Who am I

[Guest guest]

Dear Venkat,

you are right: "Who am I" is no mantra. It is the enquiry into one's true nature

following the original I-thought back to its source where the I-thought will

vanish or dissolve. What remains is the true self in all its splendour. And this

is sahaja-samadhi.

Nevertheless Ramana explained that the first of all mantras, which is even

higher to OM, is "I-I".

 

This is his response to a simple women, who requested him to give her some

simpler and easier method than self-enquiry:

"No learning or knowledge of Scriptures is necessary to know the Self, as no man

requires a mirror to see himself. All knowlege is required only to be given up

eventually as non-Self. Nor is household work or cares with children necessarily

an obstacle. If you can do nothing more, at least continue saying 'I,I', to

yourself mentally all the time, as advised in 'Who am I?', whatever work you may

be doing and whether you are sitting, standing or walking.

'I' is the name of God. It is the first and greatest of all mantras. Even OM is

second to it."

(Devaraja Mudaliar: Day by Day with Bhagavan, entry 28.6.46)

 

When Ramana had his death experience and realized his true nature as a youth, he

has no knowledge of the scriptures at all. Later disciples brought

vedanta-scriptures and he discovered that they expressed what he had

experienced.

But Ramana is very unique.

 

Is studying the scriptures necessary for attaining self-realization?

I am no sholar at all but only a simple Ramana devotee. I enjoy reading the

Upanishads and Shankara and want to learn more - but only to gain some

background. So for me it is very simple. I feel free to study whatever I want

but at the same time I know I have to forget it all again when self-enquiry

takes place. And: the true meaning of the scriptures will reveal itself only

then.

Studying the scriptures is surely of great help - but no necessary means for

self-realization. One can even get lost in endless studying the scriptures how

much they even may express the truth. (This I say from my own experience having

studied - not the advaita-scriptures - but christian theology.)

 

Gabriele