Commentaries On Self-Enquiry by DR Raju

Commentaries on
Self-enquiry
By Dr.Raju
Arunachala Siva
By Dr. P. V. S.
Suryanarayana Raju
Arunachala Siva Page 2 of 77

Foreword
Message from Mr.Alan Jacobs Adams, president of Ramana Maharshi

foundation, UK.
"Know that the pure and changeless Self-Awareness in the Heart is the
Knowledge which, through destruction of the ego, bestows Liberation".
This quotation from Sri Bhagavan's Ramana Maharshi's Supplement to the

Forty Verses v.9 is the theme of Dr. Raju's outstanding collection of
beautifully written essays, which comprise this important book.
Pure Awareness is the master key he rigourously applies, in recommending

one of the more important approaches to Self Enquiry, that Sri Ramana often
advocates in his writings and talks.
Sri Dr. Raju, whom I first met in London many years ago when he twice
visited the Ramana Maharshi Foundation UK, is a most earnest and sincere
long standing Devotee of Sri Bhagavan. What is more important is that he,
himself, practises the Atma Vichara, Ramana Maharshi's infallible direct
path to Liberation known as Self Enquiry. He is a distinguished medical
practitioner and Paediatrician in Andra Pradesh and writes as would befit a
scientist, with great precision and clarity.
In a series of these brilliant Essays the author examines all the various
aspects of the Atma Vichara Sadhana in full detail. His writing is based on a
full pound of first hand experience and is worth much more than just an
ounce of mere theory.

I strongly recommend this book to all those sadhaks who are keen to take up
this essential sadhana which Sri Bhagavan brought to the forefront of his
Teaching as the infallible way to Self Realisation. There is no better way to
start than by reading Dr. Raju's book.
Alan Jacobs
President Ramana Maharshi Foundation UK
London 2010

INDEX
1. Why bhagawan chose Self-enquiry for emancipation of modern
man from his ego?
2. In the awareness of Self-enquiry there is transmutation in our

w a y o f life
3. Self-enquiry is the way to go beyond the concept of death
4. Importance of awareness and Self-enquiry in daily life
5. Witnessing consciousness in Self-enquiry keeps the mind in its

proper place
6. Pure awareness-Ego awareness and Self-enquiry
7. Is there a need to achieve anything in this world?
8. About The nature of consciousness, mind and the need for Self-
enquiry
9. Can the mind do Self-enquiry?
10. What is it that to be investigated in Self-enquiry?
11. To stop running after thoughts and to sit in the source of being
is the Art of Self-enquiry
12. Self-enquiry is the way to remove the veiling of Self by the mind
by setting aside its contents
13. Self-enquiry and Surrender
14. Self-enquiry is the process of dissolution of ego in Self

awareness

15. Self-enquiry is the pinnacle of religiosity
16. Self-enquiry bridges the relative with the absolute
17. Self-enquiry is the right way to relate with the Self-ignorance

and its progeny the ego
18. Awareness in Self-enquiry destroys the ego which is the

medium of falsification
19. From chaos to clarity – the way of Self-Enquiry
20. Self-enquiry - Witnessing consciousness - Pure Awareness
21. Self-enquiry is the way for comprehensive inner revolution for

h u ma n i t y
2 2 . M i n d i s t i me
23. Suryanarayana Raju: Self-enquiry--The way of wisdom.
24. Self-enquiry is tracing back to our source by holding on to the

conscious aspect of the mind.
25. We cannot transform that "which is" into "what should be" by
effort in the psychological arena.
26. Self-enquiry. is a journey from utilities to the essential and then

getting attuned to it.
27. Self-enquiry is the art observing without the observer
28. Self-enquiry is a quantum leap in the understanding the nature

of Pure consciousness "I am".

1. Why bhagawan chose Self-enquiry for
emancipation of modern man from his ego?
Whenever society changes the mind changes because mind is nothing but a
conditioning imposed on our consciousness by the society. All old methods
keep the ego intact for performing so called spiritual discipline. The
existence of ego is not questioned in those methods. They start with you "as
you are" and continue to keep you "as you are".
They do not prepare your mind for the inner journey by setting aside the ego
first. Where as setting aside of the ego is the essence of Self-enquiry and so
it is the most effective method to prepare the mind for the inner journey. We
scrutinize the self, the "me" in Self-enquiry. In conventional meditation
which is deliberate meditation we fix our attention on some object or a
sacred word but ego is kept intact in such methods. For example "Aham
Brahmasmi" (I am the Brahman meditation) is just a thought and it is an
intellectual activity. It takes us no where.
In Yoga and Vipassana breath control is tried to stop the mental activity.
Pranayama is the science of breath. Mind is accustomed to stray in nonself
leaving it's source the "self”. To control such a chaotic mind cultivating the
prana (life force) makes the mind temporarily settled like a pond in full
moon light and mind for the first time tastes the bliss and happiness of
thought free state while awake. This tasting of bliss makes the aspirant
certain that the nature of his being is bliss. So he pursues further to establish
in that state of bliss without any interruption. In this way pranayama is an
aid in preparing the mind of the aspirant to do self-enquiry. In pranayama
only manolaya (temporary cessation of activity of the mind) happens and so
annihilation of tendencies will not happen in pranayama. No radical
transformation of the mind is possible in pranayama. It helps us to taste the
bliss of thoughtless state of the mind as long as pranayama lasts. Prnayama
is an important Anga in Astanga Yoga. Body health and quality and length
of life are profoundly affected
positively due to pranayama. But when the breath (prana) comes out, the
mind will also come out and wander under the sway of tendencies as usual.
So pranayama is mere aid for restraining the mind but will not
bring destruction of the mind.

In Hinduism traditionally "neti,neti" method is practiced with great
importance. Bhagawan reveals us the true and practical import of scriptural
teaching "neti,neti"(not this, not this).Traditionally neti,neti is done as an
intellectual method. Einstein says that a problem cannot be solved on the
same level of consciousness that gave rise to the problem which means the
problem of self-ignorance cannot be solved by effort of it's progeny of five
sheaths.
Bhagawan reveals that neti,neti is not intended to denote a method of

practice but only indicates a final state of experience which is different in the
level and quality of consciousness compared to the present altered state of
consciousness with the association of adjuncts.
In verses 16 of Upadesa Saram Bhagawan said, Wise people observe the

phenomenal reality "as it is" and recognise without doubt that any attempt in
indulging in the affairs of nonself definitely leads to misery. Lord Krishna in
Bhagavad Gita mentioned that world is a temple of misery (Dhukhalaya). If
we enter into that temple misery will be conferred on us.The way of life of
humanity is miserable because majority indulge in nonself and they feel
individual existence is a reality and they are confident that anything can be
achived by their own effot.They are not aware that one higher power is
responsible for the affairs of the world and events are happening through
them but not because of them. If one realises this, naturally he loses interest
in nonself and his attention falls back on itself which amounts to seeing it's
own nature of consciousness. Thus mind knowing that it's nature is
awareness only, gives up object knowing attitude, this alone is seeing of the
reality (Tattwa darsanam).
The "I" thought superimposes afflictions and pleasures of body and mind on
it and says, i am suffering from a disease instead of saying my body is
suffering from disease, and at the mental level it says i am miserable or
happy instead of saying my mind feels miserable or happy. This type of
language continues as long as the habit of identity to body-mind complex
continues.
It is the silent awareness that reads, breaths, listens etc but the "I" thought
comes in between the body and self and claims the doership of the activities.
"I" thought is an altered state of consciousness but it has within it the
essential pure consciousness in it's core. So instead of seeking enlightenment
it if we focus our attention on "I" thought, the real "I" reveals itself which is
behind the "I" thought and is the basis of "I' thought. This is real self-
enquiry.

In verse 17 of Upadesa Saram Bhagawan said, In this verse Bhagawan
shows the way how the mind is to know it's own form of light. When we
srutinise the mind i.e. personality it will be found that there is no such thing
as ego or personality. Enquiry is not a thought but paying attention to it.
There is no ego apart from the idea of it. Ego is an aberration on the pure
self born out of body identity. The conscious aspect of the ego arises from
the self and infact the self but forgetful of it's nature because of it's
association with the adjuncts and it believes in the lie of it's separate
independent existence. When we focus our attention on the source of the ego
it's lie of it's independent existence is revealed and as we practice like this
with such an intensity as drowning man struggles for air, the lie is
extinguished forever and the concept of individual self is annihilated and
only self remains. What was appearing as the mind is nothing but self, the
Pure consciousness "I am". Existence consciousness is the sole reality of the
unreal mind. In self-enquiry Pure consciousness remains, only limitations
become extinct.
In the verse 18 of Upadesa Saram Bhagawan said,

"I" thought is one thread on which all other thoughts are strung and since no
other thought can exist in it's absence, therefore what is commonly called
mind is the root thought "I-am-the-body" idea. "I" thought is the mixed
feeling of "I-am-the-body". Real "I" is the pure existence "I am". The "I"
thought is the knowing subject, where as all other thoughts are objects
known by it. Hence, though other thoughts come and go, "I" thought always
remains as the background upon which they depend and when "I" thought
subsides, all other thoughts must subside along with it. Thus "I" thought is
the one and only characteristic of the mind. Therefore ultimate truth about
the mind can be discovered only when one scrutises the truth of the first
person "I" thought.
The "I" thought is a superimposition on real "I'. The core of "I" thought is
pure consciousness. So when we scrutinise the "I" thought and if one can
keep attention on the inner feeling of "I', then the "I" thought start to subside
into the heart centre i.e. pure consciousness. This can be done by holding on
to inner feeling of "I am" excluding all other thoughts. "I" thought is an
altered state of consciousness in which consciousness is associated with
adjucts and there arises a compound consciousness which is basically object
knowing consciousness where as basic form of consciousness is exclusive
self consciousness (Real "I",thaan,"I""I") in which awareness is aware of
itself only, while consciousness associated with adjuncts is aware of
objects.(False "I",nan,) But in both the cases that which cognises is only
Pure consciousness. There are no two separate conscious entities, one for

knowing objective reality and another for knowing itself. Our being itself is
self conscious, self effulgence.
In the verse 19 of Upadesa Saram Bhagawan said, When one inwardly

scrutinizes root thought, the feeling "I-am-the-body" in order to find out
from where it arises, it will subside and disappear because, like the snake in
the rope it has no reality of it's own and hence appear to exist only when it is
not keenly scrutinized. This vigilant inward scrutiny of "I" thought, alone is
Jnana Vichara, the enquiry which leads to true self knowledge.
So from 16th -19th verse of Upadesa Saram Bhagawan teaches us the

method of practicing self-enquiry.
In the verse 20 he teaches us that as a result of such practice the reality will
shine forth spontaneously as "I""I" or " I am I".
In the verse 21 he declares that the reality which thus shines forth as "I" "I"
is always the true import of "I".
And finally in verse 22 he concludes by saying that since the five sheaths are
insentient and unreal, they cannot be "I", the reality whose nature is
existence consciousness.
So true knowledge that the five sheaths are not "I" is an experience which
can be attained only by knowing the real nature of "I" through practice of
self-enquiry. The reason why scriptures begin by teaching that five sheaths
are not "I", is that in order to practice self-enquiry it is useful for an aspirant
to understand intellectually that the "I" which is to be attended to is not the
body or any of other adjuncts which are now felt by him to be mixed with
the feeling of "I". But since Bhagawan does not want us to fall prey to the
misunderstanding that pondering intellectually over the truth that the five
sheaths are not "I" is itself the method of negating the five sheaths. He has
carefully taught us the method of practice of self-enquiry before revealing to
us the conclusion that the five sheaths are not "I". This revolutionary
understanding of neti,neti method by Bhagawan contributed a lot in the
whole understanding of Advaita and Bhagawan took us to a new heights in
understanding the method of practice of self-enquiry and in this aspect
Bhagawan surpassed Adi Sankara in contributing to the understanding of
human consciousness.
Spiritual initiation through Mantra is common in India and abroad. It can

make you still, certain well being will come to you but no transformation
will happen because the repressed layers of the unconscious mind remain

where they are. Bhagawan never initiated anybody through mantra even at
the suggestion of Sri Ganapathi Sastry in whom he had so much respect.
Bhagawan's approach is mouna diksha i.e to make the devotee aware of his
nature of his own being in the silent tranquil presence of Bhagawan. In this
approach there is heart to heart contact between the devotee and the master.
This is the best initiation. This is only possible for mature and advanced
seekers. For some he transferred his divine energy through his eyes.(Netra
Diksha).Initiation through touch(Hasta Deeksha) rarely happened with
Bhagawan because he never used to touch anybody. If after doing all these if
the devotee has any doubts about his nature of being he prescribed Self-
enquiry for many and surrender for some depending upon their mind set.
Bhagavan sometimes pointed out the affinity with bhakti, the path of
devotion, and said that the two paths lead to the same end. Perfect devotion
means complete surrender of the ego to God or Guru conceived of as other
than oneself, while Self-enquiry leads to dissolution of the ego.
There are many paths as there are many minds. Each mind requires a
particular path and each method is true for a particular person. No method is
true as such or false as such. Methods will be different for those with faith
and for those whose main approach is through doubt.
Now all over the world modern mind is based on doubt. The scientific
approach uses doubt, a mind cannot be scientific unless it can take the doubt
to the very extreme. We have trained our mind to doubt and so those
methods based on faith became useless.
For modern mind they cannot be used. We require new method for the
modern mind based on doubt, on experimenting without faith as a basic
condition. In each age new devices are needed and those devices can be used
for certain time.
All religious traditions all over the world are suppressive and unless those
layers of suppression are released, thrown out, exhaled nothing can be done
as far as inner journey is concerned.
In contemporary world reason has become supreme and it suppressed

everything that is not rational. Reason is just a tiny part of whole being of
the man, just a small fragment but this small fragment has become supreme,
dictatorial. It has suppressed everything else in the individual. Many things
like love and beauty are beyond reason.

