The Direct Path The Ramana Way- The Essence of Maharshi's Teachings

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Ramana himself has termed the path of self-enquiry, which he incessantly explained, the direct path of Self- knowledge. The reason for this is that in the Ramana way the focus of attention is on the 'ego', on the individual. Brahman, Atman and God are only lofty spiritual concepts for us now, whereas our world is centred on the 'T'. If we learn about the individual we will also know about the divine. Why? Because the scriptures assert one's identity with God. When we proceed from the familiar we are on sure ground. Hence also Ramana's emphasis on practice and experience.

Self-enquiry is to pay attention to the essential core in us, the 'I am' in 'I am that'. This we do by questioning 'Who am I?', an enquiry about oneself. The reason for this is to break the grip of the idea that one is the body and the mind. If one is saturated by this spirit of enquiry, one discovers that our identification with the body is erroneous, for one exists without any such identification in deep sleep and sometimes also with different identifications, as in dreams.

Another blade of the scissors of self- enquiry is the enquiry 'Whence am I?' Since the sense of individuality is absent while deeply asleep and comes up again on waking, it would suggest a place withing us wherefrom it has risen and subsided. This would lead us to the discovery of divinity within, for the core of the individual is divine, only it is covered up by a veil of thoughts.

Sri T.N. Venkataraman, President, Sri Ramanasramam has kindly permitted the use of the material in the Ashram publications. A young and staunch devotee of Ramana, who prefers to remain anonymous, has kindly donated the cost of printing the second edition by drawing from his provident Fund account. Sri Renukesh Rao has designed the fine cover and Sri S. Pandurangan of Aridra Printers is responsible for the high quality printing. Our thanks are due to all of them.