made the reality known only by silence, so who has the power to make it known just by words?
    7. Arunachala is God in his ultimate role as guru, appearing in the form of this hill to make his nature clear in silence
    8. Grace is the function of guru, by which he lovingly makes us aware of ourself as we actually are, thereby eradicating ego and taking charge of us completely
  27. Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam verse 3: When thinking of your form without thinking, form will cease (Thursday, 9 October 2025)
    28. Contents
    1. God or brahman is infinite being-awareness, the ultimate source and substance of all things
    2. Being infinite, God is formless, and being awareness, he is the ‘infinite eye’
    3. Being the ‘infinite eye’, Arunachala is the ‘eye to the mind-eye’ and ‘space to the mind-space’
    4. Bhagavan exemplified ēka-bhakti in his devotion not only to the external form of Arunachala but also to its svarūpa, infinite being-awareness
    5. ‘If one thinks of your form as formless, one is like someone who wanders the world to see the sky’
    6. ‘When without thinking one thinks deeply of your form, form will cease like a salt doll touching the ocean’
    7. ‘When I know myself, [other than you] what else is my form?’
    8. ‘You who were as the great Aruna Hill have [always] been [and have alone remained]’
  28. Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam verse 4: Be and shine in my heart as one without a second (Monday, 27 October 2025)
    29. Contents
    1. Arunachala is what exists and shines as pure being-awareness (sat-cit)
    2. We can know Arunachala (God) as he actually is only by knowing ourself as we actually are
    3. Seeking God but neglecting Arunachala, the self-shining light of awareness, is like seeking darkness taking a lamp
    4. Only to make itself known, Arunachala has appeared as various forms in every creed
    5. Devotion to God as a name and form will purify our mind, thereby enabling us to know him as formless
    6. If anyone does not know Arunachala or God, they are like blind people, who do not know the sun
    7. Arunachala is pure being-awareness, other than which nothing can be, so he is and shines as one without a second
    8. Though devotion to a name and form of God is a powerful aid and support for self-investigation, it can never be an adequate substitute for it

    Upadēśa Undiyār

  29. Upadēśa Undiyār: Tamil text, transliteration and translation (Friday, 29 September 2017)
    30. Contents
    1. Verse 1: karma is insentient, so it gives fruit only as ordained by God
    2. Verse 2: karma leaves seeds so it does not give liberation
    3. Verse 3: action done for God purifies the mind and shows the way to liberation
    4. Verse 4: actions of body, speech and mind are progressively more purifying
    5. Verse 5: worshipping anything considering it to be God is good worship of God
    6. Verse 6: doing japa mentally is more purifying than otherwise
    7. Verse 7: meditating uninterruptedly is more purifying than otherwise
    8. Verse 8: meditation on nothing other than oneself is most purifying of all
    9. Verse 9: being in one’s real state of being by self-attentiveness is supreme devotion
    10. Verse 10: being in one’s source is karma, bhakti, yōga and jñāna
    11. Verse 11: when breath is restrained mind will subside
    12. Verse 12: the root of mind and breath is one
    13. Verse 13: dissolution of mind is of two kinds, laya and nāśa
    14. Verse 14: only by self-investigation will the mind die
    15. Verse 15: when the mind is dead, there is no action but only one’s real nature
    16. Verse 16: knowing nothing but awareness is real awareness
    17. Verse 17: when one keenly investigates it, there is no mind
    18. Verse 18: mind is essentially just the ego, the root of all other thoughts
    19. Verse 19: when one investigates from what the ego rises, it will die
    20. Verse 20: where the ego dies, the infinite whole will shine forth as ‘I am I’
    21. Verse 21: that infinite whole is always the true import of the word ‘I’
    22. Verse 22: the five sheaths are jaḍa and asat, so they are not ‘I’
    23. Verse 23: what exists is awareness, which is what we are
    24. Verse 24: God and soul are just one substance, but only their adjuncts differ
    25. Verse 25: knowing oneself without adjuncts is knowing God, because he is oneself
    26. Verse 26: being oneself alone is knowing oneself, because oneself is not two
    27. Verse 27: there is nothing to know, so real awareness is devoid of knowledge and ignorance
    28. Verse 28: one’s real nature is beginningless, infinite and indivisible sat-cit-ānanda
    29. Verse 29: abiding as supreme bliss devoid of bondage or liberation is serving God
    30. Verse 30: knowing what remains when the ego has ceased is tapas
  30. Upadēśa Sāraḥ: Sanskrit text, transliteration and translation (with the original Tamil text) (Thursday, 24 March 2022)
    31. Contents
      Introduction
      உபதேச வுந்தியார் (Upadēśa-v-Undiyār) and उपदेश सारः (Upadēśa Sāraḥ): The Essence of Spiritual Teachings
    1. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 1
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 1: karma is insentient, so it gives fruit only as ordained by God
    2. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 2
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 2: karma is caused by vāsanās, so it does not give liberation
    3. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 3
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 3: action done for God purifies the mind, so it is an indirect means for liberation
    4. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 4
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 4: actions of body, speech and mind are progressively more purifying
    5. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 5
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 5: worshipping anything considering it to be God is worship of God
    6. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 6
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 6: doing japa mentally is more purifying than otherwise
    7. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 7
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 7: meditating uninterruptedly is more purifying than otherwise
    8. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 8
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 8: meditation on nothing other than oneself is most purifying of all
    9. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 9
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 9: being in one’s real state of being by self-attentiveness is supreme devotion
    10. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 10
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 10: being in one’s source is karma, bhakti, yōga and jñāna
    11. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 11
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 11: when breath is restrained mind will subside
    12. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 12
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 12: the root of mind and breath is one
    13. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 13
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 13: dissolution of mind is of two kinds, laya and nāśa
    14. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 14
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 14: only by self-investigation will the mind die
    15. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 15
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 15: when the mind is dead, there is no action but only one’s real nature
    16. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 16
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 16: seeing nothing but awareness is seeing what is real
    17. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 17
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 17: when one keenly investigates it, there is no mind
    18. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 18
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 18: mind is essentially just the ego, the root of all other thoughts
    19. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 19
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 19: when one investigates from where the ego rises, it will die
    20. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 20
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 20: when ego is annihated, the infinite whole will shine forth as ‘I am I’
    21. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 21
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 21: that infinite whole is always the true import of the word ‘I’
    22. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 22
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 22: the five sheaths are jaḍa and asat, so they are not ‘I’
    23. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 23
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 23: what exists is awareness, which is what we are
    24. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 24
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 24: God and soul are just one substance, but only their adjuncts differ
    25. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 25
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 25: seeing oneself without adjuncts is seeing God, because he is oneself
    26. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 26
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 26: being oneself alone is seeing oneself, because oneself is not two
    27. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 27
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 27: there is nothing to know, so real awareness is devoid of knowledge and ignorance
    28. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 28
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 28: one’s real nature is imperishable unborn full awareness-happiness
    29. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 29
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 29: the divine soul experiences supreme happiness beyond bondage and liberation
    30. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 30
      Upadēśa Sāraḥ verse 30: one’s shining devoid of ‘I’ is great tapas
  31. An explanation of the first ten verses of Upadēśa Undiyār (Wednesday, 12 October 2016)
  32. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 16: a practical definition of real awareness (Thursday, 28 November 2019)
    33. Contents
    1. What is the difference between sphuraṇa and our natural state?
    2. How can we experience our natural state of real awareness?
    3. What did Sadhu Om mean by the ‘ascending process’ and ‘descending process’?
  33. Upadēśa Undiyār — an explanatory paraphrase (8th June 2009)