In Self-enquiry we have no preconceived ideas about us. It is a process of
inquiring into the nature of "me" in a state of not knowing, innocence. If we
come to a conclusion about the "me' we cannot proceed further in
investigating it. So beliefs, dogmas, faith, religion are not there in
Self-enquiry. Self-enquiry does not belong to any religion and it is a pure
investigating the nature of "me'.
It is in everybody's experience that in deep sleep we are very happy and

tranquil even though we are not connected to the body-mind complex.
That is why we make so many arrangements for comfort so that deep sleep
happen and to enjoy the sukha, tranquility of that state.
So it must be our natural state. But after waking from deep sleep some entity
is obstructing us from enjoying that tranquility of deep sleep state. We are
identified with that entity and assuming it to be our real "me" which is
causing pain, sorrow, misery, anxiety, fear, jealosy etc.
In Self-enquiry we doubt that existence of the "me". We look into nature and
functioning of the "me" consciously. Then the layers of the "me" are peeled
off and when we empty all its contents i.e. thoughts, desires, memories,
projections, hopes when all are gone for the first time we find ourselves
because we are nothing but pure virgin space within us. This is our real birth
into Self, dwija means twice born, one physical birth and second waking into
the Self. This is the meaning in saying that Jesus is born out of virgin, we
should not take it literally or physically.
Unburdened by anything that content-less consciousness, that what we are!

Seeing it, realizing it, being it one is free.
One is freedom, one is joy, one is bliss. Because in Self-enquiry belief, faith,
dogma, religion are not involved and it being a scientific investigation
probably Bhagawan chose Self-enquiry for the present day humanity as a
method for emancipation from the ego.

2. In the awareness of Self-enquiry there is
transmutation in our way of life
At present our way of life is dictated by thought i.e. mind and
unfortunately it is behaving like our master now.
Thought which is the outcome of past has not changed man from the time
immemorial because past is limited and the action done through it is always
incomplete resulting in perennial conflict and so brings fresh problems.
The inner creates the outer and the outer shapes the inner and this ebb and
flow of action and reaction is the movement of thought. Thought has made
the thinker and the same thought divides the thinker and the thought, tries to
shape and control the thought.
Thought being limited tries to invent a limitless entity called God and
such type of God is just a projection of thought.
Thought has its role to play in the physical phenomenal reality. If i want
to go to hospital from my home thought is necessary, if i want to drive a car
thought is necessary, to diagnose a disease or do surgery thought is
necessary, to write an article like this thought is necessary. But at present it
is encroaching and functioning all the time in the psychological arena where
it has created troubles and still trying to correct and manipulate those
psychological problems created by itself.
How can the creator of problem solve the problems created by itself?
How can darkness through away darkness. We have to bring in light to
through away darkness. There is no other go. Einstein said a problem cannot
be solved by the same level of awareness at which the problem is created.
Socrates said true wisdom comes when thought realizes how little it
understands the life, about itself and the world around it. Its range of
perception is very limited. When thought understands this it becomes still
when it is confronted with psychological problems created by it.
Once there is stillness of thought born out of understanding, Self-enquiry

progresses smoothly and easily. The passive awareness which happens
during Self-enquiry perceives the problems created by the thought in the
psyche particularly the problems born out of relating with the others with
ego which leads to toxic relationship with separativeness.

Einstein feels that this separative feeling with each other is just an optical
illusion but that illusion is causing havoc in human society. In the passive
perception in Self-enquiry the problems created by thought flower and
reveal their network to the passive awareness and in that very revelation
there is the withering of problem.
In the psychological arena just perception is complete action. In Self-

enquiry we just perceive the contents and problems of the mind, it is a
complete action without any residue of non-understanding and so there is no
conflict what so ever.
Carl Jung says that our vision becomes clear when we look with our
heart. He says those who look outside dreams, those who look inside
awakens. Thought takes us away from our source and land us in the
dimension of dreams which happen in spacio-time.
Life is miserable if we are not aware. We think this object knowing

awareness is real awareness but this is part of metaphysical sleep in which
mind modifies itself continuously from one state to the another i.e. deep
sleep state, dream mode, waking mode.
Such a life is a bed of thorns of anger, violence, greed, hatred, ambition,

possessiveness, arrogance, pomp, desire, jealousy and all these result in
sorrow, misery, despair, hopelessness, anguish.
When we are aware whatever we do and demechanize what we call the

routine things, we develop skill to watch subtle things like thoughts,
feelings, moods, emotions. This is possible in Self-enquiry. Man is not
imprisoned by outer circumstances but by his unconscious instincts and his
own biological past.
The awareness of Self-enquiry brings these to conscious level and in the

very perception of them without judging or condemning or justifying is to be
free from them. Then anger becomes compassion, hate becomes love, greed
becomes sharing, darkness of life becomes light with the advent of
awareness in Self-enquiry. Everything ugly in the mind is transmitted in the
awareness of Self-enquiry.
When we reverse our gear from unconsciousness to consciousness,

diverting our awareness from the objects to the perceiver (observer) of them
this mutation happens. This is the Art of Self-enquiry. Then life of thorns
becomes a bed of roses.

3. Self-enquiry is the way to go beyond the
concept of death
Body is a flux, continuously changing, moving. It has nothing of
eternal in it. If you are identified with the body through 'I" thought ofcourse
the fear of death will be constantly there. You can live but you can live only
in fear.
In fact, the body is dying every moment. The body dies every day. Death
is a process. Death is not an event; it is a long process. By and by, the body
comes to a point where it cannot hold itself.
It disintegrates. How can one live? How can one celebrate? How can one
dance and sing and be? Impossible. The death won’t allow it. The death is
too much and too close.
So Bhagawan faced this fact of fear there and then when he had intense
death fear at the age of 16 in Madurai. He has great Sankalpa bala. He felt
now this body is dead, it will be taken for cremation to the burial ground.
With the death of the body am i dead? His body is really dead and
developed Rigor mortis. But he observed that his awareness survived the
death of the body. So he existentially came to know that his essential nature
is awareness but not the body-mind complex with which we are identified
with and feel that we are that body-mind complex.
What Bhagawan did is real Self-enquiry. Death is a concept of "I"

thought. In death of physical body "I" thought becomes fearful of losing
identity with the body and feels "I am dying". So death is concept of "I"
thought.
In Self-enquiry we witness everything consciously. That which is

witnessed is not you. You are the witnessor. So the world of objects, body,
mind is not you. One who is capable of witnessing life is also capable of
witnessing death.
In death your awareness doesn’t die, the awareness that is imprisoned in

body-mind complex is released. If you don't die rightly i.e. if you don't
achieve the total orgasm that death is, you will be born again you missed it
and you have to be given another opportunity.
A life of awareness is a real life. A life of mind is a dead life. The one

who identifies with the mind thinks continuously, brooding, playing with
words. Life is an opportunity to be here and now but he always thinks of
somewhere else.
This is utopia which means "that which never comes". Movement of

mind is just an animation of the contents of the mind on the background of
screen of awareness. We are identified with the animation and we
completely forgot the screen of awareness.
To shift our attention from this animation to the screen of awareness Self-
enquiry is the way. If we don't give energy to this animated movement by
just being aware of it like a mirror, the movement of the mind stops.
In Self-enquiry which is done with awareness we no longer give energy

to such outgoing mind and so the awareness is not directed and so there is no
apparent movement of it through mind, awareness falls on itself and when
this happens for the first time we taste the nature of life and we receive
something unknown, unbelievable, unexpected, never even dreamed of and
we don't feel like leaving that state like Bhagawan.
It is so blissful, tranquil, serene, without any pain, sorrow, limitation.

This light of awareness is called Purusha by Hindus. The word Purusha
means the dawn in the city (body-mind complex filled with the light of
awareness), he who is filled with light, he who is filled with wisdom and
eternal happiness, a citizen of heaven.
It can be also pronounced as Purhusha which means whose passions are

purified and who has become deathless. All these qualities are there in
Bhagawan and he is the Purusha mentioned in BhagawadGita. Our material
nature is body-mind complex (Prakruti) in which light of Purusha is
reflected and makes our material nature to get animated.
Our essential nature is Purusha which can be discovered through Self-

enquiry like Bhagawan. We just forgot our nature of Purusha due to
superimposition of our material nature on Purusha. This is due to the defect
of superimposition (Adhyasa). To claim back our Purushahood which is our
essential nature and which is birth less and deathless, Self-enquiry is the
way.
There is death only to our material nature of body-mind complex when

the energy of reflection of Purusha is withdrawn from it. Death can exist
only in the ignorance of what life is and we taste life which is existence plus
awareness i.e. pure awareness, Purusha, in Self-enquiry.

So in Self-enquiry we go beyond the concept of death because we go
beyond the concept of "I" thought and we attain to the state of immortality.
This is Asatoma Sadgamaya, Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya, Mrutyorma
amrutangamaya. So let us practice Self-enquiry sincerely and attain to this
eternal state of being.

4. Importance of awareness and Self-enquiry
in daily life
Many of us feel that we are the body. Intellectuals feel that their essential
nature is mind. Truth seeker imagines that he is the Self but he has no first
hand experience of it.
Self, mind, body are they separate entities or do they belong to a single
integrated being? How to find it out whether they are separate or integrated
whole. Daily we walk early in the morning. It is the body that walks. But we
are superimposing that activity of the body on us and say "I am walking".
In vedantic jargon it called Adhyasa(defect of superimposition).Usually

we walk mechanically and we usually go on thinking while walking. So we
are not aware of walking. We are not aware of surroundings while walking.
It is almost somnambulism.
Are we aware of the birds, their songs ,trees with their beauty, flowers,
clouds, the beauty of crane flying in the background dark clouds of
monsoon, are we sensitive to all these?
Majority of us are lost in our thoughts which takes us to an illusory

territory. Why it is happening like that? It is because we are unaware to the
present moment. If we start de-mechanizing the walking by being aware of
walking thinking stops. Thinking is not needed while walking just as
thinking is not needed while breathing.
When there is no thinking we are aware of the surroundings, we perceive

the beauty of birds, the sounds that they make, one bird respond to the sound
made by the other bird, the beauty of flowers, trees, the smell of air while
raining, we become sensitive to all these without any thought.
In that thought-free state there is joy. But the mind of an average human
being has such a momentum and rush of thoughts many times he is lost in
thoughts missing the beauty of surroundings which is quite obvious.
Unless we are aware to these gross aspects we cannot develop the skill to
be aware of subtle things like thoughts and mental activity. Whatever we do
we must do it with awareness then only we become aware of subtle things.

If we develop the capacity to be aware of subtle things we develop the
capacity to de-mechanize the thought process. At present we are thinking
mechanically in unawareness.
We are superimposing that activity of thought and are saying "I am

thinking". The thought process is going on even when it is not required and
has no role to play.
It is just like while we are sitting if we move our hands incessantly and
awkwardly without any cause it looks mad, same is the situation with
thinking, at present its activity is out of our hands and thought is running
amok.
Normal human being means he is a socially adjustable being with the

mask of personality with this type of perverted and uncontrollable thinking.
All this is due to lack of awareness resulting in a mechanistic thinking and
Self-enquiry de-mechanizes this by bringing in awareness.
Awareness keeps the thought where it is expected to function and

prevents anomalous thinking. If one is aware many human problems are
solved. Awareness is the panacea for problems of humanity and Self-enquiry
is the way for it.
To fulfill basic needs we require only few thoughts for action. But we are
indulging in unnecessary thinking and action, which i feel should be
curtailed in sadhana(Spiritual discipline) stage. This is very vital. Thought
traffic is reduced when one is in uninterrupted awareness, (Sada Apramada)
as told by Sanat kumara.

5. Witnessing consciousness in Self-enquiry
keeps the mind in its proper place
Hindus say offer the flower of your mind (mano pushpa) to God. They are
right. There is a great insight in that. Unless we put away our mind in the
initial stages as an offering to God through surrender we cannot find the way
to our own "Self" which is veiled and hidden under the mind.
Mind is the greatest biological evolution. It has not to be thrown away in

the waste paper basket in the name of spiritual discipline. It is a great
instrument given as a gift to us by the existence. But we have to find the
master who can use it.
This is here Self-enquiry has a significant role to play in finding our

master who can use his mind in a sane manner effectively. Right now mind
is behaving like a master and using you. Till one finds his own "Self"
everybody is a slave to his ego. Once you find your "Self", the mind
becomes your slave. Seeing the "Self" with its splendor as the master, mind
is reduced and recognizes what its position is and stop behaving like a
master any longer.
When i was a student when the master is not there in the class students
used to do all sorts of things like playing, singing, jumping, quarrelling with
each other and one of them assuming the role of the master. This is their
natural behaviour when master is not there in the class room.
Once the master enters the class room, every child used to sit where he is
expected to be including the one who assumed the role of master.
Same is the case with the contents of the mind which makes up the mind
when the master of "Self" is yet to come. To find and invite this master Self-
enquiry is the way and the witnessing consciousness is the medium of
finding the master. Witnessing consciousness is synonymous with the
spiritual heart. Witnessing is simply slipping out of the mind gracefully.
The moment you start witnessing the thought process you have slipped
out of it without creating any fight with it. You are watching the thought
flow standing aside, it is just like watching a heavy traffic on the road of a
city in rush hour sitting silently and watching it from your balcony. As
awareness level increases thought traffic slows down because we no longer
participate in it and giving any strength to it.

One devotee asked Bhagawan what is the parameter of spiritual progress?
He said if the thought traffic is minimal or almost absent he is said to be
progressing spiritually.
To observe the contents hidden in the deep unconscious layers of the

mind to be aware while we relate with others is very important because in
that mirror of relationship the hidden contents of the mind brought to the
conscious level.
The other day one of our friend pointed out that i have "lifted" a
discourse of Osho and published it as note in my own name. It is the best
opportunity for me to know my intention in posting that note, is it for pure
learning or for sharing a precious material written by some other person, not
mentioning his name and pretend as though it is my own understanding to
gain fame, am i posting the notes with doer-ship etc.
Unless that challenge from the other is not faced we will not know that
content of the mind at the conscious level. So we should not escape from
relating with the others which many times bring pain to the ego in course of
time, just because of getting exposed in relationship. Many do not want to be
exposed and simply they escape and run away from relationship which
amounts to running away from life because life is relationship.
Our innate tendencies will not be revealed and spent out if we avoid
relationship with the other. Unless the tendencies are spent out thought
process will be out of our control. The word Moksha means release of
consciousness from its apparent imprisonment i tendencies.
Vasanakshayam(annjhilation of tendencies) is Moksham (Self

realization) says Adi Sankara. Tendencies are annihilated through spending
up of them only. That is why we should not renounce and escape from the
world because the world and people in it are mirror in which our face can be
seen on our own.
The destruction of that reflected image happens in Self-enquiry but that

destruction of that image does not amount to your destruction. When that
image is destroyed, for the first time you will taste the bliss of ultimate
freedom. But people are afraid to jump into this unknowable, unchartered
space and so they avoid Self-enquiry on some plea or the other.
We have to start witnessing without making direct attack on the mind.

