Ramana Maharshi
It is false to speak of realization. What is there to realize? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long sanskaras [innate tendencies] which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.Collection: Real
You have to ask yourself the question 'Who am I?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.Collection: Discovery
All unhappiness is due to the ego. With it comes all your trouble. If you would deny the ego and scorch it by ignoring it you would be free.Collection: Ego
Take refuge in silence. You can be here or there or anywhere. Fixed in silence, established in the inner 'I', you can be as you are. The world will never perturb you if you are well founded upon the tranquility within. Gather your thoughts within. Find out the thought centre and discover your Self-equipoise. In storm and turmoil be calm and silent. Watch the events around as a witness. The world is a drama. Be a witness, inturned and introspective.Collection: Drama
You are the Supreme Being, and yet thinking yourself to be separate from it, you strive to become united with it. What is stranger than this?Collection: Thinking
You are already That which you seek.Collection: Boost Self Esteem
Grace is always present. You imagine it as something high in the sky, far away, something that has to descend. It is really inside you, in your heart. When the mind rests in its source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as from a spring within you.Collection: Spring
Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself.Collection: Care
Concentration is not thinking of one thing. On the contrary, it is excluding all thoughts, since all thoughts obstruct the sense of one's true being. All efforts are to be directed simply to removing the veil of ignorance. Concentrating the mind solely on the Self will lead to happiness or bliss. Drawing in the thoughts, restraining them and preventing them from straying outwards is called detachment (vairagya). Fixing them in the Self is spiritual practice (sadhana). Concentrating on the heart is the same as concentrating on the Self. Heart is another name for Self.Collection: Spiritual
Let what comes come, let what goes go.Collection: Inspirational
Pleasure and pain are only aspects of the mind. Our essential nature is happinessCollection: Pain
The ultimate truth is so simple; it is nothing more than being in one’s natural, original state.Collection: Simple
He who thinks he is the doer is also the sufferer.Collection: Thinking
...the Lord of the Universe carries the entire burden of this world. You imagine you do. You can hand all your burdens over to His care. Whatever you have to do, you will be made an instrument for doing it at the right time. Do not think you cannot do it unless you have the desire to do it. Desire does not give you the strength for doing. The entire strength is the Lord's.Collection: Thinking
Silence is never-ending speech. Vocal speech obstructs the other speech of silence. In silence one is in intimate contact with the surroundings. Language is only a medium for communicating one's thoughts to another. Silence is ever speaking.Collection: Silence
Pure Consciousness, which is the Heart, includes all, and nothing is outside or apart from it. That is the ultimate Truth.Collection: Heart
We are in our Self. We are not in the world.Collection: Self
As you are, so is the world.Collection: World
Time is only an idea. There is only the Reality. Whatever you think it is, it looks like that.Collection: Reality
If you go the way of your thoughts you will be carried away by them and you will find yourself in an endless maze.Collection: Finding Yourself
The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true Self. Man’s real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true Self. Man’s search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true Self. The true Self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.Collection: Real
There is nothing wrong with God's creation. Mystery and Suffering only exist in the mind.Collection: Spiritual
Our identification with the mind and body is the chief reason for our failure to know our self as we truly are.Collection: Self
Whatever is done lovingly, with righteous purity and with peace of mind, is a good action. Everything which is done with the stain of desire and with agitation filling the mind is classified as a bad action.Collection: Mind
All are seeing God always. But they do not know it.Collection: Knows
Happiness is your real nature. You identify with yourself with the body and mind, feel it's limitations, and suffer. Realize your true self in order to open the store of happiness. That true self is the reality, the Supreme Truth, which is the self of all the world you now see, the self of all the selves, the One real, the Supreme, the Eternal self - as distinct from the ego or the bodily idea for the self.Collection: Real
The world is not outside you.Collection: Self
The master is within; meditation is meant to remove the ignorant idea that he is only outside. If he is a stranger whom you await, he is bound to disappear also. What is the use of a transient being like that? But so long as you think you are separate or that you are the body, an external master is also necessary and he will appear to have a body. When the wrong identification of oneself with the body ceases, the master will be found to be none other than the Self.Collection: Thinking
By whatever path you go, you will have to lose yourself in the one. Surrender is complete only when you reach the stage `Thou art all' and `Thy will be done'.Collection: Art
'I Am' is the name of God, God is none other than the Self.Collection: Self
Realisation is not acquisition of anything new nor is it a new faculty. It is only removal of all camouflageCollection: Acquisition
If you approach the ocean with a cup, you can only take away a cupful; if you approach it with a bucket you can take away a bucketful.Collection: Ocean
If a man considers that he is born, he cannot avoid the fear of death. Let him find out if he has been born or if the Self has any birth. He will discover that the Self always exists, that the body that is born resolves itself into thought and that the emergence of thought is the root of all mischief. Find from where thoughts emerge. Then you will be able to abide in the ever-present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth or the fear of death.Collection: Fear
There is nothing new to gain. On the other hand a man must lose his ignorance. That is all.Collection: Ignorance
The experience of silence alone is the real and perfect knowledge.Collection: Real
In truth, you are spirit. The body has been projected by the mind, which itself originates from Spirit.Collection: Mind
The Sage has no thinking mind and therefore there are no ‘others’ for him.Collection: Thinking
Call it by any name, God, Self, the Heart, or the Seat of Consciousness, it is all the same.Collection: Heart
How does one get rid of fear? Ramana: What is fear? It is only a thought. If there is anything besides the Self there is reason to fear. Who sees things separate from the Self? First the ego arises and sees objects as external. If the ego does not rise, the Self alone exists and there is nothing external. For anything external to oneself implies the existence of the seer within. Seeking it there will eliminate doubt and fear. Not only fear, all other thoughts centred round the ego will disappear along with it.Collection: Self
Grace is ever present. All that is necessary is that you surrender to it.Collection: Grace
The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts have their root in the I-thought. Whoever investigates the True "I" enjoys the stillness of bliss.Collection: Yoga
If the mind falls asleep, awaken it. Then if it starts wandering, make it quiet. If you reach the state where there is neither sleep nor movement of mind, stay still in that, the natural (real) state.Collection: Real
Liberation exists- and you will never be liberated.Collection: Insight
The self is known to every one but not clearly. You always exist.Collection: Self
Then all this earth shines like one house.Collection: House
There are no impediments to meditation. The very thought of such obstacles is the greatest impediment.Collection: Meditation