    34. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu

  34. Introduction to Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu (Tuesday 10 September 2024)
    35. Contents
    1. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu and its essential import
    2. Why and how should we study Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu and other writings of Bhagavan?
    3. Bhagavan’s teachings are advaita vēdānta in its purest form
  35. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu: Tamil text, transliteration and translation (Friday, 20 October 2017)
    36. Contents
      Pāyiram: introductory verse composed by Sri Muruganar
      Maṅgalam verse 1: what exists is only thought-free awareness, which is called ‘heart’, so being as it is is alone meditating on it
      Maṅgalam verse 2: by surrendering to God, who is devoid of death and birth, the ego, who fears death, will die, and what will remain is deathless
    1. Verse 1: because we see the world, it is best to accept that one fundamental, which is ourself, is what appears as all this multiplicity
    2. Verse 2: instead of the ego arguing whether there is just one fundamental or three fundamentals, standing in the real state of oneself by destroying the ego is best
    3. Verse 3: the state in which the ego has died by investigating itself, leaving aside the world and all differences and disputes, is agreeable to all
    4. Verse 4: if one perceives oneself as a form, one will perceive everything else as forms, but one’s real nature is infinite (hence formless) awareness, so it perceives no forms at all
    5. Verse 5: the body is a form consisting of five sheaths, and without such a body has anyone ever perceived any world?
    6. Verse 6: the world consists of nothing but the five kinds of sense-impressions, and the mind alone perceives it, so is there any world besides the mind?
    7. Verse 7: the world shines only by the mind, but what shines as the space for the appearing and disappearing of the world and mind is the real substance, the infinite whole
    8. Verse 8: worshipping in name and form is the way to see in name and form, but seeing oneself and thereby becoming one with the real substance is true seeing
    9. Verse 9: dyads and triads depend on one thing (the ego), so if one sees within the mind what that one thing is, they will all cease to exist and what is real will be seen
    10. Verse 10: knowledge and ignorance of other things are mutually dependent, but only the awareness that knows the reality of the ego, to whom they appear, is real awareness
    11. Verse 11: knowing anything other than oneself is ignorance, but when one knows the reality of oneself, knowledge and ignorance of everything else will cease
    12. Verse 12: oneself is real awareness, which shines without anything else to know, so it is devoid of both knowledge and ignorance of other things, but it is not void or nothingness
    13. Verse 13: oneself, who is pure awareness, alone is real, so awareness of multiplicity is ignorance and unreal, and hence it does not exist except as oneself
    14. Verse 14: if one investigates the reality of the first person, it will cease to exist along with all second and third persons, and what then shines as one is one’s real nature
    15. Verse 15: past and future depend on the present, the only time that actually exists, so trying to know the past or future without knowing the reality of the present is like trying to calculate without knowing the value of one
    16. Verse 16: if we are a body, we are ensnared in time and place, but if we investigate ourself, there is no time or place but only ourself, who are the same one always and everywhere
    17. Verse 17: for those who do not know themself and for those who do, the body is ‘I’, but for the former ‘I’ is limited to the body, whereas for the latter ‘I’ shines without limit
    18. Verse 18: for those who do not know themself and for those who do, the world is real, but for the former reality is limited to the world, whereas for the latter it pervades without form as the substratum of the world
    19. Verse 19: dispute about which prevails, fate or will, arises only for those who do not discern the ego as the root of them both, but if one knows the reality of the ego, one will thereby discard them
    20. Verse 20: seeing God without seeing oneself is seeing a mental vision, so only one who has seen oneself, the origin of one’s ego, is one who has seen God, because oneself is not other than God
    21. Verse 21: since oneself is one, how is oneself to see oneself, and how to see God, except by becoming food to him?
    22. Verse 22: how to know God, who shines within the mind illumining it, except by turning the mind back within and thereby immersing it in him?
    23. Verse 23: this body is not aware of itself as ‘I’, and ‘I’ does not cease to exist in sleep, but after something called ‘I’ rises, everything rises, so keenly discern where it rises
    24. Verse 24: the jaḍa body is not aware of itself as ‘I’, and sat-cit does not rise, but in between something called ‘I’ rises as the extent of the body, and this is cit-jaḍa-granthi, the ego, mind and so on
    25. Verse 25: grasping form the formless phantom-ego comes into existence, stands, feeds itself and flourishes, but if it seeks itself, it will take flight
    26. Verse 26: if the ego comes into existence, everything comes into existence, and if it does not exist, nothing exists, so investigating what it is is giving up everything
    27. Verse 27: the state in which the ego does not rise is the state in which we are that, but without investigating the place where it rises, how can one annihilate it and stand as that?
    28. Verse 28: like sinking to find something that has fallen in water, sinking within by a keenly focused mind it is necessary to know oneself, the source where the ego rises
    29. Verse 29: investigating by an inward sinking mind where one rises as ‘I’ alone is the path of jñāna, whereas thinking ‘I am not this, I am that’ is an aid but not vicāra
    30. Verse 30: as soon as the ego dies by inwardly investigating who am I, one thing appears spontaneously as ‘I am I’, which is not the ego but the infinite substance, namely oneself
    31. Verse 31: when the ego is destroyed by tanmayānanda, there is nothing to do, because one is not aware of anything other than oneself, so who can conceive such a state?
    32. Verse 32: when the Vēdas proclaim ‘That is you’, instead of knowing and being oneself by investigating what am I, thinking ‘I am that, not this’ is due to lack of strength
    33. Verse 33: saying ‘I do not know myself’ or ‘I have known myself’ is ridiculous, because there are not two selves for one to know the other as an object
    34. Verse 34: instead of merging the mind within and thereby knowing and standing firmly as the real substance, quarrelling about its existence and nature is mischief born of māyā
    35. Verse 35: knowing and being the ever-accomplished real substance is the real siddhi, whereas all other siddhis are unreal, like siddhis experienced in a dream
    36. Verse 36: if we think that we are a body, thinking ‘No, we are that’ will be just a good aid, but since we are already that, why should we always be thinking ‘We are that’?
    37. Verse 37: even the contention ‘Duality in spiritual practice, non-duality in attainment’ is not true, because even while one is searching for the tenth man, who is one other than him?
    38. Verse 38: if we are the doer of action, we will experience the resulting fruit, but when one knows oneself by investigating who is the doer, actions and their fruits will cease to exist
    39. Verse 39: thoughts of bondage and liberation exist only so long as one seems to be bound, but when one looks at oneself to see who is bound, one will see that one is ever liberated
    40. Verse 40: if it is said that liberation is with form, without form, or either with form or without form, I will reply that only destruction of the ego is liberation
  36. Upadēśa Kaliveṇbā: the extended version of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu (Thursday, 28 December 2017)
    37. Contents
    1. Pāyiram verse 1 (introduction to Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu)
    2. Pāyiram verse 2 (introduction to Upadēśa Kaliveṇbā)
    3. நூல் (nūl): Text
    4. Translation
    5. Lines 1-4: extended version of the first maṅgalam verse of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    6. Lines 4-8: extended version of the second maṅgalam verse of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    7. Lines 8-12: extended version of verse 1 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    8. Lines 12-16: extended version of verse 2 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    9. Lines 16-20: extended version of verse 3 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    10. Lines 20-24: extended version of verse 4 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    11. Lines 24-28: extended version of verse 5 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    12. Lines 28-32: extended version of verse 6 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    13. Lines 32-36: extended version of verse 7 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    14. Lines 36-40: extended version of verse 8 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    15. Lines 40-44: extended version of verse 9 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    16. Lines 44-48: extended version of verse 10 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    17. Lines 48-52: extended version of verse 11 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    18. Lines 52-56: extended version of verse 12 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    19. Lines 56-60: extended version of verse 13 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    20. Lines 60-64: extended version of verse 14 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    21. Lines 64-68: extended version of verse 15 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    22. Lines 68-72: extended version of verse 16 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    23. Lines 72-76: extended version of verse 17 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    24. Lines 76-80: extended version of verse 18 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    25. Lines 80-84: extended version of verse 19 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    26. Lines 84-88: extended version of verse 20 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    27. Lines 88-92: extended version of verse 21 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    28. Lines 92-96: extended version of verse 22 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    29. Lines 96-100: extended version of verse 23 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    30. Lines 101-104: verse 24 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    31. Lines 104-108: extended version of verse 25 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    32. Lines 108-112: extended version of verse 26 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    33. Lines 112-116: extended version of verse 27 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    34. Lines 116-120: extended version of verse 28 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    35. Lines 120-124: extended version of verse 29 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    36. Lines 124-128: extended version of verse 30 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    37. Lines 128-132: extended version of verse 31 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    38. Lines 132-136: extended version of verse 32 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    39. Lines 136-140: extended version of verse 33 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    40. Lines 140-144: extended version of verse 34 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    41. Lines 144-148: extended version of verse 35 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    42. Lines 148-152: extended version of verse 36 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    43. Lines 152-156: extended version of verse 37 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    44. Lines 156-160: extended version of verse 38 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    45. Lines 160-164: extended version of verse 39 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    46. Lines 164-168: extended version of verse 40 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
    47. Lines 168-170: concluding lines of the kaliveṇbā
  37. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu first maṅgalam verse: what exists is only thought-free awareness, which is called ‘heart’, so being as it is is alone meditating on it (Monday, 1 January 2018)
    38. Contents
    1. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu maṅgalam verse 1
    2. Upadēśa Kaliveṇbā lines 1-4: the extended version of this verse
    3. The original kuṟaḷ veṇbā form of this verse
    4. The question that Bhagavan asks in this kuṟaḷ: ‘How to think of the existing substance?’
    5. The answer he gives to this question: ‘Being in the heart as it is alone is thinking [of it]’
    6. The first sentence of the veṇbā
    7. The first meaning of the first sentence: ‘If what exists were not, would existing awareness exist?’
    8. The second meaning of the first sentence: ‘Other than what exists, does existing awareness exist?’
    9. The third meaning of the first sentence: ‘Other than what exists, is there awareness to think [of it]?’
    10. The second sentence of the veṇbā: ‘Since the existing substance exists in the heart without thought, how to think of the existing substance, which is called the heart?’
    11. The third sentence of the veṇbā: ‘Being in the heart as it is alone is thinking [of it]’
    12. The paradox of what seems to exist but does not actually exist
    13. உள் (uḷ) as a verb and as a noun
    14. The final word of this verse and its kaliveṇbā extension
  38. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 12: other than the real awareness that we actually are, there is nothing to know or make known (Saturday, 28 January 2017)
    39. Contents
    1. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 12 and its meaning
    2. The first sentence: real awareness is devoid of knowledge and ignorance of anything else
    3. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 27: what is real is only awareness devoid of knowledge and ignorance, because nothing at all exists for it to know
    4. The second sentence: what knows anything other than itself is not real awareness
    5. The third sentence: real awareness is ourself, other than which nothing exists to know or make known
    6. The ego is the false awareness that knows other things, whereas what we actually are is the real awareness other than which nothing exists to know
    7. The fourth sentence: real awareness is not śūnya, void or non-existent
    8. The fifth sentence: know or be aware
  39. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu — an explanatory paraphrase (14th June 2009)