Self-enquiry is nothing but putting the mind aside and bringing the

witnessing consciousness which is always there with us but hidden deep
under the mind. Mind resists this putting aside of it because who want to be
put aside from a place where it assumed that it is the master of us for
centuries.
And we want to put it aside for something which we do not know what it
is? So it must be put aside lovingly and carefully, gently. In the initial stages
mind will not allow you to remain as a witness for long. You can experiment
it for yourself by trying to witness the Sun rise or Sun set, just observing the
ethereal space of the sky or hearing the song of a bird early in the morning.
Then you will come to know the strength of your mind. Mind will take
you somewhere in a few moments because if you are present in the present
tense minding i.e. thinking is not possible and mind feels it like a death for it
and starts its activity somehow.
I asked one friend in UK who worked as an assistant for the editor for
mountain path for 3 yrs in Ramanasramam, why he came back to UK
leaving such a great opportunity to live in the presence of Bhagawan. He is
an honest man. He told me that he used to sit in the old hall of Bhagawan for
meditation but in few moments there uncontrollable flow of thoughts started
and he tried his best to come back to tranquillity but mind never cooperated
with him. He felt he is in war with his own mind.
Many times he forgot where he is and only after quite sometime he came
to senses and found himself in the old hall wasting time as he put it. See how
powerful became the momentum of thought activity which is beyond our
control because all the time we are cultivating the thought for everything
even in the contexts where it is not required and its presence is inimical. He
is not an exceptional case he represents the whole humanity.
Many times while doing Self-enquiry we forget we are witnessing the

thought activity. Sanat kumara says that this forgetfulness of witnessing
consciousness is Pramada which means that which brings danger to our
being. But there is no need for frustration because it is part of our growth.
The very awareness that we are so far are not witnessing is enough to
continue the Self-enquiry. Bringing the mind in tune with the witnessing
consciousness is the great "Art of Self-enquiry". But in the beginning mind
is going to be against any effort to put it aside.
But don't create an enemy out of such resisting mind by condemning or

hurting it. Mind creates many hindrances before the master i.e. "Self" is

awakened but once the mind sees the immense light of Self inside you, it
spontaneously falls in tune with your inner "Self".
There is no question of fighting then from the side of the mind. But
before finding the "Self' mind will give you every fight if you are going to
leave it behind or put it aside. Mind is a great complicated mechanism born
out of evolution like the body, we have to preserve it, not fight with it or hurt
it because it is a very useful instrument once the "Self' is found. It is a
hindrance before finding the "Self' but it is a precious instrument to execute
marvellous work after finding the "Self".
All masters used their mind effectively for the welfare of all beings in the
existence. Condemning the body-mind complex is a sado-masochist
tendency but not a spiritual trait. Only thing is that the body-mind complex
should be shown its proper place to function effectively in the light of "Self"
and not allowing it assume that it is our master of our life which it is doing
for many centuries. So Self-enquiry is the art knowing what to ignore.

6. Pure awareness-Ego awareness and Self-
enquiry
Suppose on a plain paper we mark a zero with a pencil, we feel that zero
mark is really zero. If we carefully observe even when we think that mark of
pencil indicates zero with no value its background is plain paper which is
there even before marking zero by the pencil and it will be there even after
erasing the pencil mark of zero.
Similarly on the screen of awareness for functional purpose awareness

mind is created whose essential nature is nothingness. That mind gives
direction to the awareness so that awareness can function in the fleeting
phenomenal reality. Mind has an utilitarian value in the phenomenal reality
because awareness acts through it, just like pencil mark of zero on the plain
paper has utilitarian value. Now if we want have only plain paper we have to
erase the pencil mark of zero.
Similarly if we want to know the nature of awareness which is the

background of mind, first we must know the nature of mind which is
nothingness. Once we know that a gestalt in our attitude happens and we
observe the nature of awareness which is the background of the mind.
We direct our attention towards the source of mind which is awareness.

The real can be known only through the false, so the ego is a must. One has
to pass through it. It is a discipline. The real can be known only through the
illusion. You cannot know the truth directly.
First you have to know that which is not true. First you have to encounter
the untrue. Through that encounter you become capable of knowing the
truth. If you know the false as the false, truth will dawn upon you. So you
have two centres. One centre you come with, which is given by existence
itself. That is the self. And the other centre, which is created by the society,
is the ego.
It is a false thing - and it is a very great trick. Through the ego the society
is controlling you. You have to behave in a certain way, because only then
does the society appreciate you. You have to walk in a certain way; you have
to laugh in a certain way; you have to follow certain manners, a morality, a
code. Only then will the society appreciate you, and if it doesn't, you ego
will be shaken. And when the ego is shaken, you don't know where you are,
who you are.

The others have given you the idea. That idea is the ego. That which is
given by the existence is the screen of awareness. That which is written on
your screen by the society is the false centre of awareness or ego. If we are
aware that our essential nature is screen of awareness that which is written
on the screen will not affect us.
Suppose there is news paper, we can see the letters on it and forget for the
time being that writing and reading of letters are possible only because paper
is there to write or read something on it. If we are aware of the fact then
gestalt happens and we recognize that paper is the background of all these
letters. Just as letters written with white chalk piece on a black board are
very clear, we can see the contents of the mind, its thoughts, feelings with
the background of awareness which is possible in Self-enquiry.
The ego is not individual. Ego is a social phenomenon - it is society, its

not you. But it gives you a function in the society, a hierarchy in the society.
And if you remain satisfied with it, you will miss the whole opportunity of
finding the self.
And that's why you are so miserable. Try to understand it as deeply as

possible, because this has to be thrown. And unless you throw it you will
never be able to attain to the self. Because you are addicted to the centre,
you cannot move, and you cannot look at the self. This throwing is possible
only through Self-enquiry.
Sri Surya Narayana Raju warns Us Regarding Neo-advaitins ( Neo

Means Mordern)
Note: Neo-advaitins understanding is a perverted one. As long as mind is

there its projection of world is there which functions according to natural
laws. Nobody is beyond above these laws.
a) Once one elephant charged at Adi Sankara, he immediately ran and

climbed a tree to save his body.
b) JK used to hit his head against a wall unable to bear very severe
headache and asked god to relieve it by taking prana from his body.
c) Lord Krishna ran away from Delhi to Madhura when he heard King
Jarasandha is coming to kill him.

d) Totapuri who conferred non-dual Self knowledge to Ramakrishna tried
to commit suicide by jumping into Ganges but Ramakrishna saved him
through his yogic power by lowering the level of Ganges.
All these are Self realized masters. The phenomenal reality has its own
reality.(Vyavaharika satya). Neo advaitins are new group of idiots talking
about self without having any Self experience and having no comprehensive
understanding on this subject. All forms of idiocy is possible in USA and it
is having a more of entertainment value than real exposition on Advaita.
Once Adi Sankara is walking through a street saying "Sivoham',

"Sivoham", a man behind him repeated the same. To teach him a lesson Adi
Sankara took boiling tin and swallowed it and continued his walk as usual.
The man behind him is afraid to see this unexpected event and stopped
imitating Adi Sankara.
Neo Advaitins are just like parrots repeating the words of great masters
without any understanding. Take no notice of them.

7. Is there a need to achieve anything in this
world?
Mind and world appear and disappear simultaneously. So both are
interrelated and inter dependent. When the mind does not perceive the world
as in deep sleep, swoon, samadhi it becomes no-mind.
So world must be a projection of the mind. Mind being consciousness in

movement world must also be consciousness in movement. The sanskrit
word Jagat(world) literally means that which always changes moves. So
movement is common factor to both. If they don't move they cease to exist.
So mind is the world.
A child is born without any knowledge, any consciousness of his own

self. And when a child is born the first thing he becomes aware of is not
himself; the first thing he becomes aware of is the other. It is natural,
because the eyes open outwards, the hands touch others, the ears listen to
others, the tongue tastes food and the nose smells the outside. All these
senses open outwards.
That is what birth means. Birth means coming into this world, the world
of the outside. So when a child is born, he is born into this world. He opens
his eyes, sees others. 'Other' means the thou. He becomes aware of the
mother first. Then, by and by, he becomes aware of his own body. That too
is the other, that too belongs to the world. He is hungry and he feels the
body; his need is satisfied, he forgets the body. So child observes the seen as
a witnessing consciousness including his own body. He is yet to develop an
ego so he sees the world without any separative feeling.
Now starts the genesis of the ego. First he becomes aware of you, thou,
other, and then by and by, in contrast to you, thou, he becomes aware of
himself. This awareness is a reflected awareness. He is not aware of who he
is. He is simply aware of the mother and what she thinks about him. If she
smiles, if she appreciates the child, if she says, "You are beautiful," if she
hugs and kisses him, the child feels good about himself. Now an ego is born.
Through appreciation, love, care, he feels he is good, he feels he is

valuable, he feels he has some significance. A center is born. But this center
is a reflected center. It is not his real being. He does not know who he is; he
simply knows what others think about him. And this is the ego: the
reflection, what others think. If nobody thinks that he is of any use, nobody

appreciates him, nobody smiles, then too an ego is born: an ill ego; sad,
rejected, like a wound; feeling inferior, worthless. This too is the ego. This
too is a reflection.
First the mother - and mother mean the world in the beginning. Then
others will join the mother, and the world goes on growing. And the more
the world grows the more complex the ego becomes, because many others'
opinions are reflected.
The ego is an accumulated phenomenon, a by-product of living with

others. If a child lives totally alone, he will never come to grow an ego. But
that is not going to help. He will remain like an animal. That doesn't mean
that he will come to know the real self, no.
In this way the essential witnessing consciousness "I am" is mixed with
adjuncts like the body, thinking faculty, intellect, memory resulting in a
compound consciousness as "I' thought or I-am-the-body-idea" which
imagines itself to be a body, so limited (kinchigna) so feels separated from
rest of the existence, it is a distorted false form of "Real I" consciousness 'I
am". So mind is imagining itself to be not only the body but also the
underlying Self consciousness "I am".
Mind cannot rise without imagining itself to be our real Self

consciousness. The mind comes into existence by superimposing imaginary
adjuncts on the basic form of consciousness "I am". Human requires basic
needs like food, shelter, clothing, medical aid, job etc for his maintenance.
For this he has to earn in right means. This is normal and physiological.
Once ego is crystallized it starts comparing with others, becomes rabidly

ambitious, competitive, starts possessing what he earns, because he has goal
to reach through achieving lives a life of purpose and a man with purpose is
angry, violent.
In this way an achieving life relates with the existence in a pathological

way and thinks that the other separate and contrary to his life. In this process
of achieving and becoming desiring takes strong roots which make us future
oriented bypassing the present. A man of desire misses and sacrifices the
present moment for a future which is yet to be. Some monks have non-
achievement as their life goal and this is also an attitude of achieving in a
different manner.
We should go beyond achieving and non-achieving and live a natural

way of life. Achieving attitude of mind is the seed of conflict, violence,

disorder, strife, war in the society. Just imagine there are 750 crore achieving
minds in the world whose interests are against each other. Total wealth of
the world is in the hands of 2% rich people and so rest of the population are
denied the basic needs of life. So see the danger of achieving attitude of
mind and its consequences on the individual and so the society. Achieving
attitude is only to fulfil psychological appetites for which there is no limit.
Can real be achieved? Is it wise to run after to achieve that which is false.
In life actually there is no need to achieve anything for psychological

purpose. If one starts for achieving Self that is also a self centered activity.
Self is not achievable but it is there for you to become one with it through
Self-Enquiry.
Note: Through this message Dr Raju Garu is not asking people to be lazy
and not to work. It is aimed to point out the consequences and futility of
achieving something in life just for gratification of mind. Vast majority of
humanity are denied access to basic needs because of rabid ambition of
chosen few. In many countries it is the corporates that frame the laws which
suits them and govern the whole world. They are given many subsidies to
improve their industrial empires.
The steel king of the world Mr.Lakshmi Mittal is not paying any income
tax while an old servant maid working in his house is paying 20% of her
earnings as income tax. Kindly observe how corrupt is the social morality
which is actually immoral. In Africa millions are dying due to starvation and
in USA millions are suffering from over eating. So we are all responsible for
suffering of fellow human beings. Mahatma Gandhi said world has enough
resources to fulfil basic needs of all but its resources are not enough to fulfil
the ambition of chosen few who are responsible for the suffering for fellow
human being. Unless we bring in awareness that achieving attitude of mind
brings destruction to the individual who is indulging in it and society at
large.
Science has advanced so much that even if we work for four hours a day
for 5 days in a week everybody will be provided with all basic facilities. The
culture of exploiting and getting exploited must end through awareness of
the futility of doing such stupid things. We should not work with doer ship
with an eye on fruit of action which contaminates the action. Working
without doer ship amounts to Akarma but laziness is not akarma.

8. About the nature of consciousness, mind and
the need for Self-enquiry
Mind is consciousness in movement. When that movement stops minding
stops. Suppose we are walking and if stop walking legs will be there but the
process, the function of walking stops. It is like pedalling a cycle. As long as
you pedal the cycle moves, if you stop pedalling the cycle stops moving but
cycle will be there. So when minding stops consciousness remains as a silent
pool of energy. You are that consciousness.
Minding is a function of consciousness but your nature is not the

minding. The nature of minding is movement. If that movement is stopped
due to any reason there is nothing like mind. Thought is the mind. If there is
stilling of thought due to any reason there is no entity like mind(naiva
manasam).
In such a state we encounter static aspect of consciousness in full senses.

