Best 223 quotes of Ramana Maharshi on MyQuotes

3. It is said that the I-activity is the root of all activities. From where the I-thought emerges, that in short is the heart.

Actions themselves form no bondage. Bondage is only the false belief,"I am the do-er.

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.

All activities and events that a body is to go through are determined at the time of conception.

All bad qualities centre round the ego. When the ego is gone, Realisation results by itself. There are neither good nor bad qualities in the Self. The Self is free from all qualities. Qualities pertain to the mind only.

All that exists is but the manifestation of the Supreme Being.

All that one gives to others one gives to one's self. If this truth is understood, who will not give to others?

A man does not have to go and find where his eyes are in order to see. The heart is there, always open to you, if you care to enter it, always supporting your movements, although you may be unaware of it. It is perhaps more correct to say that the Self is the Heart. Really the Self is the centre and is everywhere aware of itself as the Heart or Self-awareness.

Apart from thoughts, there is no independent entity called the world. In deep sleep there are no thoughts, and there is no world. In the states of waking and dream, there are thoughts, and there is a world also. Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and again withdraws it into itself, likewise the mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it into itself.

A realized one sends out waves of spiritual influence in his aura, which draw many people towards him. Yet he may sit in a cave and maintain complete silence.

Because truth is exceedingly subtle and serene, the bliss of the Self can manifest only in a mind rendered subtle and steady by assiduous meditation.

Beyond the belief that something can be lost, there is nothing to lose.

Bliss is a thing which is always there and is not something which comes and goes. That which comes and goes is a creation of the mind.

...Bliss is not something to be got. On the other hand you are always Bliss. This desire [for Bliss] is born of the sense of incompleteness. To whom is this sense of incompleteness? Enquire. In deep sleep you were blissful. Now you are not so. What has interposed between that Bliss and this non-bliss? It is the ego. Seek its source and find you are Bliss.

By constantly keep one's attention on the Source, the ego is dissolved in that Source like a salt-doll in the sea.

By happy fraternity amongst themselves, the embodied beings get the supreme peace. Then all this earth shines like one house. When the men, the embodied beings treat each other with equal respect and have good brotherly feelings amongst themselves, great peace and harmony abound. Then all this earth shines like one house. The whole world shines like the one dwelling house of the entire human family.

By the inquiry 'Who am I?'. The thought 'who am I?' will destroy all other thoughts, and like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise Self-realization.

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'.

Call it by any name, God, Self, the Heart, or the Seat of Consciousness, it is all the same.

Calmness is the criterion of spiritual progress. Plunge the purified mind into the Heart. Then the work is over.

Concentration of the mind is in a way common to both Knowledge and Yoga. Yoga aims at union of the individual with the universal, the Reality. This Reality cannot be new. It must exist even now, and it does exist.

Consciousness is indeed always with us. Everyone knows 'I am!' No one can deny his own being.

Discover your undying Self and be immortal and happy.

Dive deep into the chambers of your heart. Find out the real, infinite 'I'. Rest there peacefully for ever and become identical with the Supreme Self.

Doubts arise because of an absence of surrender.

Eating, bathing, going to the toilet, talking, thinking, and many other activities related to the body are all work. How is it that the performance of one particular act is alone (considered) work? To be still is to be always engaged in work. To be silent is to be always talking.

Even in intake, the one steadfast thought is said to be the natural state. Nirvikalpa Samadhi will result when the sensory objects are not present.

Even the structure of the atom has been found by the mind.

Even the structure of the atom has been found by the mind. Therefore the mind is subtler than the atom. That which is behind the mind, namely the individual soul, is subtler than the mind.

Every living being longs always to be happy, untainted by sorrow; and everyone has the greatest love for himself, which is solely due to the fact that happiness is his real nature. Hence, in order to realize that inherent and untainted happiness, which indeed he daily experiences when the mind is subdued in deep sleep, it is essential that he should know himself. For obtaining such knowledge the inquiry 'Who am I?' in quest of the Self is the best means.

Existence of Isvara follows our conception of Isvara. Let us first know whose concept He is. The concept will be only according to the one who conceives. Find out who you are and the other problem will solve itself.

Food affects the mind. For the practice of any kind of yoga, vegetarianism is absolutely necessary since it makes the mind more pure and harmonious.

Forgetfulness of your real nature is true death; remembrance of it is rebirth.

For those who have obtained unobstructed knowledge of Self, the world is seen merely as a bondage causing imagination.

From where does this "I" arise? Seek for it within; it then vanishes. This is the pursuit of wisdom. When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that there is no such thing as mind. This is the direct path for all. The mind is merely thoughts. Of all thoughts the thought "I" is the root.

God dwells in you, as you, and you don't have to 'do' anything to be God-realized or Self-realized, it is already your true and natural state. Just drop all seeking, turn your attention inward, and sacrifice your ego mind to the One Self radiating in the Heart of your very being. For this to be your own presently lived experience, Self-Inquiry Meditation is a direct and immediate way.

God illumines the mind and shines within it. One cannot know God by means of the mind. One can but turn the mind inwards and merge it in God.

God's grace consists in the fact that He shines in the heart of every one as the Self; that power of grace does not exclude any one, whether good or otherwise.

Good thoughts keep off bad thoughts. They must themselves disappear before the state of realization.

Grace is ever present. All that is necessary is that you surrender to it.

Grace is within you. Grace is your self. Grace is not something to be acquired from others. If it is external, it is useless. All that is necessary is to know its existence is in you. You are never out of its operation.

Grace is within you. If it were external, it would be useless.

Guru, God and Self are One

Happiness is not to be sought in solitude or in busy centers. It is in the Self.

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.

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.

Having set one's family in consonance with the community, he should make his family prosperous to ensure the prosperity of the community.

He who has realized the Self in the Heart has transcended the dualities and is never perplexed.

He whose pure mind turns inward and searches whence does this 'I' arise, knows the Self and merges in You, the Lord, as a river into the sea.

He who thinks he is the doer is also the sufferer.