    40. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu Anubandham

  40. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu Anubandham (the supplement to Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu): Tamil text, transliteration and translation (Monday, 27 May 2024)
    41. Contents
    1. Pāyiram verse 1: introductory verse adapted by Sadhu Om from a prāstāvika ślōka composed by Bhagavan
    2. Pāyiram verse 2: introductory verse composed by Muruganar
    3. Maṅgalam (benedictory verse): Let us hold in our heart that svarūpa, the existing substance in which, of which, from which, for which and by which all this arises, and which is itself all this
    4. Verse 1: Cherish satsaṇga, by which attachment will leave, movement will cease and liberation will be attained
    5. Verse 2: The exalted state is achieved by clear vicāra, which arises in the heart when one takes refuge in sādhu-association
    6. Verse 3: If one adheres to living with sādhus, for what are all these niyamas?
    7. Verse 4: Heat, poverty and sin will depart just by the great sight of peerless sādhus
    8. Verse 5: Sādhus give rise to purity as soon as they see by eye
    9. Verse 6: You, who know the mind, are actually God
    10. Verse 7: I am the light to all lights
    11. Verse 8: In the centre of the heart-cave brahman alone shines as ‘I am I’
    12. Verse 9: Only that awareness that is the blemishless, motionless ‘I’-form in the heart is what will give liberation by removing ‘I’
    13. Verse 10: The body (dēham) is not I (nāham). Who am I (kōham)? He is I (sōham)
    14. Verse 11: He who has been born is only he who, carefully investigating where I was born, has been born in his source, brahman
    15. Verse 12: Investigate yourself, who are ever-unceasing happiness, and thereby cease considering the wretched body ‘I’
    16. Verse 13: Destroying the awareness ‘I am this body’ is all virtues, good deeds and worthy achievements
    17. Verse 14: Investigating for whom are all defects is karma, bhakti, yōga and jñāna
    18. Verse 15: The buffoonery of lunatics who strive to acquire all siddhis, not knowing that they move by divine power
    19. Verse 16: Since cessation of mind alone is liberation, how will those whose mind is yoked on siddhis immerse in the bliss of liberation?
    20. Verse 17: When God bears the burden of the world, the spurious soul bearing it is mockery
    21. Verse 18: The seeming location of the heart in the body
    22. Verse 19: A metaphorical description of the heart
    23. Verse 20: By meditating ‘The Lord who shines in my heart as I alone is I’, if one remains firmly as ‘I’, the ignorance ‘I am this body’ will perish
    24. Verse 21: The two kinds of heart, in one of which all these phenomena appear as a reflection
    25. Verse 22: The organ called ‘heart’ inside the chest is to be rejected, and the heart in the form of the one omnipresent awareness is to be accepted
    26. Verse 23: In this principal heart the entire universe resides, so it is not a small portion in the perishable and insentient body
    27. Verse 24: By fixing the mind in this pure heart composed of awareness, complete dissolution of breath and vāsanās will be achieved
    28. Verse 25: By constant meditation ‘Awareness devoid of all adjuncts is I’, dispel every attachment
    29. Verse 26: Firmly holding the supreme state devoid of falsity, having known what exists in the heart as the reality for all appearances, without ever abandoning that view, play in the world, hero, as if desirous
    30. Verse 27: Having seeming rising, delight, agitation, aversion and effortful initiative, but being devoid of defects, freed from delusion and steadily equanimous in all circumstances, doing actions on the outside to suit your disguise, play in the world as required, hero
    31. Verse 28: One who has destroyed the senses by knowledge, and who is fixed firmly as existence-awareness, is a self-knower
    32. Verse 29: Brightness and strength of intellect automatically increase for those who have seen the reality
    33. Verse 30: The mind in which vāsanās have been erased is actually not doing even though doing, whereas the mind that vāsanās soak is actually doing even though not doing
    34. Verse 31: The knower of reality is asleep to the body’s activity, niṣṭhā and sleep
    35. Verse 32: For those who experience waking, dream and sleep, waking-sleep is called ‘turya’, but since that turya alone exists, it is turīyātīta.
    36. Verse 33: Saying ‘sañcita and āgāmya do not adhere to the jñāni; prārabdha does remain’ is a reply said to the questions of others
    37. Verse 34: In the heart of the learned, many book-families exist as obstacles to yōga
    38. Verse 35: The learned who do not intend to erase the writing of fate by investigating where they were born have acquired the nature of a sound-recording machine
    39. Verse 36: Rather than those who have not subsided though learned, those who are not learned are saved
    40. Verse 37: Those who have come under the sway of the wicked whore who is praise, escaping slavery to her is difficult
    41. Verse 38: When one always stands in one’s real state, who is there besides oneself? Whoever says whatever about oneself, so what?
    42. Verse 39: Always experience advaita in the heart, but never perform it in action, particularly not with guru
    43. Verse 40: The essence of the final conclusion of all vēdānta: if I dies and I become that, that I, which is awareness, alone remains
  41. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu Anubandham — an explanatory paraphrase (21st June 2009)

    42. Ēkāṉma Pañcakam

  42. Ēkātma Pañcakam — an explanatory paraphrase (22nd June 2009)
  43. Ēkātma Vivēkam – the kaliveṇbā version of Ēkātma Pañcakam (28th May 2009)

    44. Appaḷa Pāṭṭu

  44. Appaḷa Pāṭṭu (The Appaḷam Song): Tamil text, transliteration, translation and explanation (Thursday, 18 November 2021)
    45. Contents
    1. Verse 1: in the hand-mill of jñāna-vicāra, who am I, we should break and pulverise ego, the dēhābhimāna, thereby separating the body from ourself as ‘not I’
    2. Verse 2: together with sat-saṅga, śama, dama and uparati, we should add sat-vāsanā in the heart
    3. Verse 3: we should incessantly, joyfully and without inattentiveness (pramāda) face inwards, thereby seeing ourself more and more clearly as ‘I am I’
    4. Verse 4: in the ghee that is ourself (brahman) heated by the fire that is ourself (jñāna) in the infinite pan that is ourself (mauna), we should constantly fry the appaḷam composed of ourself, and then eat it by experiencing ourself as ‘myself alone is myself’
  45. Appaḷa Pāṭṭu – an explanatory paraphrase (23rd June 2009)