The nature of such static consciousness is existence, Self-
knowledge(awareness),bliss (Tranquility, peace).
You think you are the mind. This fallacy that you are the mind gives the
mind total freedom, because then there is no one to master it, to control it.
There is no one! Mind itself becomes the master. It may become the master,
but that mastery is just seemingly so.
Try once and you can break that mastery – it is false. This breaking up of
process of minding is possible in Self-enquiry. Then you will know for
yourself about what is the nature of static aspect of consciousness and what
is the nature of the minding which is just the dynamic function of
consciousness.
There is nothing wrong in minding but identity with that minding and
thinking that minding as the “me”(thinker) is the wrong state of affairs. Then
we go on minding (thinking) whether it is required or not. Self-enquiry stops
that pathological minding(thinking) and we develop mastery over the
minding(thinking).
If we master the minding(thinking) it is one of the best servant. But at

present mind is behaving like a master without any control bringing so much
disaster, disorder, chaos to the individual and society at large. Through Self-

enquiry we develop the capacity to allow minding(thinking) when it is
necessary and stop minding(thinking) where it has no role to play.
For example thought i.e. minding(thinking) has no role to play in human

relation but we are relating with the other through thought only which
definitely brings conflict, strife in the relationship. Then if we can posit in
static aspect of consciousness during relating with the other, the relating is
based on present moment and we have a healthy relationship.
In science, technology we require minding and we should allow minding

there. Once that task is over we should not go on minding but we should be
back to our natural center of static aspect of consciousness and enjoy the
erenity, tranquility, peace, bliss of it. This is possible through Self-enquiry.
Then we become the master of our own mind which is superior than
being emperor of the whole world. Existence feels fulfilled through us by
becoming master of the mind. This is the purpose for which we are born on
earth but we are preoccupied with doing all sorts of silly things which takes
us no where from the present state of highly disordered life.

9. Can the mind do Self-enquiry?
The mind cannot do Self-enquiry, because whatsoever the mind can do
will strengthen the mind. Any doing on the part of the mind makes the mind
stronger. So Self-enquiry by the mind is impossible.
Mind doing something means mind continuing itself -- so that is not in

the nature of things. But Self-enquiry happens through watching the mind,
not by doing anything.
The watcher is separate from the mind, it is deeper than the mind, higher
than the mind. The watcher is always hidden behind the mind. A thought
passes, a feeling arises -- who is watching this thought? Not the mind itself -
- because mind is nothing but the process of thought and feeling. The mind
is just the traffic of thinking. Who is watching it? When you say, "Fear has
arisen in me," who are 'you'? In whom has the thought of fear arisen? Who
is the container? The thought of fear is the content - who is the container?
Consciousness is like empty paper. Mind is like written, printed paper.

Whatsoever exists as an object inside you, whatsoever you can see and
observe, is the mind. The perceiver is not the mind, the observed is the mind.
So if you can go on simply observing, watching, witnessing without
condemning, without in any way creating a conflict with the mind, without
indulging it, without following it, without going against it, if you can simply
be there indifferent to it, in that indifference Self-enquiry happens. When the
watcher arises, the witness is there, mind simply disappears.
Mind exists with your cooperation OR your conflict. Both are ways of
cooperating - conflict too! When you fight with the mind, you are giving
energy to it. In your really fight you have accepted the mind, in your very
fighting you have accepted the power of the mind over your being. So
whether you cooperate or you conflict, in both the cases the mind becomes
stronger and stronger.
Just watch. Just be a witness. And, by and by, you will see gaps arising.
A thought passes, and another thought does not come immediately -- there is
an interval. In that interval is peace. In that interval is love. In that interval is
all that you have always been seeking -- and finding never. In that gap, you
are no more an ego. In that gap you are not defined, confined, imprisoned. In
that gap you are vast, immense, huge! In that gap you are one with existence
-- the barrier exists not. Your boundaries are no more there. You melt into
existence and the existence melts in you. You start overlapping.

If you go on watching and you don't get attached to these gaps either...
because that is natural now, to get attached to these gaps. If you start
hankering for these gaps... because they are tremendously beautiful, they are
immensely blissful. It is natural to get attached to them, and desire arises to
have more and more of these gaps -- then you will miss, that your watcher
has disappeared. Then those gaps will again disappear, and again the traffic
of the mind will be there.
So the first thing is to become an indifferent watcher. And the second

thing is to remember that when beautiful gaps arise, don't get attached to
them, don't start asking for them, don't start waiting that they should happen
more often. If you can remember these two things -- when beautiful gaps
come, watch them too, and keep your indifference alive -- then one day the
traffic simply disappears with the road, they both disappear. And there is
tremendous emptiness.
That's what Buddha calls 'Nirvana' -- the mind has ceased. This is what I
call suicide -- but mind has not committed it. Mind cannot do it. You can
help it to happen. You can hinder it, you can help it to happen -- it depends
on you, not on your mind. All that mind can do will always strengthen the
mind.
So Self-enquiry is not really mind-effort. Real meditation is not effort at

all. Real Self-enquiry(Nija Vicharana) is just allowing the mind to have its
own way, and not interfering in any way whatsoever - just remaining
watchful, witnessing. It silences, by and by, it becomes still. One day it is
gone. You are left alone.
That aloneness is what your reality is. And reality is beginning less and
endless. The mind has a beginning and an end, hence the mind and reality
cannot meet. The mind cannot comprehend the eternal.
Reality is simply the loss of ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity.
Because the ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and reality will
shine forth by itself.
And in that aloneness nothing is excluded, remember it. In that aloneness

everything is included - that aloneness is God. That purity, that innocence,
uncorrupted by any thought, is what Self is.

10. What is it that to be investigated in Self-
enquiry?
We have to investigate whether there is an entity like "thinker", the "me"
as noun apart from the thought. If we remove all thoughts from the thinker is
there an entity like thinker. So thought is the thinker. One part of the mind
assumes the role of thinker and it feels it is separate from other thoughts.
Is the thinker apart from the thought that we have to investigate? As the
"I-am-the-body" idea is the root of all thoughts we have to investigate
whether identity with the body through "I-am-the-body" idea is existential or
not. This we have to investigate.
Once we start investigation we bring awareness into the investigation and

in the presence of awareness thought flow is reduced and finally comes to a
standstill. Then we develop the capacity to hold on to "I-am-the-body" idea.
Pure "I-am-the-body" idea is filled with pure awareness. It is not an
obstruction to the revelation of Self knowledge. We can pure "I-am-the-
body" idea in the interval between the transitions of mind from one mode to
another or in the interval between two thoughts. Then investigation becomes
a cake walk. Till then we fall back into unawareness due to strong mental
habits which are called tendencies even while doing Self-enquiry. So
uninterrupted Self awareness (sadaapramada) is needed for self scrutiny.

11. To stop running after thoughts and to sit in
the source of being is the Art of Self-enquiry
Psychologically we all know how to run after thoughts uninterruptedly
24/7 and we go on cultivating the thoughts. Thinking is a functioning of the
mind.
Mind is not a thing. It is a process of minding, thinking. Its basic nature is

to fragment the consciousness. Mind is a crowd with many, many self
contradictory openings. Man is poly psychic, a parliament of minds. So we
cannot be total with the mind. The crowd in it is not a fixed crowd but a
changing crowd.
Every moment something is added and something is lost. We can never

go beyond the mind if we go on using it. With mind everything is partial
including its observation which results in residue of non-understanding and
so there is always perennial conflict if we want to solve a problem with the
mind with its partial observation. Observation cannot be total if we use the
instrument of mind. So for observing a problem in totality one requires a
unitary entity with awareness.
Thought is an acquired process; it is not our innate nature that is why

there are no thoughts in deep sleep state. Thoughts of belonging to a family,
race, nationality, religion, profession, caste, creed, cult etc are just utilitarian
in nature. So mind means whatsoever has been put into and superimposed on
our inner consciousness.
Mind is a by-product of bringing, conditioning, education, culture.

Basically mind is an acquisition of habits and identifying with them and then
think we are that stuff.
If mind is in a state of thinking, consciousness in it becomes opaque, non-

transparent, just like a clouded sky – you cannot see the sky. When the
clouds are not, you can see the sky. If we carefully observe the thought we
will come to know when one thought passes and before another thought is
yet to come there is an interval. In that interval, in that gap you can feel the
natural state of our witnessing consciousness. But for many thoughts are so
speedy that they cannot feel the gap between one thought and another. In
Self-enquiry thought process is slowed down and we begin to feel the gaps.
So in Self-enquiry there is a fight for our innate nature of witnessing

consciousness against our mental habits. Self-enquiry helps us to put aside
the mental habits. It helps us that which is natural to us, real "I'.
Thinking belongs to the mind and witnessing is our innate nature. So we

cannot do both simultaneously. Thinking must cease for the witnessing
consciousness to be. Only through witnessing we reach the reality.
We can never go beyond the mind if we go on using it. Bliss happens

only when we are total in something and we are never total in anything
because of the mind. Whatever we do we attend to it partially which creates
tension, anguish. Our innate nature is unity but the mind has been collected
by the way.
Everything influences the mind, we go on collecting rubbish in

multidimensional ways. Mental decision is majority decision of the contents
of the mind but it not decision born out of clarity. In Self-enquiry we are
dealing with a dynamic entity because every moment we are confronted with
a new mind with some contents deleted and some added.
So we have to inquire in a living and dynamic way. So Self-enquiry

cannot have a fixed path for investigation. It is just like driving a car in a
busy city during rush hour and we have to find the gaps to drive the car.
Similarly in Self-enquiry we have to be alert to find the gaps between
thoughts and in the interval between when mind changes from one mode to
another during transitional state. Only then "being" can happen through
witnessing.
We cannot both sit and run with our legs at same time. Similarly we
cannot think and witness at same time simultaneously. In Self-enquiry
identity with what we are not is broken, then we don't run after the thoughts
and we sit safely in our source of being which is our Self.

12. Self-enquiry is the way to remove the
veiling of Self by the mind by setting aside its
contents
It is monsoon season in the area where i live, dark clouds are so thick that
Sun is not visible sometimes. Just because Sun is not visible we cannot say
he is not there. Either we have to wait till such a time that these dark thick
clouds are dispersed naturally in course of time or we have to go beyond the
range of clouds to have a clear glimpse of Sun.
In the physical realm thick clouds really exist. But in psychological realm
veiling effect of thought i.e. mind is due to lack light of awareness. If we can
bring the light of awareness which is our innate nature, mind with its veiling
takes to its feet. For bringing in the awareness so many tricks and methods
are there but Self-enquiry is best because it directly brings in the light of
awareness unlike other methods which keep ego intact for pursuing spiritual
discipline. Self-enquiry does not bring anything new to our being but it helps
us to remove the hurdles which are coming in the way of revelation of Self
effulgence of the Self.
This type negative work is important to actualize the nature of self

because these hurdles are coming in the way of actualization of self. It is just
like preparing the ground by taking away all the weeds and wild roots to
grow beautiful flowers. These flowers are in no way concerned with those
roots and wild plants that we have removed. But removal of these weeds is
absolutely necessary for the ground to be in right situation where flowers
can blossom. JK cleared such weeds from his mind through sincere Self-
enquiry but he insisted for his whole life that there is no technique to gain
Self-knowledge.
With his statement millions of people became convinced and so they

forgot all about what they are going to do with these obstructions and
hindrances. God save them.
Self-knowledge as such needs no technique at all. But Self-enquiry is

needed to remove the obstacles coming in the way of Self-knowledge.
Awareness of Self-enquiry in itself is not a technique but on the way for

being aware, there are so many obstacles. For centuries man has been
gathering so many obstacles like race, caste, nationality, profession, religion,
dogma, belief etc and getting identified with them, they need to be removed.

Meditation cannot itself remove them, Self-enquiry is needed. It prepares the
ground, a way, a passage.
For some technique is more important than Self-knowledge, such people

they miss Self-knowledge.
There is a famous stupid guru in our area with a following of 20,000

people who claims to be an incarnation of Bhagawan says that there is no
need to do any technique or do Self-enquiry and he will confer Self-
knowledge to all of them whole sale.
And people believed him because it is the most comfortable way to get
Self-knowledge with their ego intact. So they stopped doing either rituals or
Self-enquiry and they just repeat words of Bhagawan like their guru. People
are so gullible.
I am visiting Ramanasramam for the past 25 yrs. So i know many who

devoted their life for discovery of Self through Self-enquiry. Barring few
who have some understanding majority feel that attending the rituals done at
the ashram will going to deliver them all good. And those who do Self-
enquiry there are doing with thought as the instrument.
Thought is a progeny of Self-ignorance and how can it throw away the

darkness of Self-ignorance? We have to bring in the light of awareness by
trying to find the source of ego through Self-enquiry. This is possible with
the passive awareness of still mind.
For stilling of mind, understanding the ways of mind is necessary. There

is no short cut for this. Uninterrupted Self awareness is needed for Self-
enquiry.
Real Self-enquiry is needed to remove the mind from the way towards
Self, to create a space in which mind becomes quiet, silent, tranquil, almost
absent. Then Self is revealed on its own accord. There is no need to do
anything.
Just a small foreign body in the eye prevents us seeing the vast sky. It
looks illogical that such a small thing obstructs our vision but it is a fact.
Self-enquiry is definitely needed to remove the contents of the mind which
are alien to us but unfortunately we are identified with them and thinking
they are the essential "me". They obstruct and distort the vision of mental
eye seeing the things "as they really are" Self-knowledge is simply pure,
adjunct less awareness without any effort. It is an effortless alertness which

is our natural state of being. It does not need any techniques but our mind is
full of thoughts, dreams, past, future and so it is not here and now but to be
aware means to be here and now. Self-enquiry is needed to cut you from the
past, dreams, future and to keep you in the present moment.
If you can be in the present moment Self-enquiry and other methods are
not needed. So let us do Self-enquiry to know the art of being in the present
which is the only precious thing available to us in the existence. The whole
existence is nothing but movement of life in the present moment. Let us
participate in that celebration by being present in present moment. For this
Self-enquiry is the way, the way of intelligence.

