“The only useful
purpose of the present birth is to turn within and realize the Self.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Happiness is your
nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when
it is inside.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Your own
Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”
― Ramana Maharshi
"No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Your duty is to be
and not to be this or that. 'I am that I am' sums up the whole truth. The
method is summed up in the words 'Be still'. What does stillness mean? It means
destroy yourself. Because any form or shape is the cause for trouble. Give up
the notion that 'I am so and so'. All that is required to realize the Self is
to be still.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Wanting to reform
the world without discovering one's true self is like trying to cover the world
with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Have faith in God
and in yourself; that will cure all. Hope for the best, expect the best, toil
for the best and everything will come right for you in the end.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi
“There is neither Past
nor Future. There is only the Present.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Aim high, aim at the
highest, and all lower aims are thereby achieved. It is looking below on the
stormy sea of differences that makes you sink. Look up, beyond these and see
the One Glorious Real, and you are saved.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Realisation is not
acquisition of anything new nor is it a new faculty. It is only removal of all
camouflage”
― Ramana Maharshi
“If you go on working
with the light available, you will meet your Master, as he himself will be
seeking you.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“What is illusion?
M.: To whom is the
illusion? Find it out. Then illusion will vanish.
Generally people want
to know about illusion and do not examine to whom it is. It is
foolish. Illusion is outside and unknown. But the seeker is
considered to be known and is inside. Find out what is immediate,
intimate, instead of trying to find out what is distant and unknown.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Time is only an
idea. There is only the Reality Whatever you
think it is, it looks
like that. If you call it time, it is time. If you
call it existence, it
is existence, and so on. After calling it time, you divide it into days and
nights, months, years, hours, minutes, etc. Time is immaterial
for the Path of Knowledge. But some of these rules and discipline
are good for beginners.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“The pure mind is
itself Brahman; it therefore follows that Brahman is not other than the
mind of the sage.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Know that the
eradication of the identification with the body is charity, spiritual austerity
and ritual sacrifice; it is virtue, divine union and devotion; it is heaven,
wealth, peace and truth; it is grace; it is the state of divine silence; it is
the deathless death; it is jnana, renunciation, final liberation and
bliss.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“All that is required
to realise the Self is to “Be Still.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Remain still, with the
conviction that the Self shines as everything yet nothing, within, without, and
everywhere.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“There is nothing
like ‘within’ or ‘without.’ Both mean either the same thing or nothing.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“The explorers seek
happiness in finding curiosities, discovering new lands and undergoing risks in
adventures. They are thrilling. But where is happiness found? Only within.
Happiness is not to be sought in the external world.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“If you hold this
feeling of ‘I’ long enough and strongly enough, the false ‘I’ will vanish
leaving only the unbroken awareness of the real, immanent ‘I’, consciousness
itself”
― Ramana Maharshi
“You can only stop
the flow of thoughts by refusing to have any interest in it.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“You must achieve
liberation during your life time.
Even if you fail to
do it during your lifetime, you must think of God at least at the time of
death, since one becomes what he thinks of at the time of death. But unless all
your life you have been thinking of God, unless you have accustomed yourself to
dhyana (meditation) of 'God always during life, it would not at all be possible
for you think of God at the time of death.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Mind your business.
Take care of what you came here for. Find the ‘I’ first and you may afterwards
speak of other matters.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“Your concentration
must come as easily as the breath. Fix yourself on one thing and try to hold
onto it. All will come right. Meditation is sticking to one thought. That
single thought keeps away other thoughts. The dissipated mind is a sign of its
weakness. By constant meditation it gains strength.”
― Ramana Maharshi
“There is neither
creation nor destruction,
neither destiny nor
free will,
neither path nor
achievement.
This is the final
truth.”
― Ramana Maharshi