    46. Āṉma-Viddai

  46. Āṉma-Viddai: Tamil text, transliteration and translation (Monday, 31 January 2022)
    47. Contents
    1. Verse 1: when thought is dissolved completely, the sun of pure self-awareness will shine spontaneously and the darkness of self-ignorance will cease
    2. Verse 2: since the thought ‘I am this body’ alone is the one thread on which all other thoughts are strung, if one investigates from where it spreads, thoughts will cease and ātma-jñāna will shine spontaneously as ‘I am I’
    3. Verse 3: knowing anything else without knowing oneself is worthless, and if one knows oneself there is nothing else to know
    4. Verse 4: more than any other path, this path is exceedingly easy, because if one remains without even the least action of mind, speech or body, in one’s heart the light that is oneself will shine forth
    5. Verse 5: if one investigates within without thinking of anything else, one’s real nature, which is called Annamalai, the eye to the mind-eye, will certainly be seen
  47. Āṉma-Viddai verse 1: thought is what causes the appearance of the unreal body and world (Tuesday, 8 February 2022)
    48. Contents
    1. The existence of ourself as the fundamental awareness ‘I am’ is constant, imperishable and indubitably real
    2. Those who deny the existence of ‘self’ do so because they reify the meaning of this term and therefore fail to recognise that there is no such thing as a ‘self’ other than the thing whose self it is
    3. Since we always exist and shine imperishably and indubitably as ‘I am’, we can always attend to ourself, and it is never difficult to do so
    4. We are always aware of ourself as ‘I am’, so in order to be aware of ourself as we actually are, all we need do is to remove the false awareness ‘I am this body’
    5. Since we are never aware of anything other than ourself except when we are aware of ourself as ‘I am this body’, we cannot eradicate this false awareness ‘I am this body’ without thereby ceasing to be aware of anything other than ourself
    6. What is real is only ourself as the fundamental awareness ‘I am’, but since we are now aware of ourself as ‘I am this body’, this unreal body seems to be real, and consequently the entire world also seems to be real
    7. The body and world are just thoughts, so when all thoughts cease there is no body or world but only the fundamental awareness ‘I am’
    8. Since all other thoughts exist only in the view of ego, which is the darkness of self-ignorance, they sprout only from this darkness, which is unreal, so they are composed of nothing but unreal darkness
    9. Since thought alone is what prevents us being aware of ourself as we actually are, as soon as all thoughts cease in such a manner that they can never reappear, our real nature will shine forth spontaneously
    10. When the all-consuming light of pure self-awareness shines forth, the darkness of self-ignorance will cease, suffering will end and infinite happiness will surge forth
    11. In order to make all thoughts cease in such a manner that they can never revive even an iota, it is sufficient just to eradicate ego, their root
  48. Āṉma-Viddai verse 2: the thought ‘I am this body’ is what supports all other thoughts (Tuesday, 16 May 2023)
    49. Contents
    1. Ego, the thought that is aware of itself as ‘I am this body’, is the one thread on which all other thoughts are strung
    2. If we go within investigating the source from which we have spread out, ego and all other thoughts will cease
    3. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 25: the nature of ourself as ego is to rise, stand and flourish to the extent that we attend to anything other than ourself, but to subside and dissolve back within to the extent that we attend to ourself alone
    4. When ego and all other thoughts cease as a result of our going within investigating the source from which we have spread out, ātma-jñāna will shine spontaneously as ‘I am I’
    5. Our real identity is not ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’ but only ‘I am I’, so though statements such as ‘I am brahman’ are useful as preliminary teachings, the ultimate teaching about our real identity is just ‘I am I’
    6. Not only is ‘I am I’ the ultimate teaching about our real identity, but it is also the most practical teaching, because to keep our attention fixed firmly on ourself alone we should not think that we are anything other than ‘I’
    7. God or brahman is what shines eternally in our heart as ‘I am I’, so when we are aware of ourself as we actually are we will not be aware of ourself as ‘I am brahman’ or ‘I am God’ but only as ‘I am I’
    8. When we investigate ‘I am’, the source from which we have risen as ego, ego will die, and what will then shine forth as ‘I am I’ is our real nature, which is the one real substance (poruḷ), the infinite whole (pūrṇa)
    9. The clear recognition ‘I am I’ is both the path and the goal, because the deeper we go in the practice of self-investigation, the more clearly we recognise that we are nothing other than ‘I’, and when this recognition becomes perfectly clear, that is awareness of ourself as we actually are
    10. Vicāra Saṅgraham section 1.1: if we keenly investigate what it is that shines as ‘I’, we will experience a sphurippu or fresh clarity of self-awareness as ‘I am I’, and if we hold on to that without letting go, it will thoroughly annihilate ego, the false awareness ‘I am this body’
    11. Nāṉ Ār? paragraph 5: thinking ‘I, I’ or ‘I am I’ can help us to become familiar with being self-attentive, but in order to sink deep within ourself we need to stop thinking even such thoughts
    12. When we recognise that the clear awareness ‘I am I’ is not anything new but what is eternal and therefore natural (sahaja), that is what he describes as the subsidence, cessation or extinguishing of sphuraṇa
    13. ‘தானே தான்’ (tāṉē tāṉ), ‘oneself alone is oneself’, means that what we actually are is only ourself, which is beginningless, infinite and undivided sat-cit-ānanda
    14. Clear self-awareness (ātma-jñāna), which shines forth spontaneously as ‘I am I’ when all thoughts cease, is sat-cit-ānanda: the silence of pure being, the one space of pure awareness and the abode of infinite happiness
  49. Āṉma-Viddai verse 3: knowledge of all other things is caused by ignorance of ourself (Thursday, 27 July 2023)
    50. Contents
    1. We are not what we now seem to be, so how can we know that anything else is what it seems to be?
    2. We exist and are aware of our existence in sleep, so we cannot be anything we were not aware of then
    3. Before trying to know anything else, we should first try to know what we ourself actually are, and we cannot know what we actually are by attending to anything other than ourself
    4. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 4: forms or phenomena seems to exist only because we as ego mistake ourself to be the form of a body
    5. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 9: the triad of knower, knowing and known depends upon the knower, namely ego, which will cease to exist as such when it knows what it actually is
    6. We do not need to realise what is real, but only to unrealise what is unreal, meaning that we do not need to gain any new knowledge but just to relinquish all wrong knowledge
    7. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 10: real awareness is only awareness that is aware of ourself as we actually are, which is the reality of ego, the one to whom all knowledge and ignorance about other things appear
    8. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 11: when we know ourself as we actually are, knowledge and ignorance about everything else will cease to exist
    9. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 12: since we as we actually are shine without any other thing to know, we alone are real awareness
    10. Upadēśa Undiyār verse 27: real awareness is devoid of both knowledge and ignorance of anything other than itself, because there is nothing other than itself for it either to know or to not know
    11. Though the real awareness that we actually are is completely devoid of both knowledge and ignorance of any other thing, it is not a void (śūnya) but infinitely full (pūrṇa), being the fullness of sat-cit-ānanda
    12. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 13: being aware of many things is ignorance, which is unreal, but even this ignorance does not exist except as ourself, the one real awareness
    13. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 14: when we as ego investigate our own reality, ego will thereby cease to exist, and all its knowledge of the seeming existence of everything else will cease to exist along with it
    14. Knowledge or awareness of anything other than ourself is not real, because when we know ourself as we actually are, nothing other than ourself exists for us to know
    15. When one knows in oneself that self, which is the light that shines without separation in separate sentient beings, within oneself the shining of oneself alone will flash forth
    16. The flashing forth of ourself as the light of pure awareness is the shining forth of grace, the annihilation of ego and the blossoming of happiness
  50. Āṉma-Viddai verse 4: self-investigation is the easiest of all paths, because it is not doing but just being (Wednesday, 8 November 2023)
    51. Contents
    1. We can untie ourself from the bonds of karma and saṁsāra only by eradicating the root of them, namely ego, and we can eradicate ego only by investigating and knowing what we actually are
    2. The root cause of both the bonds beginning with karma and the devastation beginning with birth is ego, because so long as we rise and stand as ego we are aware of ourself as ‘I am this body’ and consequently we seem to be born and to die, and in this state of embodied existence we seem to be the doer of karma and the experiencer of its fruit
    3. We can know what we actually are just by being as we actually are, without rising as ego to do even the slightest action by mind, speech or body
    4. What Bhagavan implies by ‘just being, resting without the least action of mind, speech or body’ is not manōlaya (temporary dissolution of mind) but only manōnāśa (annihilation of mind)
    5. We need to cling to self-attentiveness so firmly that we do not allow ourself to be swayed even to the slightest extent by any viṣaya-vāsanās, because only then will we dissolve in manōnāśa, thereby remaining forever without the least action of action of mind, speech or body
    6. We will truly be ‘without the least karma of mind, speech or body’ only when all the seeds of karma, namely viṣaya-vāsanās, are completely eradicated along with their root, namely ego
    7. When one just is, resting without the least action of mind, speech or body, ah, in the heart the light of oneself alone will shine forth clearly as ‘I am I’
    8. To know ourself as the light of pure awareness, which is the eternal experience of infinite happiness devoid of even the slight trace of any fear, we do not need to do anything at all, but just be as we always actually are, with our entire attention fixed firmly and unshakeably on ourself alone
  51. Āṉma-Viddai verse 5: in the heart that looks within without thinking of anything else, oneself will be seen (Thursday, 7 December 2023)
    52. Contents
    1. The structure and meaning of the first sentence
    2. We ourself are ‘the eye even to the mind-eye, which is the eye to all the sense organs beginning with eyes, which illumine what begins with space’
    3. Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai verse 15: Arunachala is ‘the eye to the mind-eye’, because it is the eye of pure awareness, which is what illumines the mind-eye, so it cannot be seen or known by any eye other than itself
    4. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu verse 4: The mind-eye sees forms because it sees itself as the form of a body, whereas the ‘eye to the mind-eye’ is infinite and hence formless, so it sees no forms but only itself, the infinite whole
    5. We are ‘the space even to the mind-space’, so we are the one real substance, of which everything else is just an appearance
    6. There is only one substance, Arunachala, the heart, the light of awareness, which shines without appearing or disappearing as the space for the appearing and disappearing of the mind-eye and everything known by it
    7. What we actually are is what is called Annamalai, but so long as we rise as ego and thereby mistake ourself to be the form of a body, Annamalai appears outwardly in the form of a hill and in the human form of Bhagavan Ramana
    8. As ego we can never see ourself as we actually are, but we must try to see ourself thus, because as soon as we see ourself as we actually are we will thereby cease to be ego and remain as we actually are
    9. We can see ourself as we actually are only by turning our entire mind back to look within instead of thinking of anything else, thereby being as we always actually are
    10. Though looking at ourself and thereby being as we actually are is exceedingly easy, it seems difficult so long as we rise and stand as ego, because the very nature of ego is to be constantly grasping forms
    11. Grace is certainly necessary, because the all-consuming love to look deep within and thereby let go everything else can come only from grace, not from ego
    12. If we cultivate and nurture love in our heart to know and to be what we actually are, infinite and eternal happiness, which is what we always actually are, will shine forth
  52. Āṉma-Viddai (Ātma-Vidyā) – an explanatory paraphrase (24th June 2009)