13. Self-enquiry and Surrender
Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi till his realization after his death
experience at Madurai lead a life of average human being. In childhood and
at school he is more interested in games than studies. His performance at
school was average.
A significant thing before his realization is his way of sleep. His sleep is
so deep that his friends used to carry his body to the ground in the night and
beat him to settle the scores of the day. No body dared to challenge him in
the day because of his physique. At the time of his death experience he did
Self-enquiry spontaneously without knowing that it is Self-enquiry,
witnessing the events of death with full awareness.
Unlike others he never practiced Self-enquiry nor has he any intellectual

comprehension about Self-enquiry before death experience. He settled in the
Self once and forever in a timeless dimension during the death experience,
even according to watch it is only 20 mts. It never happened like that in case
of any other mystic. He never heard the word "Brahman" before his
realization but all the same he became "Brahman" after the death experience.
Once one of his relative is saying that he is coming from Arunachala.
Bhagawan is perplexed at that statement because he thought Arunachala is
the name of God and never knew such a place existed on earth
geographically.
After realization when he went to Arunachala he went to

Arunachaleswara temple and before Siva he said "Father i have come as per
your order" and from then onwards he surrendered to whole existence
through Arunachaleswara. Having attained realization through the path of
knowledge(Jnana marga) he exhibited devotion towards the whole existence
through Arunachaleswara. He wrote Akshara Mana Malai and other books in
praise of Arunachaleswara. This is quite surprising. Usually those who attain
Self knowledge through the path of knowledge do not show or talk much
about devotion. Those who attain realization through devotion don't talk
about witnessing which is fundamental to the path of knowledge. But
Bhagawan gave importance to both equally.
In medicine we approach the disease in two fundamental ways. In one we

stress so much on health that it is not possible for the disease to establish
itself in the body through yoga, naturopathy, Ayurveda. This is the cause
why Patanjali stressed on yoga so that aspirant of truth can pursue the

spiritual path without any hindrances from the body side. Similarly Self-
enquiry is more concerned to know the source of ego.
In Self-enquiry the inner Self is awakened and ego disappears as a

consequence. Once we know the art of abiding in the source of ego no
longer is a hindrance because it is put aside, by passed. Witnessing is the
beginning and abiding uninterruptedly is the fulfilment in Self-enquiry. Self-
enquiry demands uninterrupted Self awareness. But for many this is not
possible because their innate tendencies distract their awareness towards the
objective reality.
The other method is surrendering of ego to the existence or to God, guru,

Self, all mean the same. Surrendering is something concerned with the ego.
It is not directly concerned with the Self. When ego disappears the inner Self
is awakened automatically. So self-enquiry and surrender are diametrically
opposite as far as going through them is concerned. But they reach the same
goal, same realization. Whatsoever you are surrendering is not you. Ego is
not part of your being, it is just incidental to you, it is just some dust added
on the mirror of consciousness distorting its vision. It is a possession and
possessor also possessed by it. It is your non-essential; it is your property,
not you. The Self cannot be surrendered. Patanjal says God is just a device
to be surrendered to; if you surrender to your master he is God to you.
Surrender is throwing the ego and when it is thrown away you are aware of
inner centre i.e. Self. If you cannot surrender you will have to do much
because then you are one on your own fight, struggle.
Both paths are valid and there is no question of which is better. It

depends on mental set up of the person. Surrender means total trust, and then
you are not needed.
Bhagawan many times advised surrender and if this is not possible for
that particular person, then only he used to advise Self-enquiry. Each method
is perfect and organic whole. There is no need to combine them. If you
combine you destroy everything.
Self-enquiry is head oriented people, the people who believe in will.

Surrender is for heart oriented devotional people who have complete trust in
existence.
In guiding people spiritually i feel Bhagawan is a genius even among

mystics. He integrated all spiritual paths rationally to the benefit of truth
seekers.

14. Self-enquiry is the process of dissolution of
ego in Self awareness
We live with the ego, in ego, entered in the ego. We say "I","I" without
knowing its import. We do not know the nature of "I" but we go on
announcing "I am, I am". So this type of I am ness is false because we do not
know who this "I" is. So the one who says "I" is a false "I”. Many think that
Self-enquiry is to find out really "who am I”. In Self-enquiry if we can cling
to "I" thought constantly other thoughts are rejected. So the whole bundle of
thoughts which is commonly called ego is rejected, negated just by clinging
to "I" thought. So if we go on enquiring "who am i" like that we are bound to
find that ego is ephemeral. So this enquiry leads to dissolution of false "I"
i.e. ego, in awareness.
Once we are aware of the ego process a distance is created between our
consciousness and the ego and we no longer give energy to it.
Ego is not self sustaining entity unlike the Self, so if energy supply is
stopped because we are aware of it, it subsides slowly and naturally and it
lasts for quite sometime even after energy supply is cut to it till its past
momentum comes to zero level.
Many feel that they get some answer by doing "who am i' enquiry if they
go on doing it sincerely. There is going to be no answer. It is only that the
question and the questioner will dissolve. Then there will be no one to ask
the question "who am I”. When you existentially that false 'I' is not, the "real
I" opens.
When the ego is not, you are for the first time encountering your being.
That being is a conscious void. So when you become aware of ego it
dissolves. Try to find out whether there is any centre in you that you can call
your "I".
Go deep down within yourself, go on trying to find out where is this "I',
where is the abode of this ego? So Self-enquiry is the process of negating the
false 'I’, it is not a technique in literal sense.
When you are an ego, you are like a peak. Ego means you are above
every one else whether they recognize it or not. Because you feel like a peak
nothing can enter you.With Self-enquiry we find that ego does not exist.
Then one becomes a depth, a valley, a vacant space, like a conscious sky

which cannot be bound to anything. We can bind something ness but we
cannot bind nothingness.
When we find our being which is nothing but bottomless vacuum, in that
void the whole existence begins to pour into our being from everywhere.
This type of feeling that we are a conscious void happens when we surrender
our ego to a mater and he begins to flow into us immediately.
If we cannot feel energy flowing into we must know well that we have
not surrendered our ego to the master who is none other than your own Self.
Once we know that through surrender we receive something unknown,
unbelievable, unexpected, never even dreamed of, then we surrender to the
existence totally.(Poorna saranagathi).So surrendering to the master gives
you the courage for total surrender.
So Self-enquiry is the process of dissolving the false "I" in Self

awareness which implies surrendering of ego to the Self awareness. In this
way "when you are not as the ego", for the first time you are "as you really
are".

15. Self-enquiry is the pinnacle of religiosity
Usually by using the word religion we mean doing rituals, repetition of a
sacred word, following a mental discipline which further strengthens the
mind, a vow of silence with mental activity intact, observing celibacy with
the sexual desire intact, physical fasting hoping to change the disordered
mind, belief, dogma, following the sayings of a master.
All these are useful to impress the society that we are religious and get
recognition from a corrupt society that we are a religious being. The human
life is based on acquisitiveness which is both psychological and physical,
envy, greed, ambition, fear.
All these anomalies of human psyche are not touched or transformed in

the above mentioned way of life. There can be no fundamental
transformation in that way of doing things in the name of religion. Actually
such way of life brings conflict, strengthens the fear of not achieving the
Self, a goal created by the mind. It strengthens tyranny.
It is strange that we worship such persons as god men. The other day i
was reading interesting news in the news paper. A dog knowingly or
unknowingly started doing
Pradakshina (going around) the statue of Lord Anjaneya Swamy and

people started worshiping that "divine dog". Such is the understanding of
religion of an average human being. We do not want that which is pure, true
in itself. We want interpreters, masters as a medium through which to attain
something sacred. People are exploited in this so called religion. If each one
of us could think very clearly or re-educate ourselves to think clearly we will
be free of all beliefs, dogmas, rituals, physical fasting and celibacy etc.
If we do not think clearly there is mere reformation of the disorder of the

mind which is nothing but the continuation of the same disorder in a
modified form. Where as in Self-enquiry we put aside the whole disordered
entity by watchfulness of the activity of the disordered mind in passive
awareness. There is no attempt to manipulate to correct the disorder because
any such manipulation further strengthens the disorder. Self-enquiry does
not mean watching the disordered mind with another part of disordered
mind. In Self-enquiry watching of the disordered mind with passive
witnessing consciousness brings about order to the mind. Just the perception
of disorder brings about order to the mind. Self-enquiry is the way of
intelligence of passive awareness. In Self-enquiry we become a light unto

ourselves and so we do not depend on some other's psychological authority.
So we are not dependent on any belief, dogma, or religion.
We go beyond all these if we are really doing Self-enquiry. A man of

Self-enquiry does not belong to corrupt society with its religion and so
untouched by the ways of corrupt society and its organized religion. Because
he does not belong to any conventional religion he looks irreligious from the
angle of vision of the society. But he is religious without belonging to any
religion. So a man of Self-enquiry is a pinnacle of religiosity. He is above
the ways of society and its religions which are nonsensical. In him there is
no reformation of the old mind but qualitatively new mind happens to him
through psychological transmutation which is the only real revolution
brought about by Self-enquiry. All other revolutions are bound to fail
because they are a continuation of old patterns of human mind in new form.
This psychological revolution which happens through Self-enquiry brings us
immense psychological freedom, awareness, bliss.
So Self-enquiry is the pinnacle of religiosity.

16. Self-enquiry bridges the relative with the
absolute
Self-enquiry facilitates the journey from relative to the absolute, from ego
awareness to Pure awareness, from duality to non-dualistic being. In Self-
enquiry there is no attempt to correct "what is" in the relative world. We just
watch "what is" in Self-enquiry and that watchfulness frees us from "what
is". Once we are aware of nature of the absolute we will come to know that
absolute and the relative are not antagonistic to each other but
complimentary to each other.
The absolute is like an axle and relative is like a wheel which is always
moving. The axle and the wheel are not antagonistic to each other but they
are complimentary to each other. Similarly non-moving witnessing
consciousness and ever changing wheel of body-mind complex are not
antagonistic to each other but are complimentary to each other.

17. Self-enquiry is the right way to relate with
the Self-ignorance and its progeny the ego
Self-enquiry is the right way to relate with the darkness of Self-ignorance
and its progeny the ego. Awareness is existential; unawareness is only the
absence of awareness. And the problem with any absence is that you cannot
do anything directly about it.
Self-ignorance is like darkness. What can you do about darkness directly?

You cannot drop it, you cannot throw it out, and you cannot bring it in.
There is no way to relate with darkness without bringing light in. The way to
darkness goes via light. If you want darkness, put the light off; if you don't
want darkness, put the light on. But you will have to do something with
light, not with darkness at all. But from centuries together man tried his best
to throw away the darkness with another figment of darkness in the name of
meditation, enquiry. One part of the mind assumes the role of observer to
observe the rest of mind.
But both parts are conditioned entities born out of Self-ignorance. In this
type of observation mind will be in status quo even if you do enquiry for
thousands of years sincerely. This is what JK points out that observer is the
observed and they are qualitatively the same but few understood him. The
western psychologists are more concerned with the dark side of the self and
they tried their best to find solutions to the ego problems of human with ego
through analysis of the contents of the mind.
The man who analyzes is a conditioned one and is also a product of Self-
ignorance. Anything analyzed through conditioning is a limited observation
and results in residue of non-understanding and so leads to perennial
conflict. That is why psychologists like Adler, Jung, Froid, Jean Paul Sartre,
Camus Friedrich Nietzsche could throw some limited light on human
consciousness but were unable to solve the psychological problems born out
of ego. They themselves felt they came to a dead end, frustrated and some of
them committed suicide. They are more interested in categorizing the
contents of ego rather than finding the root cause of ego.
If by chance some mystic is born in the west and he speaks truth he is

killed. Best examples are Socrates and Pythagoras. The culture in the east is
different and people recognize a realized soul and they start adore him.
When they have some psychological problem they prefer going to saint

rather than a psychologist because they know the latter is travelling in the
same boat as them.
In Self-enquiry we bring in the light of awareness and in that light the

conscious layer, the subconscious layer and the unconscious layers of mind
that are hidden can be brought to the conscious level. If only we could
perceive and understand these false things as false through light of
awareness in Self-enquiry we come upon to truth. A mind which is free of
these false things in the form of belief and dogmas acts with awareness. Any
action born out of unawareness results in ego.
Majority of us lead a mechanistic life. First of all we must be aware of

small things in life. We awake from sleep and immediately we start doing
something routine which is mechanistic. As we awake from deep sleep there
is a time interval when we do not completely cognise outward things
through senses. In that time interval there is the awareness of Pure "I" which
is not associated with the non-Self yet and if we can hold on to that Pure "I"
it shows us the way to Self.
We are not aware of beauty of the morning with chirping of birds, the
daily life of our fellow human beings, we relate with our family members
mechanically by taking them for granted and we are not sensitive in relating
them, we are not aware of mutual usage in relationship, our reaction of the
mind to the other. We fresh up in the morning without awareness, we take
food without noticing the taste, smell, quality, what type of food we take
which suits best to the body and mind and majority of us are never in the
present moment while we take food. Later we go to office and majority of
times we attend to it in a mechanical way, we relate to the boss with
hypocrisy, we behave in a different way with the servants and all these are
due to unawareness. Unless we cultivate awareness
in simple areas of life like these we do not develop the capacity to

observe thoughts, feelings, emotions that are happening in our interior. We
can follow a thing if it moves slowly; a rapid movement of thought must be
made to slow down if one is to study its movements. This is possible if we
cultivate awareness in small things of life. Thoughts-feelings can be studied
and understood only if the mind is capable of proceeding slowly. If we do
Self-enquiry earnestly mind i.e. thought flow slows down in the light of
awareness.
The person who becomes obsessed with ego will never be able to resolve
the problem. It is like wrestling with darkness -- you are bound to be
exhausted sooner or later, tired and defeated. And the miracle is, defeated by

something which is not there at all! And when one is defeated, one certainly
feels how powerful the darkness is, how powerful the fear is, how powerful
the ignorance is, how powerful the unconscious is. They are not powerful at
all -- they don't exist in the first place.
Never fight with the nonexistential. That's where all the ancient religions
got lost. Once you start fighting with the nonexistential you are doomed.
Your small river of consciousness will be lost in the nonexistential desert --
and it is infinite.
Don't make a problem out of ego. Awareness is the question. Something

can be done about awareness immediately; there is no need to wait or
postpone. Start being aware! And it is a natural gift from God to you, or
from the whole, whichever term you like. If you are brought up in a religious
way, then good. If you are not brought up in a religious way, then the whole,
the universe, the existence.
Remember, awareness is born with you; it is your intrinsic quality. All

that is needed is to give it a way -- to make a passage for it, to let it flow, to
allow it to happen. We are all blocking it, holding it back. Be aware of this
first layer. This is all that people know about each other.
Then the second layer, which you are suppressing, is continuously

forcing its way up. It wants to come up, it is part of you -- and it is truer than
the first. The first is social; the second is natural, more authentic than the
first.
Then by and by, when you have become aware of the first two layers,
your consciousness will be intense enough to penetrate the third layer, the
unconscious. To penetrate the third layer is very difficult because it consists
of all your past lives, all the millions of past lives you have lived. The third
layer consists of all these lives, the whole cumulative effect -- all the
Sanskaras (tendencies), all the conditionings, all the karmas.
When you have dealt with the first two layers and you have become
aware, not only aware, but master of them, now they are no longer masters
of you but servants -- as servants they are beautiful, they have much utility,
but as masters they are dangerous -- then your consciousness can penetrate
the third layer.
The third is the real struggle, and without passing the third, passing
through it, one can never reach to the innermost core which you are in reality
i.e. Self or being. This is how we become the masters of our own mind and

one who is master of his mind is master of whole world because world is
nothing but a projection of our own mind. That is why all saints are at ease
with themselves because they are in a state of no-mind and all psychologists
and vast majority of humanity are in tension because they are rooted in ego.
So Self-enquiry and Self-knowledge are panacea to all human problems.

