Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi

[Guest guest]

Question: How is the ego to be destroyed?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Hold the ego first and then ask how it is to be

destroyed. Who asks the question? It is the ego. This question is a

sure way to cherish the ego and not to kill it. If you seek the ego

you will find that it does not exist. That is the way to destroy it.

 

Question: How is realisation made possible?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: There is an absolute Self from which a spark

proceeds as from a fire. The spark is called the ego. In the case of

an ignorant man it identifies itself with an object simultaneously

with its rise. It cannot remain independent of such association with

objects. The association is Ajnana or ignorance and its destruction

is the object of our efforts. If its objectifying tendency is killed

it remains pure, and also merges into the source. The wrong

identification with the body is Dehatma Buddhi ('I am the body'

idea). This must go before good results follow.

 

The 'I' in its purity is experienced in intervals between the two

states or two thoughts. Ego is like that caterpillar, which leaves

its hold only after catching another. Its true nature can be found

when it is out of contact with objects or thoughts.

 

This ghostly ego which is devoid of form comes into existence by

grasping a form; grasping a form it endures; feeding upon forms which

it grasps it waxes more, leaving one form it grasps another form, but

when sought for it takes to flight.

 

Only if that first person, the ego, in the form 'I am the body',

exists will the second and third persons (you, he, they etc.) exist.

If by one's scrutinizing the truth of the first person the first

person is destroyed, the second and third persons will cease to exist

and one's own nature, which will then shine as one, will truly be the

state of Self.

 

The thought 'I am this body of flesh and blood' is the one thread on

which are strung the various other thoughts. Therefore, if we turn

inwards enquiring 'Where is this 'I?' all thought s (including

the 'I'- thought) will come to an end and Self-knowledge will then

spontaneously shine forth.