    53. Other original writings of Bhagavan

  53. Aruṇācala Tattuvam and Dīpa-Darśaṉa Tattuvam: The Reality of Arunachala and Seeing Deepam (Wednesday, 25 December 2024)
    54. Contents
    1. ஸ்ரீ அருணாசல தத்துவம் (Śrī Aruṇācala Tattuvam): The Reality of Arunachala
    2. தீபதர்சன தத்துவம் (Dīpa-Darśaṉa Tattuvam): The Reality of Seeing Deepam
  54. The truth of Arunachala and of ‘seeing the light’ (deepa-darśana) (11th December 2008)
  55. Śrī Aruṇācala Stuti Pañcakam — English translation by Sri Sadhu Om and Michael James (25th September 2007)
  56. Śrī Aruṇācala Stuti Pañcakam — an overview (4th June 2009)
  57. Śrī Ramaṇōpadēśa Nūṉmālai — English translation by Sri Sadhu Om and Michael James (15th May 2008)
  58. Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ – an explanatory paraphrase (26th June 2009)
  59. The second and third paragraphs of Nāṉ Ār? (Monday, 22 March 2021)
    60. Contents
    1. The second paragraph of Nāṉ Ār? and answers 1 to 3 of most question and answer versions
    2. The third paragraph of Nāṉ Ār? and answers 4 to 7 of most question and answer versions
    3. Why does Bhagavan say in the third and fourth paragraphs of Nāṉ Ār? that awareness of our real nature (svarūpa-darśana) will not arise unless perception of the world (jagad-dṛṣṭi) ceases?
    4. Sivaprakasam Pillai’s first question was ‘நானார்?’ (nāṉ ār?) or ‘நான் யார்?’ (nāṉ yār?), ‘Who am I?’, to which Bhagavan replied just ‘அறிவே நான்’ (aṟivē nāṉ), ‘Awareness alone is I’
  60. Nāṉ Yār? — complete translation now added to Happiness of Being website (1st September 2007)
  61. Bhagavan’s verses on birthday celebrations (Thursday, 31 December 2020)
    62. Contents
    1. Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ verse 4: the real birthday is only the day when we are born in our own real substance, the one birthless and deathless awareness ‘I am’
    2. Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ verse 5: real awareness is only being aware of ourself as we actually are and thereby ceasing to rise as ego
    3. Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu Anubandham verse 11: real birth is only being born in brahman by lovingly attending to the source from which we rose
    4. Through these verses he reminds us that the real purpose of his appearance in our life is only to turn our attention back within and thereby enable us to experience ourself as infinite and eternal happiness
  62. Dīpāvali Tattva: the reality of Deepavali (Saturday, 14 November 2020)
    63. Contents
    1. Guru Vācaka Kōvai verse 181
    2. Guru Vācaka Kōvai verse 182
    3. Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ verse 2 (Guru Vācaka Kōvai verse B4)
    4. Guru Vācaka Kōvai verse 183
    5. Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ verse 3 (Guru Vācaka Kōvai verse B5)
    6. Video discussion about these verses
  63. Sri Ramana’s maṅgalam verse to Vivēkacūḍāmaṇi (9th January 2010)

    64. Translations from Anuvāda Nūṉmālai

  64. The ‘fourfold means’ (sādhanā catuṣṭayam) [Bhagavan’s adaptation of Vivēkacūḍāmaṇi verses 16 to 31] (Tuesday, 8 April 2025)
    65. Contents
    1. nityānitya-vastu-vivēka: ability to distinguish the eternal from the ephemeral
    2. ihāmutra-phala-bhōga-virāga: freedom from desire for enjoyment of the fruit (of actions) either here or hereafter
    3. śamādi ṣaṭka saṁpatti: the sixfold accomplishment beginning with calmness
    4. mumukṣutva: desire for liberation