18. Awareness in Self-enquiry destroys the ego
which is the medium of falsification
Ego is the progeny of Self-ignorance and so it is a medium of
falsification. It hides the truth just as a thick dark cloud hides the Sun and its
light. Ego believes that it is an independent organic entity and it has
separative feeling with the other and it thinks that the other is separate and
contrary to it. It hides the truth and shows false as truth. It believes that the
multiplicity with its apparent separativeness as real and it is not aware of
unicity of reality that underlies this multiplicity.
Ego always interprets and translates "what is" according to the past which
is stored in the memory cells of the brain.
So anything that goes through ego is false. So we can never find truth
through ego. With ego because of its separative feeling there is always
duality associated with it and so there is conflict, strife, contradictory desires
and motives, competition, arrogance of power, cunning arguments, one
dominating the other, hopelessness, despair, emotional self indulgence etc.
So long as there is division between man and man due to this separative
feeling of falsifying agent of ego, one dominates the other, one destroys the
other. We all worship this destructive nature of the ego.
The space in the mind is very limited and daily activities of life takes
place from this center which is full of hidden struggles. Knowing fully well
that it is imprisoned in this little space, it seeks freedom with imprisonment
intact. But ego can never be free or silent when it is continue to be in the
imprisonment of limitation of personality. In Self-enquiry thought flow is
reduced and sometimes comes to a standstill during which truth is reflected
in all its grandeur. In the awareness of Self-enquiry we are in direct contact
with the truth which is radiant and here now without the screen of thought
hindering it. Truth is already there, it is not that truth has to be discovered,
only thing is that we have to be available to its presence. That process of
awareness is Self-enquiry which eliminates straying of mind going into
wrong paths in the name of spirituality.
The awareness in Self-enquiry shows us what is false, what is wrong. If

we know what is false then we can discover truth easily. The function of
Self-enquiry is to eliminate the false and to be alone with the truth.

In Self-enquiry our own Self is our master guiding us. When that inner
light of Self is revealed, it amounts to Sun rise in our dark life which we are
leading from aeons and aeons. But ordinary human being likes to depend on
some other person for guidance for how to be aware of truth because he can
throw the whole responsibility on the shoulders of somebody else. The more
dependent we are, the less is the possibility of becoming intelligent to be
aware of the reality of our own Self. So in Self-enquiry we develop respons-
ability i.e. responding to "what is" moment to moment instead of usual habit
of reacting to "what is" from the past memories.
This awareness creates wisdom to be aware of our inner reality. We try to

bring the order in daily life by reacting from the past memories and in that
process we intensify further disorder. In Self-enquiry with action of
awareness a new living order is brought about by awareness in contrast to
mechanical order that prevails in ego life. The awareness brought about by
Self-enquiry is vast space in which the boundaries of mind i.e. personality
are dissolved and spontaneous meditation is intrinsic to that vast conscious
space which thought cannot touch.
In this way the awareness inherent in Self-enquiry destroys the ego which
is the medium of falsification.

19. From chaos to clarity – the way of Self-
Enquiry
Many convert spirituality into a process of becoming from the present
state of chaos to the perfect state of self. So mind is perpetuating itself in the
name of spirituality. Be aware of this trick of the mind. Spirituality is to be
aware of "what is" and that very awareness brings transformation of present
chaotic state of "what is" to a perfect state of clarity here and now.
Transformation happens in the "now”, in present tense. Transformation

and understanding are not time bound. They are the result of awareness
which is not time bound. Psychological time is a movement of dead past
projecting a future which is yet to be bypassing the present moment. The
present moment is a living thing and is beyond the dimension of time. Time
has only past tense and future tense and both are non-existential. The present
moment is existential and so it is living phenomena. Transformation through
understanding happens only in the present.
Becoming is time bound and understanding never happens in becoming

because becoming is a continuation of the past, becoming is perpetuation of
the past. Only when there is ending of the past there is a possibility of
something new to happen. In the awareness of Self-enquiry we are
dissociated from the past and there is the observation of "what is" without
wearing the spectacles of the past and in that process of awareness we are in
direct contact with "what is' without any attempt to translate "what is"
according to the past and convert into the language of the past, the known.
Watchfulness is more than enough in spirituality. You are a watcher "be a
watcher”. That is what we do in Self-enquiry. Miracles happen just by being
a watcher. Summa iru. Just being a watcher is real spirituality.
All other things done in the name of spirituality belong to a religious

circus.

20. Self-enquiry - Witnessing consciousness -
Pure Awareness
The body-mind complex of human being is a product of evolution.
During the process of that evolution that entity gathers so many habits and
tendencies that survive the physical death. Mind will not be free of those
tendencies and the consciousness of mind is limited and apparently
imprisoned by those tendencies unless they are spent up by the mental and
physical activity. So the tendencies are the source of mental activity and so
physical activity as well.
So every human being is born with innate tendencies and he is getting

identified with those tendencies and with the body which is the vehicle to
execute the work for spending up of tendencies. So human is born to
act. Tendencies direct our action. We can do those acts unconsciously,
habitually, mechanically or consciously, non-mechanically, non-habitually.
We can practice doing things consciously. Vipassana is a method which
helps us to do things consciously, first we try to be conscious of gross things
like actions of the body, its breath etc. which later endows us the capacity to
be conscious of subtle things like thoughts, emotions, feeling even as they
arise.
In Self-enquiry we try to be conscious of subtle things directly which is

possible for those with already having subtle intellect. Bhagawan clearly
pointed out that Self-enquiry is not for everybody in general population.
In Self-enquiry we don't indulge in suppression of thoughts but we try to

be conscious of thoughts, emotions and feelings. Consciousness (Spruha) is
a quality of the mind. So we can practice such mental consciousness by
being conscious of what we are doing physically, mentally, emotionally. Our
ordinary activity is an unconscious activity, mechanical, robot like. Once a
retired military man is carrying a basket full of eggs for selling in the
market. One naughty child said "attention". Immediately the military man
made a military salute and the basket fell down and eggs are destroyed.
Majority of us so used to act mechanically from the past memory like that. If
we can bring such acts to the conscious level by cultivating mental
consciousness, then such act becomes witnessing. Bhagawan says mind has
a conscious aspect and a dynamic aspect.
The conscious aspect is the witnessor and the dynamic aspect is

represented by breath (Prana) and thought. That is why breath and thought
are interrelated because they arise from the same source. In his death

experience Bhagawan witnessed the dynamic aspect of mind in form of
thought of death fear. Then dynamic aspect came to a standstill and both
breath and thought are stopped.
From that witnessing state which is dual he immediately jumped into

awareness which is non-dual state in a timeless dimension. This immediate
jumping into pure consciousness which is adjunct-less from a dual state of
witnessing is a rare event in spiritual history. Usually it takes very long time
to gather courage to make a jump into the unknowable entity of pure
conscious being.
When we cultivate conscious aspect of mind it becomes a witnessor to

the dynamic aspect of the mind. So witnessing is an act, you are doing it, the
ego is there. So the phenomenon of witnessing is divided
between the subject and the object. It is a relationship between the subject
and the object.
Today during my morning walk i observed dark monsoon clouds passing

southwards, it is raining with beautiful smell of earth, a very pleasant
atmosphere with different types of birds flying playfully and sparkling in the
background of dark clouds.
I heard beautiful singing of birds, their exchange of sounds between

them, greenery of the trees, a human praying with a mike in his hand, a
school bus passing through the road. All this seeing, hearing of birds,
smelling of earth, feeling the cool air are all part of witnessing.
So mind and senses are channels for flow of consciousness with its
intrinsic quality of witnessing. When i perceive all these i don't have any
other thoughts but i am very much there as the center of perception of all
these and so i am the subject and the things perceived are the objects. In a
way i am witnessing without any judgement just seeing the facts as they are.
When i am lost in thoughts for few moments that witnessing, that perception
is lost for the time being even though the object is there before us obviously.
Again i am conscious and started witnessing again.
This is possible when we cultivate mental consciousness. That cultivation

of mental consciousness is in our hands and we have that much freedom. In
Self-enquiry also in the initial stages there is a subject, a center from which
we observe the thoughts which are objects of the perception of the witnessor.
Sometimes during Self-enquiry we are lost in jungle of thoughts and we

no longer witness the thought because we become one with the thoughts.

Again we comeback to senses and start witnessing the thoughts. There is no
need to make it a problem for going astray like this and getting frustrated.
This is part of Self-enquiry. We cannot be in a state of witnessing all the

time uninterruptedly in the early stages of Self-enquiry. Witnessing is also
an activity but it is a higher activity when compared to ordinary activity. In
this ordinary activity is done consciously.
Mind as such is a medium of duality. It is always conscious (Spruha) of

something and there is always someone who is conscious. Mind as such is a
source of all duality, all divisions whether they are between the subject and
the object, activity or inactivity, consciousness or unconsciousness. Every
type of duality is mental.
Consciousness (Spruha) is a means towards witnessing. (Sakshi tattwa).

If we begin to be conscious of the activities of body-mind complex we
achieve witnessing. Witnessing comes as a consequence, a by product of
consciousness.
The more we become conscious, the more we go into witnessing, the

more we come to be a witness. Witnessing will become a method to land in
our natural state non-dual pure awareness. If we become conscious of our
own consciousness, it goes on increasing and the unconsciousness goes on
decreasing. This is exactly what happens in Self-enquiry. If we become
100% conscious, we become a witness. Once we come to a stage of
witnessor jumping into pure awareness (Aeruka) is easy and witnessing is a
means to achieve pure awareness and in this there is no limitation to
consciousness because the limiting factors become extinct.
So we lose the "doer”, we lose the subjectivity, we lose the egocentricity.

The pure awareness is a consciousness without any center, without any
source, without any motivation. So in pure awareness mind dissolves in it
and becomes a part of that and there is no entity to be conscious about it.
Some Ramana devotees say that we must be aware of awareness. Do they

know the import of such statement? So in Self-enquiry ordinary doing is
brought to conscious level and is witnessed by witnessing consciousness
which is dual in nature but that higher doing witnessing through which we
can transcend the mind and land in pure awareness of Self which is there
waiting for you and draws you towards itself which is your source of being.
Then you are in a state of non-doing, Summa iru. Sitting silently and
doing nothing and bliss overflows without any center and flows undirected.
This is our natural state of being.

21. Self-enquiry is the way for comprehensive
inner revolution for humanity
After morning walk to know what is going on around us in the world i see
the headlines of news in TV and i go through the news paper for 10mts.They
reflect the neurotic behaviour of humanity. Actually the media is showing
the incidents in such a way that it is adding to further disorder in human
society.
Many human problems are due to artificial division created between human
beings on the basis of region, nationality, caste, race, politics, religion,
financial disparities, gender etc.
There is problem of unemployment or underemployment with its social

consequences, problem in every field of life like business, education,
acquiring properties and accumulating things, appalling corruption and
degeneracy in every walk of life, poverty due to exploitation of rich and the
powerful.
When we awake in the morning the unsolved and hidden problems inside
knocks us and surface to the conscious level daily. We observe the minds of
others relatively easily because it is an object oriented observation with
which we are accustomed to very well.
But we don't know how to observe our own mind, its contents, its way of
functioning i.e. thinking while it is relating with the others. We daily collect
so much dust in our mind in the form of memory while interacting with
others and we are acting from that dust of dead past.
We do not know the skill to clean our mind from that dust and everybody is
carrying mountains of such dust which are getting accumulated from aeons
and aeons. Some of us know how to lead a cleanly life physically and
majority of us are not bothered to be aware of the dust collected in our own
mind and we continue the habit of collecting the dust which makes us to
forget "who we are and nature of our essential Self".
We are conscious beings but we do not know the nature of consciousness.