    The practice of ātma-vicāra: self-investigation or self-enquiry

  65. How to know and to be what we actually are (Tuesday, 3 September 2024)
  66. The crest-jewel of Sri Ramana’s teachings (20th August 2007: extract from HAB chapter 10)
  67. The essential teachings of Sri Ramana (12th October 2014)
  68. The crucial secret revealed by Sri Ramana: the only means to subdue our mind permanently (29th August 2014)
  69. The fundamental law of experience or consciousness discovered by Sri Ramana (4th January 2015)
  70. We cannot experience ourself as we actually are so long as we experience anything other than ‘I’ (19th October 2014)
  71. To be aware of ourself as we actually are, what we need to investigate is only ourself and not anything else (Thursday, 7 September 2017)
  72. Our aim should be to experience ourself alone, in complete isolation from everything else (28th December 2014)
  73. We can separate ourself permanently from whatever is not ourself only by attending to ourself alone (Tuesday, 17 May 2016)
  74. We should ignore all thoughts or mental activity and attend only to ourself, the fundamental awareness ‘I am’ (Saturday, 29 December 2018)
  75. Is there more than one way in which we can investigate and know ourself? (17th November 2015)
  76. Is there any difference between being self-attentive and sitting down quietly in meditation? (Tuesday, 26 November 2019)
  77. What is ‘the I-feeling’, and do we need to be ‘off the movement of thought’ to be aware of it? (Sunday, 19 June 2016)
  78. To eradicate the mind we must watch only its first thought, the ego (Tuesday, 21 March 2017)
  79. Thought of oneself will destroy all other thoughts (10 December 2015)
  80. Names and forms are all just thoughts, so we can free ourself from them only by investigating their root, our ego (Saturday, 2 July 2016)
  81. Asparśa yōga is the practice of not ‘touching’ or attending to anything other than oneself (Wednesday, 13 July 2016)
  82. If we are able to be steadily self-attentive, where do we go from here? (Sunday, 17 July 2016)
  83. Do we need to do anything at all? (Saturday, 27 May 2017)
  84. What is the ‘self’ we are investigating when we try to be attentively self-aware? (Wednesday, 31 August 2016)
  85. Is it incorrect to say that ātma-vicāra is the only direct means by which we can eradicate our ego? (Sunday, 21 August 2016)
  86. The direct path to direct perception of our real nature (Friday, 16 October 2020)
  87. Why should we try to be aware of ourself alone? (Tuesday, 10 December 2019)
  88. What can be simpler than just being self-attentive? (Thursday, 12 March 2020)
  89. Self-investigation as the way to love (Wednesday, 20 May 2020)
  90. How to deal with whatever feelings may arise while we are investigating ourself? (Thursday, 5 December 2019)
  91. How to practise surrender when faced with a dilemma? (Monday, 26 October 2020)
  92. Self-investigation is the only means by which we can surrender ourself entirely and thereby eradicate ego (Saturday, 21 December 2019)
  93. Can there be any viable substitute for patient and persistent practice of self-investigation and self-surrender? (Friday, 19 April 2019)
  94. Why is it necessary to make effort to practise self-investigation (ātma-vicāra)? (Thursday, 24 March 2016)
  95. Why is effort required for us to go deep in our practice of self-investigation? (Sunday, 16 April 2017)
  96. Self-investigation (ātma-vicāra) entails nothing more than just being persistently and tenaciously self-attentive (Friday, 8 April 2016)
  97. Self-attentiveness and self-awareness (14th March 2015)
  98. Self-investigation (ātma-vicāra) is just the simple practice of trying to be attentively self-aware (19th October 2015)
  99. Why is it necessary to be attentively self-aware, rather than just not aware of anything else? (12th October 2015)
  100. We can practise self-abidance only by being self-attentive (Sunday, 1 November 2020)
  101. Do we need to try to ignore all thoughts, and if so how? (18th April 2015)
  102. How to avoid following or completing any thought whatsoever? (Saturday, 13 May 2017)
  103. Whatever experience may arise, we should investigate to whom it arises (Friday, 23 December 2016)
  104. What is the purpose of questions such as ‘To whom have these thoughts arisen?’? (Thursday, 1 June 2017)
  105. Spontaneously and wordlessly applying the clue: ‘to whom? to me; who am I?’ (5th February 2014)
  106. Can self-investigation boost the mind or kuṇḍalinī or cause sleeplessness and other health issues? (Monday, 17 May 2021)
  107. What are vāsanās and how do they work? (Saturday, 4 December 2021)
  108. Why do viṣaya-vāsanās sprout as thoughts, and how to eradicate them? (Wednesday, 24 January 2018)
  109. How can we weaken and eventually destroy all our viṣaya-vāsanās? (Monday, 16 November 2020)
  110. The non-existence of the ego, body and world in manōlaya is only temporary, whereas in manōnāśa it is permanent (Friday, 7 July 2017)
  111. Why does ego rise again from manōlaya and not from manōnāśa? (Monday, 29 July 2019)
  112. Whether it be called ‘yōga nidrā’ or ‘nirvikalpa samādhi’, any kind of manōlaya is of no spiritual benefit (Friday, 6 January 2017)
  113. Doership, sleep and the practice of self-attentiveness (Tuesday, 27 October 2020)
  114. Freedom, surrender and clinging fast to ‘I am’ (Monday, 12 July 2021)
  115. We abide as ourself only to the extent to which we attend to ourself alone (Thursday, 5 August 2021)
  116. Self-investigation is not a matter of one ‘I’ looking for another ‘I’ (Wednesday, 23 June 2021)
  117. Is it possible for us to attend to ourself, the subject, rather than to any object? (Monday, 7 October 2019)
  118. How to practise self-enquiry (ātma-vicāra)? (Tuesday, 14 May 2019)
  119. How to attend to ourself? (Wednesday, 25 May 2016)
  120. How to attend to ‘I’? (16th May 2014)
  121. What is self-attentiveness? (21st January 2009)
  122. How to be self-attentive even while we are engaged in other activities? (Tuesday, 29 January 2019)
  123. How can we just be? (Tuesday, 31 March 2020)
  124. Learning how to be self-attentive (Thursday, 13 May 2021)
  125. How can we refine and sharpen our power of attention so that we can discern what we actually are? (Thursday, 30 May 2019)
  126. Cultivating uninterrupted self-attentiveness (27th June 2008)
  127. Self-attentiveness, intensity and continuity (31st December 2008)
  128. Intensity, frequency and duration of self-attentiveness (6th March 2015)
  129. Self-attentiveness and time (31st December 2008)
  130. ‘I’ is the centre and source of time and space (17th January 2014)
  131. By discovering what ‘I’ actually is, we will swallow time (25th January 2014)
  132. Just being (summā irukkai) is not an activity but a state of perfect stillness (24th February 2015)
  133. Self-attentiveness is not an action, because we ourself are not two but only one (9th February 2015)
  134. There is only one ‘I’, and investigation will reveal that it is not a finite ego but the infinite self (26th October 2014)
  135. The terms ‘I’ or ‘we’ refer only to ourself, whether we experience ourself as we actually are or as the ego that we now seem to be (4th February 2015)
  136. How to find the source of ‘I’, the ego? (Monday, 11 September 2017)
  137. Attending to our ego is attending to its source, ourself (5 June 2015)
  138. By attending to our ego we are attending to ourself (31 July 2015)
  139. The ego is essentially a formless and hence featureless phantom (28th May 2015)
  140. The term nirviśēṣa or ‘featureless’ denotes an absolute experience but can be comprehended conceptually only in a relative sense (25 June 2015)
  141. What is cidābhāsa, the reflection of self-awareness? (11th August 2015)
  142. When Bhagavan says that we must look within, what does he mean by ‘within’? (Sunday, 7 October 2018)
  143. How to experience the clarity of self-awareness that appears between sleep and waking? (30th November 2014)
  144. Is consciousness a product of the mind? (19th June 2014)
  145. The connection between consciousness and body (18th January 2015)
  146. Self-investigation and body-consciousness (20th February 2015)
  147. What should we believe? (25th July 2014)
  148. Why should we believe that ‘the Self’ is as we believe it to be? (9th November 2014)
  149. Science and self-investigation (23rd December 2014)
  150. Investigating ‘I’ is the most radical scientific research (20th January 2014)
  151. Investigating ourself is the only way to solve all the problems we see in this world (2nd March 2015)
  152. There is no difference between investigating ‘who am I’ and investigating ‘whence am I’ (9th May 2014)
  153. The mind’s role in investigating ‘I’ (25th May 2014)
  154. Since we always experience ‘I’, we do not need to find ‘I’, but only need to experience it as it actually is (31st May 2014)
  155. We ourself are what we are looking for (23rd September 2015)
  156. We must experience what is, not what merely seems to be (8th August 2014)
  157. Trying to distinguish ourself from our ego is what is called self-investigation (ātma-vicāra) (15th August 2015)
  158. Dṛg-dṛśya-vivēka: distinguishing the seer from the seen (20th May 2015)
  159. God is not actually the witness of anything but the real substance underlying and supporting the illusory appearance of the witness and of everything witnessed by it (Thursday, 6 October 2016)
  160. What is meant by the term sākṣi or ‘witness’? (21st April 2015)
  161. What we need to investigate is not the act of witnessing but the witness itself (Wednesday, 11 December 2019)
  162. Witnessing or being aware of anything other than ourself nourishes our ego and thereby reinforces our attachments (28th April 2015)
  163. The observer is the observed only when we observe ourself alone (Monday, 1 August 2016)
  164. ‘Observation without the observer’ and ‘choiceless awareness’: Why the teachings of J. Krishnamurti are diametrically opposed to those of Sri Ramana (11th May 2015)
  165. Trying to see the seer (30th April 2015)
  166. Being attentively self-aware does not entail any subject-object relationship (3rd May 2015)
  167. Does the practice of ātma-vicāra work? (3rd March 2014)
  168. Why is ātma-vicāra necessary? (18 April 2014)
  169. Ātma-vicāra is the only means by which we can experience ourself as we really are (20 March 2014: Interview on Celibacy – Part 2)
  170. Ātma-vicāra and nirvikalpa samādhi (11th April 2014: Interview on Celibacy – Part 5)
  171. Ātma-vicāra: stress and other related issues (2nd May 2014)
  172. Self-investigation, effort and sleep (5th June 2014)
  173. Self-attentiveness, effort and grace (23rd November 2008)
  174. The featurelessness of self-attentiveness (22nd August 2014)
  175. Any experience we can describe is something other than the experience of pure self-attentiveness (3rd April 2015)
  176. Other than ourself, there are no signs or milestones on the path of self-discovery (23rd November 2014)
  177. Can self-enquiry be practised during work? (13th February 2014)
  178. Self-attentiveness and citta-vṛtti nirōdha (16 February 2014)
  179. Prāṇāyāma is just an aid to restrain the mind but will not bring about its annihilation (18 June 2015)
  180. ‘That alone is tapas’: the first teachings that Sri Ramana gave to Kavyakantha Ganapati Sastri (22nd August 2015)
  181. Why did Bhagavan sometimes say the heart is on the right side of the chest? (Monday, 22 June 2020)
  182. What is meditation on the heart? (29th August 2015)
  183. What is the difference between meditation and self-investigation? (14th April 2015)
  184. We should meditate only on ‘I’, not on ideas such as ‘I am brahman’ (24th February 2014)
  185. Experiencing the pure ‘I’ here and now (25th January 2011)
  186. Can our mind be too strong for our actual self to dissolve it completely? (Wednesday, 8 June 2016)
  187. Why do we not immediately experience ourself as we really are? (25th January 2014)
  188. The aim of self-enquiry is to experience a perfect clarity of self-consciousness (21st January 2007)
  189. By self-attentiveness we can experience our true self-consciousness unadulterated by our mind (2nd March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 3)
  190. Manōnāśa — destruction of mind (7th October 2011)
  191. Self-attentiveness is nirvikalpa — devoid of all differences or variation (27th July 2009)
  192. Svarūpa-dhyāna and svarūpa-darśana (8th July 2009)
  193. ‘Tracing the ego back to its source’ (12th July 2009)
  194. Knowing our source by a ‘sharp intellect’ or kūrnda mati (16th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 10)
  195. How to start practising ātma-vicāra? (16th April 2009)
  196. Making effort to pay attention to our mind is being attentive only to our essential self (6th December 2008)
  197. Our basic thought ‘I’ is the portal through which we can know our real ‘I’ (30th December 2008)
  198. Focusing only on ‘I’ (4th January 2014)
  199. Second and third person objects (10th January 2011)
  200. The need for manana and vivēka: reflection, critical thinking, discrimination and judgement (13th December 2014)
  201. What is unique about the teachings of Sri Ramana? (7th May 2015)
  202. In order to understand the essence of Sri Ramana’s teachings, we need to carefully study his original writings (30th May 2015)
  203. The logic underlying the practice of self-investigation (ātma-vicāra) (31st October 2015)
  204. Self-enquiry: the underlying philosophy can be clearly understood only by putting it into practice (17th June 2008)
  205. The true nature of consciousness can be known only by self-enquiry (20th June 2008)
  206. Self-enquiry, personal experiences and daily routine (12th June 2008)
  207. Is ‘guided meditation’ possible in Bhagavan’s path of self-investigation? (Tuesday, 14 March 2017)
  208. Ātma-vicāra is only the practice of keeping our mind fixed firmly in self (15th August 2007: extract from HAB chapter 9)
  209. Ātma-vicāra and the question ‘who am I?’ (16th August 2007: extract from HAB chapter 9)
  210. Sri Ramana’s figurative use of simple words (17th August 2007: extract from HAB chapter 9)
  211. The question ‘who am I?’ as a verbalised thought (18th August 2007: extract from HAB chapter 9)
  212. The practice of self-investigation is our natural state of self-conscious being (19th August 2007: extract from HAB chapter 9)
  213. ‘Just sitting’ (shikantaza) and ‘choiceless awareness’ (11th July 2009)
  214. Ātma-vicāra and metta bhāvana (‘loving-kindness’ meditation) (4th July 2009)
  215. Repeating ‘who am I?’ is not self-enquiry (25th January 2007)
  216. Japa of ‘I am’ as an aid to self-attentiveness (29th October 2009)
  217. Staying with ‘I am’ (1st July 2009)
  218. Thinking, free will and self-attentiveness (16th August 2009)
  219. ‘Holy indifference’ and the love to be self-attentive (21st October 2009)
  220. Ātma-vicāra and the ‘practice’ of nēti nēti (20th November 2008)
  221. ‘Awareness watching awareness’ (7th January 2007)
  222. Rather than being aware of being aware, we should be aware only of what is aware, namely ourself (Wednesday, 8 March 2017)
  223. Self-enquiry, self-attention and self-awareness (27th December 2008)
  224. Ātma-vicāra — the practice of ‘looking at’ or ‘seeking’ ourself (14th April 2009)
  225. ‘Putting it all together’ (30th December 2006)
  226. Reading, reflection and practice (9th January 2007)
  227. Exposing the unreality of our ego (13th January 2007)
  228. Self-enquiry and body-awareness (23rd January 2007)
  229. Self-investigation and sexual restraint (15th March 2014: Interview on Celibacy – Part 1)

    230. ‘I am’, ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’, and ‘I am I’

  230. The Ramaṇa mahāvākya: ‘நான் நான்’ (nāṉ nāṉ) or ‘अहम् अहम्’ (aham aham), ‘I am I’ (Friday, 26 November 2021)
  231. ‘I am’ is the reality, ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’ is the ego (Sunday, 2 October 2016)
  232. Why does the term ‘I am’ refer not just to our ego but to what we actually are? (Tuesday, 4 October 2016)

    233. Ahaṁ-sphuraṇa: the clear shining of ‘I’

  233. Demystifying the term ‘sphuraṇa’ (1st July 2014)
  234. Self-awareness: ‘I’-thought, ‘I’-feeling and ahaṁ-sphuraṇa (8th July 2014)
  235. A paradox: sphuraṇa means ‘shining’ or ‘clarity’, yet misinterpretations of it have created so much confusion (12th July 2014)

    236. What is our real ‘I’?

  236. Only ‘I am’ is certain and self-evident (24th January 2014)
  237. Establishing that I am and analysing what I am (15 August 2014)
  238. Self-awareness is the very nature of ‘I’ (1st August 2014)
  239. Though we now seem to be ego, if we look at ourself keenly enough we will see that we are actually just pure awarenes (Monday, 24 February 2020)
  240. What we actually are is just pure self-awareness: awareness that is aware of nothing other than itself (Thursday, 6 July 2017)
  241. As we actually are, we do nothing and are aware of nothing other than ourself (Wednesday, 19 October 2016)
  242. The true import of ‘I am’ (9th January 2007)
  243. The true import of the word ‘I’ (7th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 5)
  244. I think because I am, but I am even when I do not think (8th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 6)
  245. Our real ‘I’ is formless and therefore unlimited (28th February 2007: extract from HAB chapter 2)
  246. Our body, mind and other adjuncts are not ‘I’ (26th February 2007: extract from HAB chapter 2)
  247. The unique clarity and simplicity of Sri Ramana’s teachings (26th December 2013)

    248. The nature of ego and its five sheaths

  248. I certainly exist, but I am not necessarily what I seem to be (Sunday, 26 February 2017)
  249. The ego is a spurious entity, but an entity nonetheless, until we investigate it keenly enough to see that it does not actually exist (Thursday, 24 August 2017)
  250. The ego does not actually exist, but it seems to exist, and only so long as it seems to exist do all other things seem to exist (Wednesday, 18 April 2018)
  251. The ego seems to exist only because we have not looked at it carefully enough to see that there is no such thing (Monday, 30 April 2018)
  252. To curb our rising as ego, all we need do is watch ourself vigilantly (Friday, 7 February 2020)
  253. Ego seems to exist only when we look elsewhere, away from ourself (Friday, 8 November 2019)
  254. The ego is the thinker, not the act of thinking (Sunday, 8 May 2016)
  255. What creates all thoughts is only the ego, which is the root and essence of the mind (Monday, 18 September 2017)
  256. Thoughts and dreams appear only in the self-ignorant view of ourself as ego, not in the clear view of ourself as we actually are (Friday, 15 February 2019)
  257. What is deluded is not our real nature but only ego (Wednesday, 30 January 2019)
  258. The ego is the sole cause, creator, source, substance and foundation of all other things (Sunday, 13 May 2018)
  259. Everything depends for its seeming existence on the seeming existence of ourself as ego (Thursday, 8 November 2018)
  260. The return of the prodigal son (Tuesday, 8 September 2020)
  261. In a dream there is only one dreamer, and if the one dreamer wakes up the entire dream will come to an end (Saturday, 2 February 2019)
  262. The nature of ego and its viṣaya-vāsanās and how to eradicate them (Tuesday, 29 June 2021)
  263. How is ego to be destroyed? (Saturday, 19 September 2020)
  264. There is only one ego, and even that does not actually exist (Wednesday, 8 March 2017)
  265. After the annihilation of the ego, no ‘I’ can rise to say ‘I have seen’ (Friday, 24 March 2017)
  266. Can we as ego ever experience pure awareness? (Friday, 25 October 2019)
  267. What is the difference between God and the ego? (Sunday, 19 February 2017)
  268. What is the difference between pure awareness and the ego, and how are they related? (Saturday, 18 February 2017)
  269. What is the relationship between the ‘I-thought’ and awareness? (Wednesday, 20 February 2019)
  270. In what sense is ego actually just pure awareness? (Thursday, 18 February 2021)
  271. The dreamer is ourself as ego, not whatever person we seem to be in a dream (Wednesday, 15 April 2020)
  272. Why do we need to distinguish ourself as ego from whatever person we seem to be? (Sunday, 15 December 2019)
  273. The person we seem to be is a form composed of five sheaths (Thursday, 5 May 2016)
  274. To know what we actually are, we need to cease being interested in any person (Thursday, 23 January 2020)

    275. Our three states of consciousness: waking, dream and sleep

  275. We can be self-attentive in waking and dream but not in sleep (Tuesday, 2 June 2020)
  276. We are aware of ourself while asleep, so pure self-awareness alone is what we actually are (Wednesday, 16 March 2016)
  277. Sleep is our natural state of pure self-awareness (11th November 2015)
  278. There is absolutely no difference between sleep and pure self-awareness (ātma-jñāna) (Wednesday, 28 June 2017)
  279. What is aware of the absence of the ego and mind in sleep? (Tuesday, 25 July 2017)
  280. What happens to our mind in sleep? (3rd November 2015)
  281. What do we actually experience in sleep? (12th June 2014)
  282. Though we are not aware of any phenomena in sleep, we are aware of our own existence, ‘I am’ (Thursday, 28 May 2020)
  283. What exists and shines in sleep is nothing other than pure awareness (Wednesday, 17 June 2020)
  284. How do we remember being asleep? (Sunday, 21 June 2020)
  285. Our memory of ‘I’ in sleep (2nd November 2014)
  286. In what sense and to what extent do we remember what we were aware of in sleep? (Tuesday, 11 June 2019)
  287. Why do we not experience the existence of any body or world in sleep? (15th June 2014)
  288. The consciousness that we experience in sleep (18th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 2)
  289. The ‘unconsciousness’ that we seem to experience in sleep (19th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 6)
  290. Our imaginary sleep of self-forgetfulness or self-ignorance (6th February 2007: extract from HAB chapter 2)
  291. Are there three states, two states or only one state? (Sunday, 1 December 2019)
  292. Our waking life is just another dream (14th February 2007: extract from HAB chapter 2)
  293. Is there any real difference between waking and dream? (25th March 2015)
  294. All phenomena are just a dream, and the only way to wake up is to investigate who is dreaming (31st March 2015)
  295. Why should we believe that dream is anything other than a fabrication of our dreaming mind? (Wednesday, 7 June 2017)
  296. Only the absolute clarity of true self-knowledge will put an end to all our dreams (17th February 2007: extract from HAB chapter 2)
  297. Our self-consciousness is the absolute reality (18th February 2007: extract from HAB chapter 2)

    298. The state of true self-knowledge

  298. Is it possible for us to have a ‘glimpse of Self’? (Saturday, 30 January 2021)
  299. Is it possible to have a ‘direct but temporary experience of the self’ or to watch the disappearance of the I-thought? (Friday, 22 March 2019)
  300. Any experience that is temporary is not manōnāśa and hence not ‘self-realisation’ (Thursday, 27 July 2017)
  301. Self-knowledge is not a void (śūnya) (22nd September 2015)
  302. The jñāni is only pure awareness (prajñāna) and not whatever person it may seem to be (Tuesday, 27 December 2016)
  303. Why does Bhagavan sometimes say that the ātma-jñāni is aware of the body and world? (Wednesday, 23 November 2016)
  304. Pure self-awareness is not nothingness but the only thing that actually exists (Thursday, 13 July 2017)
  305. Self-consciousness alone is true knowledge (10th January 2007)
  306. The transcendent state of true self-knowledge is the only real state (10th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 6)
  307. What is enlightenment, liberation or nirvāṇa? (19th July 2014)
  308. Who has attained ‘self-realisation’? (30th December 2006)
  309. Is there any such thing as a ‘self-realised’ person? (20th November 2014)
  310. Whatever jñāna we believe we see in anyone else is false (Sunday, 31 March 2019)

    311. The philosophy of Bhagavan’s teachings

  311. In what sense does Bhagavan generally use the terms பொருள் (poruḷ) and வஸ்து (vastu)? (Thursday, 4 January 2018)
  312. Could what exists ever not exist? (Wednesday, 12 May 2021)
  313. Our existence is self-evident, because we shine by our own light of pure self-awareness (Wednesday, 28 February 2018)
  314. Though we appear in two distinct modes, we are just one awareness (Monday, 9 March 2020)
  315. Which comes first: ego or self-negligence (pramāda)? (Tuesday, 30 July 2019)
  316. Why or how we have risen as ego is inexplicable, but Bhagavan does explain why and how we can cease rising (Monday, 20 January 2020)
  317. What does Bhagavan mean by the term ‘mind’? (Thursday, 16 January 2020)
  318. If we investigate the ego closely enough we will see that it is only brahman, but however closely we investigate the world we can never thereby see that it is brahman (Saturday, 10 March 2018)
  319. How can there be any experience without something that is experiencing it? (Friday, 28 June 2019)
  320. How can we be sure that we can wake up from this dream of our present life? (Monday, 24 June 2019)
  321. If this world is just a dream, why should we justify to others that it is so? (Wednesday, 11 November 2020)
  322. What is the correct meaning of ‘Be in the now’? (Tuesday, 12 February 2019)
  323. In what sense is it true to say ‘everything is one’? (Tuesday, 2 February 2021)

    324. God, guru, grace, devotion and sat-saṅga

  324. Can we experience what we actually are by following the path of devotion (bhakti mārga)? (18 July 2015)
  325. Is any external help required for us to succeed in the practice of self-investigation? (Saturday, 24 August 2019)
  326. The role of grace in all that ego creates (Monday, 5 August 2019)
  327. What is ‘remembering the Lord’ or ‘remembrance of Arunachala’? (Sunday, 19 March 2017)
  328. How to merge in Arunachala like a river in the ocean? (Monday, 18 November 2019)
  329. We should not be concerned with anything happening outside but only with what is happening inside (Sunday, 24 September 2017)
  330. God as both nirguṇa brahman and saguṇa brahman (29th May 2008)
  331. Experiencing God as he really is (5th June 2008)
  332. God as pūrṇa — the one infinite whole (7th July 2008)
  333. God as pāramārthika satya — the absolute reality (17th July 2008)
  334. Dhyāna-p-Paṭṭu: The Song on Meditation (30th December 2013)
  335. Repetition of Bhagavan’s name (11th June 2007)
  336. ‘I am’ is the most appropriate name of God (6th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 5)
  337. Contemplating ‘I’, which is the original name of God (2nd March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 4)
  338. Our real self can reveal itself only through silence (29th July 2007: extract from HAB chapter 5)
  339. Where to find and how to reach the real presence of our guru? (15th June 2008)
  340. What is the real ‘living guru’, and what is the look of its grace? (Sunday, 5 March 2017)
  341. We should seek guru only within ourself (12th August 2010)
  342. Is a ‘human guru’ really necessary? (6th January 2007)
  343. Which spiritual teachings are truly credible? (7th January 2007)
  344. Where can we find the clarity of true self-knowledge? (12th January 2007)
  345. Let us not be distracted from following the real teachings of Sri Ramana (14th January 2007)
  346. Which sat-saṅga will free us from our ego? (9th June 2008)
  347. ‘Giving satsaṅga’ (13th January 2007)