This applies to Nobel laureates also. This is a very sorry state of affairs of
humans on earth. They became destructive to themselves and others
including animals and to flora and fauna. They have already disturbed
ecology on earth with heat increasing day by day, the virgin snow on polar

regions started melting and 30% of earth may be submerged in water due to
increasing levels of water in sea in coming 25yrs.
So something must be done immediately or else the humanity will go the

way of dinosaur because the present humanity has so much destructive
weaponry at their disposal which can destroy the earth 100 times.
See the insanity and destructive attitude of humanity.
Some feel that matters can be settled by bringing about a physical

revolution. They feel that if political and economic structure is changed, one
day the individuals who are the constituents of the society will change. This
is sheer stupidity.
Can we impose a change in the inner psyche just by modifying the outer
structure? Revolutionaries are just reactionaries to the existing establishment
and they know how to destroy and throw away the present establishment.
If they succeed in it they destroy the remaining revolutionaries because they

are dangerous to the new establishment also. The best example is Stalin who
killed all the remaining revolutionaries including Lenin by poisoning him
after Russian revolution. Revolutionaries have the capacity to provoke the
people into violence on some pretext or the other but they are incapable of
helping the people to become calm, quiet, go to work and create.
Such revolutions are bound to fail because they are trying for a change in
society from a wrong end i.e. from the outer. The only revolution is that of
spirit and it is individual. If the individuals change the society will change as
a consequence, not vice versa. You cannot change the society first and hope
that individuals will change later on.
This is what China is doing right now but its internal disorder of its people
may explode at any time. Society has no soul and so if there is no
transformation of its constituent elements i.e. individuals, there is no
possibility of political, social, economic revolution. Otherwise past
perpetuates in a new form and name, this is just re-formation of old pattern
and this is what is happening all over the world.
The discovery of relative truths of objective reality can be borrowed and

adapted immediately by others. Where as regarding Ultimate truth has to be
discovered by one on his own and discovery of it by some one does not
confer Self knowledge to the rest of the people. We cannot borrow the
discovery of truth by the other by just imitating what he has done to discover
it.

Many imitate Buddha and Jesus but not even a single individual got
transformed by imitating them. On September 1st 1896 Bhagawan first came
to Tiruvannamalai and his centenary celebrations of his advent to
Tiruvannamalai was celebrated on 1st September 1996. One month before a
group of Ramana devotees started journey where Bhagawan exactly started
and came to Tiruvannamalai on the same route where Bhagawan traveled in
those days and arrived to Tiruvannamalai
on September 1st 1996.I don't understand how such entertaining acts help us
in transformation in our psyche.
We will have to discover the truth inside us on our own starting right from
the scratch and move on. Just believing in Bhagawan or someother master
won't help. That is what majority of humanity is doing, just believing in
something and then do whatever they want in daily life without any
response-ability and awareness.
Each individual has to come to the truth alone, it cannot be borrowed or

bought from any spiritual firms. Ancient societies are interested in the
discovery of eternal truth but not in the trivia of daily life. That is why they
are backward in the material sense. Genius in them dedicated their lives for
discovery of eternal truth, they are not much interested in relative truths of
phenomenal reality.
People like Buddha, Jesus, Bhagawan, Krishna, Adi Sankara, Vyasa, Vasista
and all Upanishadic seers are real revolutionaries, that is why what they
teach about the eternal truth is always contemporary.
The eternal diamond is in the inner revolution but it needs creativity which
majority of the people are lacking and they are not ready for inner
revolution. They are ready for outer revolution which needs destructiveness
and hate which are innate to their egos.
Creative people take the responsibility of transforming their life on their own
shoulders, the change slow but sure and in course of time they start moving
into the world of light of awareness and once the awareness crystallizes they
will come to know what real inner revolution is. Then they can share their
revolution with the others and it has to go that way from heart to heart but
not from head to head which is the case with truths of objective reality
which are discovered by science.

In Self-enquiry we drop all nonsense which has been put inside us when we
are unaware. Self-enquiry in that way is a purgative method to expel the
content of what we are not by dis-identifying with what we are not.
In Self-enquiry we live consciously responding to each moment
spontaneously without the shadow of conditioning and habits interfering
during the response. To live moment to moment out of freedom is
real revolution. This is only possible in the awareness and Self-knowledge
born out of doing Self-enquiry.
Many say that Self-enquiry is difficult but the main problem with them is
that they are not earnest in discovering the truth and they do not dedicate to
Self-enquiry due distractions of the mind due various causes. Without this
comprehensive revolution happening in human psyche as a consequence of
earnestness in Self-enquiry, the future of humanity is in danger.

22. Mind is time
All doing involves change and change requires some duration of time.
Change means going from one event to another and the interval between the
two events is time. We can experience action or doing only in the flow of
time projected by the mind from past to the future bypassing the present
moment. If we are caught in network of time it is certain that we are missing
the present. The present moment does not belong to time, present moment
belongs to the eternity, the eternal now. In the precise present moment we
cannot do anything. We can just be. As there is no doing in the present
moment there are no events in the present moment and so there can be no
time in the present moment. All doing or action is imaginary and whatever is
imaginary cannot be real and time which is a product of imagination cannot
be real. The act of imagining itself is unreal. Objective knowing is an action
or doing because it involves seeming movement of attention from the Self
towards the other thing. So the concept of time arises only in the act of
objective knowing. Time cannot be there is no movement of mind. So time
stops when mind stops. So mind is time. That is why when mind stops in
deep sleep state and Samadhi we are free from the concept of time. If we are
free of the movement of mind i.e. time, we belong to eternity. Anything
transient is in the dimension of time which is the result of movement of
mind. Our center i.e. Self is eternal is timeless and our periphery i.e. mind is
in the dimension of time and so all the peripheral events are transient. When
there is stilling of periphery we are immediately aware of our center which is
beyond the dimension of time and so eternal.
Journey from periphery to the center, from time to timelessness, from

transient to eternity, from trivia to essential is spirituality which is a
pilgrimage from here to here.

23.Suryanarayana Raju: Self-enquiry--The
way of wisdom.
There is slight drizzle and atmosphere is beautiful and i am on morning
walk. There is no walker, there is only the walking. Walking is a dynamic
reality. Walker is just an idea of mind, non-existential.
If we are perceptive while walking we will be in the present moment which

is the only thing existential that is available to us. Trees and plants are
looking very beautiful in the monsoon morning. A plant with light green
leaves looked brilliant to my eyes and i felt what more i want in the
existence. A creeper is holding an iron wire with its tendrils, it is a beauty to
perceive its intelligence. Its leaves are very big. There are various types of
flowers, some releasing their fragrance.
It is their nature to release their fragrance, they are available with fragrance
and it is up to us to be available to them. If we can live in the present in the
simple acts we can live a life without any goal. Goal is projection of the
mind which diverts out attention from the present moment which is life. So
if we have a goal, we will miss the life. Goal-less life is a natural life, i.e. we
never leave our nature of consciousness if we have no goal. If we have goal
we will be lost in imaginations and so we miss the life in the present. If we
indulge in the present moment in an extraordinary way even small thing in
daily life leads us to the godliness that is there in our interior. But we know
how to indulge in thinking, in making goals and getting lost in imagination
and dreams.
The vast majority of humanity is missing the life in this way. They do not
how to live naturally, what it means to live and purport of life.
When one lives with "what is" without escaping from it there is no
contradiction and conflict in life. In that impersonal observation of "what is"
transformation happens in our interior. The understanding that comes only
through observation of what is, is peace; which doesn't mean that you accept
"what is". Then we will know how to live peacefully in this monstrous
society. This is the way of wisdom.

24. Self-enquiry is tracing back to our source
by holding on to the conscious aspect of the
mind.
This morning is very pleasant but there is no rain unlike in the past three
days. Today among birds crows dominated the scene and one crow grabbed
one coconut piece and its companions followed it for sharing but the crow
which grabbed it is not in a mood to share it with the others.
Then there is a piercing sound from nearby was heard and it is from a small
tiny beautiful sparrow with its ventral part with yellow color and its wings
are very beautiful with alternating dark colors. Its eyes are cute. About two
hundred yards away from me there are about seventy birds on a tree in a
festive mood and they suddenly started flying and their fly is highly chaotic
and playful for two to three minutes and they never hit with each other even
though they fly so fast in disorderly manner and suddenly all of them came
back to the tree and sit there for sometime and again started playing in a
similar way.
I have seen such episodes of their playfulness for half an hour and it is a
great joy to see them playing in such a way early in the morning. Sun is just
rising but clouds are obstructing its light. There is a portion of sky where it
is looking blue but a major portion of it is covered by a layer of white clouds
and beneath that there is a layer of dark clouds. A small space of sky is not
covered by any clouds from which we could perceive the sunlight which is
peeping through the gaps between the clouds.
Movement of clouds is relatively slow and is directed eastwards. Human is a

conscious being. He does not need help of another adjunct to know his
existence. His existence is self revealing. Objects are unaware of their
existence and they require entity to trace their existence and so their
existence is not self revealing.
Though we are conscious beings we are not aware of the nature of

consciousness. This is because our consciousness is object oriented and so it
is always in a habit of leaving its source and attend to the objects in the
outside world. Consciousness flows to objects through thoughts. The
thought traffic towards the outer is so fast that it is almost difficult to find a
gap between one thought and its next thought.

This is because we go on cultivating the thought right from birth to death.
Our culture, religion, everyday life, is based on thought. Thought is a
fragment in the wholeness of human life but at present it is dictatorial in
directing our way of life. We are all conditioned to cultivate thought to
explore the objective reality.
We are also conditioned to relate with the other through thought which is
resulting in accumulation of dust of past happenings in the relationship and
that hangover of the past incidents interfering in relating in the present
moment. So daily we are collecting so much of the dust of the past over the
mirror of consciousness and we are identifying with that dust and thinking it
as the "me".
This dust with which we are identified is our personality which is just a
superimposition of certain thoughts and beliefs over our mirror of
consciousness. Our culture does not encourage seeing and examining the
inner things and the inner reality.
Majority of us are not even aware of them. Mind is just like an insentient sky
of nothingness. Unless something like thought written over it, there is
nothing like mind which is tangible. If it is filled with consciousness which
it is capable of reflecting, it looks like a conscious entity. If it is filled with
thoughts, feelings, emotions, desires, hopes etc it looks like ego.
If by doing Self-enquiry all these things are negated there is nothing like
mind(Naiva manasam).Then mind is filled with thought-free consciousness
and such state of mind is called no mind(Suddha manas,Amanaska sthithi) in
which mind is said to be there but ego is annihilated and inoperative. When
thought matter is too much in the mind, the reflection of consciousness in
the mind(Abhasa) cannot be noticed. If we can bring consciousness into our
daily acts of life thought flow is reduced.
Then we will be aware of the gaps between the thoughts. As we attend to

that gap our attention is diverted from outer to the inner. Once we attain the
thought-free state of consciousness which is by nature blissful we can
witness the function of thought process and the network of the ego.
If we can drop the dust of the past which is the cause of unhappiness in our
lives, we have the clean mirror of consciousness again and that conscious
mirror of mind uncontaminated by the dust of past, reflects our inner Sun i.e.
our "Self" "as it is" without any distortion. In this way by holding on to the
conscious aspect of the mind we can trace back to our source of being which
is the "Self".

25. We cannot transform that "which is" into
"what should be" by effort in the psychological
arena.
Our nature is thought-free, actionless, non-dual Self consciousness "I am". It
is the basic form of Self consciousness. It is adjunct free.
This essential Self consciousness "I am" when mixed with adjuncts like
body and mind, a compound consciousness results which is devoid of Self
knowledge i.e. this compound consciousness has only object knowing
capacity without the knowledge of the nature of basic form of
consciousness.
This compound consciousness is mind centered around the imaginary

experience of ourselves as a body. To function in the phenomenal reality
thought is required for this compond consciousness. But the problem arises
when we use thought where it has no role to play.
For example the state of anger, fear etc are result of thought activity. So they
cannot be corrected by thought. But thought tries to manipulate anger or fear
etc by suppressing it or justifying it. This type of effort is a struggle to
transform the anger or fear into their opposite states. Here thought has no
role to play. Just the perception of anger or fear etc is enough.
In perception we don't do anything psychologically in form of thought

activity. It is simple looking into the state of anger or fear etc without the
interference of thought and the burden of psychological past.
Here what is required is stilling of thought which is brought about by

perception. Stilling of thought is not an action of will. When anger happens,
it happens. You cannot do anything about it. By being aware of this inward
insufficiency "be with the anger" with awareness. When we are aware we
don't give energy to the anger but rather we will be aware of the factors
which are resulting in a state of anger. In that very awareness of network of
anger we go beyond anger. Any effort by thought to correct the anger is a
distraction from being "aware" of the anger. So effort in the psychological
arena is a struggle to transform the "what is" like anger and fear, violence etc
to what should be. In this struggle definitely there is unhappiness and
misery.

When saints say thought brings misery and unhappiness all this is implied.
They do not mean to say thought has no role to play in the outside
phenomenal reality, if we want to go back to our house from office thought
is required, to draft a message like this thought is required. Thought and
body are the tools in the hands of consciousness but thought and body are
not our essential nature.
We continue to exist in our basic form of consciousness without them. Till

you experience your basic form of consciousness for yourself you continue
to doubt whether such a state exist at all. Self-enquiry is meant to make you
experience your basic form of consciousness and to function from that center
instead of functioning from the ego which is to function from the burden of
psychological past which is essentially limited.
When we function from a limited entity our action is limited and never
complete and such an action however sincere results in incomplete action
which results in duality, conflict and perennial strife. So thought should be
used where it has a role to play in physical dimension like technology,
fulfilling the basic needs of the body but it should not be used as an
instrument to solve the psychological problems born out of relating with
others with a separative feelings. If one tries to manipulate there with
thoughts misery is certain.

26. Self-enquiry. is a journey from utilities to
the essential and then getting attuned to it.
Any being without Self knowledge identifies with body-mind complex. As
far as life in the outside world is concerned "I" thought i.e. ego has certain
utilitarian value and without the "I" thought life in the world become
impossible.
Bhagawan said even Jnanis have "I" thought but they use it like an
instrument for the welfare of the world but they never under any
circumstances identify themselves with the "I" thought and they are always
attuned to their essential nature of pure consciousness. But when common
man says "I" he is referring the body-mind complex as "I" because he is
identified with them.
Once a great German philosopher came back to his house and kept his
umbrella on his bed and he stood in the corner where he used to keep his
umbrella usually. This is because he mistook umbrella for himself on that
day and he is in the position of umbrella mistaking his own body as
umbrella. Only in the early hours he could recognize this wrong identity and
then behaved normally. The position of the whole humanity is in a similar
context of mistaken identity.
They are identifying with their utilities of body and mind as their essential
nature and they completely forgot their essential nature and so their life is in
a topsy turvy way, believing the false as real .They must realize that utilities
are not realities.
Life is short and energy is limited and we are not expected to go on wasting
in utilities which are not our essentials. Only when we are conscious and
come to the understanding that the utilities are just instruments in the hands
of our essential pure consciousness, then only we develop the capacity to
drop them. This is real renunciation but not changing physical
circumstances, or renouncing the physical things which is relatively easy nor
leading a sado-masochist life in the name of religion to attract the attention
of others.
The word religion literally means to gather energy available to us to prevent

the utilities to superimpose their activities on our essential pure
consciousness. The quality of the mind which perceives the reality beyond
thought is religiosity.