    348. Action or karma cannot give liberation

  348. The karma theory as taught by Sri Ramana (5th September 2014)
  349. Why did Sri Ramana teach a karma theory? (12th September 2014)
  350. How is karma destroyed only by self-investigation? (31st May 2015)
  351. If everything is predestined, how can the law of karma be true? (Friday, 18 December 2020)
  352. Concern about fate and free will arises only when our mind is turned away from ourself (Tuesday, 20 June 2017)
  353. Actions or karmas are like seeds (27th July 2007: extract from HAB chapter 4)
  354. How to avoid doing āgāmya and experiencing prārabdha? (19th September 2014)
  355. How to avoid creating fresh karma (āgāmya)? (21st January 2011)
  356. How can we see inaction in action? (Monday, 6 February 2017)
  357. Can sexual energy really be liberated? (12th January 2007)

    358. Purification of mind

  358. Like everything else, karma is created solely by ego’s misuse of its will (cittam), so what needs to be rectified is its will (Saturday, 1 September 2018)
  359. Why is self-investigation the only means to eradicate ego but not the only means to achieve citta-śuddhi? (Saturday, 22 December 2018)
  360. Must we purify our mind by other means before we can practise ātma-vicāra?> (Tuesday, 25 September 2018)
  361. Praising or disparaging others is anātma-vicāra (Monday, 24 August 2020)
  362. If we choose to do any harmful actions, should we consider them to be done according to destiny (prārabdha)? (Tuesday, 5 September 2017)

    363. Compassion and ahiṁsā

  363. The supreme compassion of Sri Ramana (21st August 2007: extract from HAB chapter 10)
  364. The importance of compassion and ahiṁsā (22nd August 2007: extract from HAB chapter 10)
  365. Why are compassion and ahiṁsā necessary in a dream? (11th January 2015)
  366. Ahiṁsā and sexual morality (4th April 2014: Interview on Celibacy – Part 4)

    367. Death and immortality

  367. Overcoming our spiritual complacency (14th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 9)
  368. The fear of death is inherent in our love for our own being (18th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 9)
  369. Taking refuge at the ‘feet’ of God (15th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 9)
  370. The state of true immortality (16th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 9)
  371. Experiencing our natural state of true immortality (22 June 2008)

    372. Non-duality or advaita

  372. There are many interpretations of advaita, but Bhagavan’s teachings are the simplest, clearest and deepest (Sunday, 2 February 2020)
  373. Non-duality is the truth even when duality appears to exist (4th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 5)
  374. Is there really any difference between the advaita taught by Sri Ramana and that taught by Sri Adi Sankara? (27th December 2006)
  375. What is advaita? (28th December 2006)
  376. Advaita sādhana — non-dualistic spiritual practice (27th November 2008)
  377. No differences exist in the non-dual view of Sri Ramana (28th March 2014: Interview on Celibacy – Part 3)

    378. The appearance of duality

  378. Is anything other than ourself intrinsically existent? (Sunday, 29 August 2021)
  379. Does anything exist independent of our perception of it? (Tuesday, 2 May 2017)
  380. When the ego seems to exist, other things seem to exist, and when it does not seem to exist, nothing else seems to exist (Sunday, 27 November 2016)
  381. What is aware of everything other than ourself is only the ego and not ourself as we actually are (Sunday, 15 January 2017)
  382. Which is a more reasonable and useful explanation: dṛṣṭi-sṛṣṭi-vāda or sṛṣṭi-dṛṣṭi-vāda? (Sunday, 30 December 2018)
  383. Metaphysical solipsism, idealism and creation theories in the teachings of Sri Ramana (26th September 2014)
  384. Other people seem to be real because we seem to be a person (Tuesday, 7 September 2021)
  385. The perceiver and the perceived are both unreal (28th September 2014)
  386. Like Bhagavan, Sankara taught that objects are perceived only through ignorance and hence by the mind and not by ourself as we actually are (Sunday, 22 January 2017)
  387. The ultimate truth is ajāta, but because we seem to have risen as ego and consequently perceive a world, Bhagavan, Gaudapada and Sankara teach us primarily from the perspective of vivarta vāda (Wednesday, 8 May 2019)
  388. What is the correct meaning of ajāta vāda? (Monday, 21 November 2016)
  389. The difference between vivarta vāda and ajāta vāda is not just semantic but substantive (Tuesday, 25 October 2016)
  390. We can believe vivarta vāda directly but not ajāta vāda (5th October 2014)
  391. Is it possible for us to see anything other than ourself as ‘the Self’? (Wednesday, 14 December 2016)
  392. How we can confidently dismiss the conclusions of materialist metaphysics (6th April 2015)
  393. Māyā is nothing but our own mind, so it seems to exist only when we seem to be this mind (Tuesday, 27 June 2017)
  394. Everything is only our own consciousness (1st March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 3)
  395. Everything is just an expansion of our own mind or ego (5th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 5)
  396. Objective knowledge will disappear along with our mind when we know ourself as we really are (4th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 5)
  397. The foundation of all our thoughts is our primal imagination that we are a body (27th February 2007: extract from HAB chapter 3)
  398. The cognition of duality (13th January 2007)
  399. The truth that underlies cognition (15th January 2007)
  400. Are we in this world, or is this world in us? (14th February 2007: extract from HAB chapter 2)
  401. Does the world exist independent of our experience of it? (19th December 2014)
  402. Why is it necessary to consider the world unreal? (15th February 2015)
  403. The world is a creation of our imagination (23rd May 2008)
  404. When can there be total recognition that the world is unreal? (Wednesday, 22 June 2016)
  405. When this world is nothing but an illusion, why do we run after it? (Friday, 6 January 2017)
  406. Why to write about self? (17th April 2009)

    407. The role of reason in understanding and applying Bhagavan's teachings

  407. Why do I believe that ātma-vicāra is the only direct means by which we can eradicate the illusion that we are this ego? (Wednesday, 6 January 2016)
  408. Why should we believe what Bhagavan taught us? (Monday, 8 February 2016)
  409. The role of logic in developing a clear, coherent and uncomplicated understanding of Bhagavan’s teachings (Sunday, 28 February 2016)
  410. What is the logic for believing that happiness is what we actually are? (Tuesday, 31 May 2016)
  411. Why should we rely on Bhagavan to carry all our burdens, both material and spiritual? (Monday, 6 June 2016)
  412. Why is it so necessary for us to accept without reservation the fundamental principles of Bhagavan’s teachings? (Saturday, 13 August 2016)

    413. The science of consciousness

  413. Pure intransitive awareness alone is real consciousness and what actually exists (Thursday 12 September 2024)
  414. To understand consciousness can we rely upon the observations and theories of neuroscience? (Thursday, 31 January 2019)
  415. Scientific research on consciousness (25th April 2014)
  416. The true science of consciousness and dṛg-dṛśya-vivēka (12th March 2007: extract from HAB chapter 8)
  417. Consciousness and time (31st December 2006)
  418. Is there any such thing as ‘biological awareness’? (Wednesday, 24 July 2019)

    419. Books about Bhagavan’s teachings

  419. Guru Vācaka Kōvai — e-book (5th September 2007)
  420. Guru Vācaka Kōvai — a new translation by TV Venkatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman (12th November 2008)
  421. Guru Vācaka Kōvai verse 579 and Anubhūti Veṇbā verse 610 (19th November 2008)
  422. Sādhanai Sāram — The Essence of Spiritual Practice (sādhana) (27th June 2009)
  423. The Path of Sri Ramana - Part One e-book copy now available (23rd November 2007)
  424. New enlarged e-book edition of Happiness and the Art of Being [regarding the second PDF edition] (21st March 2007)
  425. Third e-book edition of Happiness and the Art of Being (23rd August 2007)
  426. Happiness and the Art of Being — additions to chapter 2 (27th July 2007: extracts from HAB chapter 2)
  427. The Nature of Reality — additions to chapter 4 of Happiness and the Art of Being (3rd March 2007: extracts from HAB chapter 4)
  428. Happiness and the Art of Being — additions to chapter 5 (28th July 2007: extracts from HAB chapter 5)
  429. What is True Knowledge? — additions to chapter 5 of Happiness and the Art of Being (7th March 2007: extracts from HAB chapter 5)
  430. Happiness and the Art of Being — additions to chapter 7 (30th July 2007: extracts from HAB chapter 7)
  431. Introduction to The Truth of Otherness (22nd May 2008)

Italian translations of these articles

Carlo Barbera has translated many of these articles into Italian and posted them on his blog, La Caverna del Cuore, and a list of all the ones he has translated up to October 2015 is given on the Italian Articles page.



Last updated: 16th April 2026