Religiosity does not mean belonging to an organized religion, belief or
dogma. Only when identity to the nonessential utilities is dropped then only
there is a possibility to get attuned with the essential. Seeing the false as
false is the beginning seeing the true as true.
Thought has role to play in the life of physical world and it can solve some
physical problems. We are trying the same instrument of thought for solving
the psychological problems also which are the result of thought interference
in the psychological arena where it has no role to play.
Thought is a response of memory and memory being limited the action of

thought is always limited leaving the residue of non-understanding resulting
in conflict and strife and the same thought is trying to manipulate and correct
these anomalies of conflict and strife which is impossible for thought to
solve.
When there is a psychological problem we must attend to it and to pay

attention one must be quiet without the noise of thought. The problem must
be given an opportunity to unfold itself and so give its full significance in
the passive awareness of attention. First of all we must learn watching.
What you watch is not important, it may be a song or flight of a bird, clouds,
sky, flow of river, falling of old leaves, watching the breath or walking with
awareness and in these situations thought has no role to play and set aside.
We are so accustomed for occupation with thought we feel more

comfortable when we are occupied. Just test for yourself by sitting with your
eyes closed there starts inner chattering in a crazy way, relevant and
irrelevant thoughts criss cross your being, nothing seems to happen except
long long procession of thoughts, desires, memories and they go on coming
unending.
Watchfulness is the right antidote for this. When watchfulness crosses a

break even point thought traffic stops and the outer shell of mind i.e.
thoughts drop and when there is nothing else to be attended to, awareness
falls on itself and for the first time you know yourself.
When you lose your personality which is a conditioning imposed on you by

the society through Self-enquiry, you gain your natural state of pure
consciousness. So watchfulness is the method of destroying identity with
utilities like ego and the body and Self-enquiry is nothing but a passive state
of watchfulness of ego activities in which ego is given an opportunity to
unfold itself and wither.

So let us do Self-enquiry to destroy the identity with the utilities of body and
mind and establish ourselves in the source of them which is adjunctless,
thought-free, basic pure consciousness "I am". In Self-enquiry the rust of the
past is taken away and the seed of light which is in the depths of
mind(reflected consciousness, Abhasa, Jiva) breaks open the ground and
become one with its source.
The whole existence supports and celebrates if the flame and fire of "who
am i" quest pierces through and move within the spiritual heart and so the
genuine quest, thirst for truth is in the heart but not in the head. Self-enquiry
is a journey from head to heart, from periphery to the center, from trivia of
utilities to the essential, from ignorance to truth.

27. Self-enquiry is the art observing without the
observer
Self-enquiry is to reflect whatsoever passing by in the inner. Consciousness
reflects whether they are diamonds or pebbles, by its very nature it won’t
choose that which is reflected. We are so habituated to observing in a wrong
way.
We "think" that we are the observer, we judge, we evaluate but still we think
we are observer. The observer as a noun, i.e. ego is the consummation of all
past experiences. So if we observe through the observer there is the
perpetuation of past, nothing new can be observed with such a type of
observation. Then we are associated with wrong kind of observing and such
"idea of observing" lingers for a long time even while when one thinks he is
"doing" Self-enquiry.
Self-enquiry is not a process of "doing". It is a process of conscious

observation without the interference of the "doer". In such a type of
observation even "doer" is an object of observation. Doer is the result of
consequences of his action and so we have no freedom to observe by
"doing" anything.
Doer is essentially past, so any action arising out of "doer" is actually an

action of the past. If we observe through the "doer", the observer, then what
is observed is translated in terms of the past. So we cannot see the reality "as
it is" when we see it with the glasses of the past.
The observer falsifies and distorts the reality. The moment thought interferes
in the observation of Self-enquiry, it is no longer Self-enquiry. When you
are in a state of observation during the process of Self-enquiry, you are not
in a state of thinking. Either there is thinking or there is pure observation and
both of them do not happen simultaneously. If there is a thought "I am doing
Self-enquiry", then you are not in a state of Self-enquiry.
You have fallen back into network of thought. In Self-enquiry thoughts pass
in front of conscious mirror and they are reflected. There is no center from
which observation the thoughts takes place.
The pure act of observation in Self-enquiry cannot be reduced to a thought.

We have become so conditioned to immediately reduce every experience
into a thought and store it in the memory cells of the brain. We never allow
any experience to remain just a pure experience even for few moments. We

name it and translate it immediately according to our conditioning which is
past.
When you see a bird on the wing, just be watchful and be in a state of
wonder in seeing the beauty of it. Let that beauty and its dance in the wind
penetrate you. But the moment the mind enters and say how beautiful is the
bird, the "thought of beauty" becomes a barrier to perceive the beauty of the
bird on the wing.
You are no longer seeing the bird on the wing, its suchness, you have gone
into past memories of the bird and comparing them with the present. It is a
mind game and it is a fall from pure observation into the domain of mind.
Then your awareness become clouded by the smoke of the past and dust of
the past started collecting on the mirror of consciousness which no longer
reflects the beauty of the bird on the wing because you are not "here and
now".
That’s what happens whenever a thought arises in you, your consciousness

is disturbed, starts wavering, waves start arising in you and you are not
capable of reflecting the suchness(thathata) of that which is.
In Self-enquiry we have to learn the new art of observing things and

thoughts without judging, verbalizing, evaluating. The state of observation is
more important than what is being observed. Observation without any choice
is total freedom and is real religiosity. That is why Self-enquiry is real
religiosity. In pure observation we don't wipe out the known, but we enter
into a different dimension altogether from which the known, the past, the
ego is observed. In this awareness memory acts without impediment, and
efficiently.
But it will take time to be in such a state of observation because old habit of
observing through the ego does not die so easily but one day such pure
observation happens. Perseverance is the secret of success in Self-enquiry. If
you persist and if you are patient enough and if you go on working at
cleaning and polishing the inner, one day this implosive state of pure
observation happens.
Then you are born anew in the consciousness with eyes which are so clear
and your mirror of consciousness reflects so deeply, so totally without
distortion, the whole ego unfolds itself, flowers and withers in the passive
state of observation. Once the interference of ego is not there, in observation
there is no center for observation in the form of observer who is the
distorting factor in the observation.

The ego has dominated you so long that it is difficult in the beginning to
suddenly dissociate yourself from it. It cannot leave power over you so
easily, hence it goes on coming from the back door.
When there is observation without the observer, you are simply a witness.
Then you don't think that 'I am observing", there is no "I", there is no
thinking, there is only observation because all thinking and the "I", they
have all become objects of your witnessing. But witnessing cannot be its
own object and those who claim that they are aware of their awareness do
not know anything about awareness. We can be awareness which is a state
of unicity.
No mirror can reflect itself. Bhagawan says your eyes cannot see
themselves. One who is in Self-enquiry must always be watchful, otherwise
he will fall into deep abyss. Ordinary people cannot fall because they are
already at the bottom. When you start moving higher and higher in
consciousness, there is always the possibility of falling down. Just a little
slip, a little wrong step and you will go on rolling down into deep abyss.
Adi Sankara in Vivekachudamani pointed out that even those with Self
knowledge must always be alert(Sada Apramada) because Maya may veil
them at anytime again and if it happens their position is like a ball slipping
from top of a hill and getting lost into a deep valley where it is impossible to
trace it even.
So the quintessence of Self-enquiry lies in observing the "what is" without

the observer and in that process "what is" is transformed.

28. Self-enquiry is a quantum leap in the
understanding the nature of Pure
consciousness "I am".
In Self-enquiry the concept of personality (Individual limited consciousness,
Jiva, ego, kinchijna) is dissolved and with its dissolution the concept of God,
separative feeling with the world and sense of belonging to an organized
religion are also dissolved.
The root of spurious outgrowth of personality over the pure consciousness "I
am" is due to identity of "I" thought with the body-mind complex and that
"I" thought is questioned about its integrity in Self-enquiry. Self-enquiry is
nothing but withdrawing all barriers, thoughts, emotions, sentiments which
create a wall between you and existence.
The moment they are dropped suddenly you find yourself in tune and one
with the whole. In Self-enquiry the dew drop slips into the ocean and finds
itself it is the ocean. In Self-enquiry we stop believing which is not in our
own experience and look at everything in the inner with fresh, young,
rejuvenated mind which is free of all beliefs, dogmas, past, tradition.
Initially we feel insecure because you are alone treading your own path but
you would be open to the mysteries of nature, and to the things that are
whispering about us, which you would not otherwise reach.
You would reach the truth that cannot be invited but comes itself. We are too
enclosed because of desires, identity with the race, nationality, caste,
religion, gender etc and all these pathological phenomena are the result of
identity with the body-mind complex. This identity is questioned in Self-
enquiry. If we are doing Atma Vichara with earnestness we do not belong to
the corrupt mind and so we do not belong to the society which is always
corrupt in all dimensions of life.
In Self-enquiry we have complete break with the past and in that context our
mind and heart are open thus preparing them to receive the reality "as it is".
Then your whisperings of your own prejudices, your own personal noises
are not heard. Self-enquiry is a break to the routine which the mind
establishes for its own safety and convenience. Thus in Self-enquiry mind
habits which are usually called tendencies (vasanas) are gradually destroyed.
For vast majority religion means praying a projected God when they are in
misery and to fulfill their desires born out of their rabid ambition. They

project their God in such a way that they claim that God made man in his
own form. This is too anthropomorphic conception of the God. Actually the
reverse is true, man made and projected God in his own form. In this type of
understanding actually the body identity and thus duality are strengthened.
God has been essential part, the center of all religions which makes the man
just periphery making him devoid of his dignity. To conceive God as a
creator of the world makes man only a puppet. The word 'Adam' comes from
the Arabic word "Admi" which means mud.
The English word "human" comes from the root "humus' which also means
mud. Only the adjuncts of the human belong to the mud but his essential
nature is pure consciousness which when associated with with adjuncts it
becomes a compound consciousness instead of being pure. Bhagawan said
the essence of so called God and the so called Jiva are essentially the same
and differ only in the adjuncts they wear with which they identify.
In Self-enquiry we touch this essence, ignoring the adjuncts by

disidentifying with them. When we dispose God like this we cannot have
any ritual, worship, prayer. Adinatha is the first mystic who disposed the
concept of God 5000 years ago.
Purity is his conception was that man has to detach himself from the world
and the body. For that he created asceticism, austerities, torturing the body,
fasting, remaining naked physically, eating only once a day, not eating and
drinking in the night, eating only certain foods. This distorted the whole
thing. Jains give value to this sado-masochist attitude of their saints.
Bhagawan never encouraged such physical tortures in the name of spiritual

discipline. In Self-enquiry it is the consciousness that is found to be
untouched by thought thus it is naked and virgin.
Gautam Buddha stressed mainly meditation, silence, relaxation, peace. It is

an inward journey to reach to ones own center of consciousness which is
also the center of whole existence. So Buddha stressed on individual
transformation like Bhagawan. But after Buddha left his body some of his
followers felt single individuals cannot be trusted whether they are
meditating or not, they need communities, monasteries, masters so that those
who are on a higher level of consciousness can watch over others
and help them.
But organizations have their own ways to go against meditation. Any

organization is a political phenomena and it is another way of will to power.

The essence of Buddhism and Christianity has been lost because of
organization. Seeing all this JK is wise enough to see that no organization is
formed around him but he could not create a congenial atmosphere for
meditation to happen and he tried to convince the people intellectually that
Self-enquiry is the only way for emancipation of
human from his ego. People started cling to his words but missed the
essence and profoundity that lies behind his words.
So not many people are transformed through him though what he is saying is
true. But Bhagawan's approach is different. First he transferred his
overflowing energy to many devotees in silence (mouna deeksha) to many
devotees and thus conferring Self knowledge to them, he encouraged them
to do Self-enquiry till last mental tendency is destroyed. Bhagawan is born
not to teach any philosophy but to awaken the people from their deep
metaphysical sleep. He is doing it even now.
A man with a taste of Self knowledge doing Self-enquiry is absolutely free,

totally feel responsible for his spiritual growth. When once a person realizes
he is responsible for his misery, he will start looking for methods and means
to get out of this miserable situation. This is what all about Self-enquiry and
meditation.
So there is need of God, religion, priest, organization. All that is needed is

just to be silent and available to the existence. Once we existentially know
that the "I" thought which is just an utilitarian instrument in the hands of
consciousness is the cause of spurious growth of ego over the pure
consciousness "I am" projecting God, world, personality there is a quantum
leap in the understanding the nature of Pure consciousness "I am".
This possible only through Self-enquiry but not by any gimmicks in the
name of spirituality. Bhagawan never criticized God, religion, world, ego
but he tried to help people to root out the "I' thought which is just an
utilitarian instrument, dominating and directing the human life in a wrong
way by helping the devotees to taste Self knowledge and to do Self-enquiry
to make that Self knowledge to establish in the individual permanently
without any relic of ego. So Bhagawan helped the whole humanity to take a
quantum leap in the understanding of the Pure consciousness "I am".

Om Sri Ramanarpana mastu.


Commentaries On Self-Enquiry by DR Raju

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Arunachala Siva Page 2 of 77

Message from Mr.Alan Jacobs Adams, president of Ramana Maharshi

This quotation from Sri Bhagavan's Ramana Maharshi's Supplement to the

Pure Awareness is the master key he rigourously applies, in recommending

Arunachala Siva Page 3 of 77

President Ramana Maharshi Foundation UK

Arunachala Siva Page 4 of 77

2. In the awareness of Self-enquiry there is transmutation in our

3. Self-enquiry is the way to go beyond the concept of death

4. Importance of awareness and Self-enquiry in daily life

5. Witnessing consciousness in Self-enquiry keeps the mind in its

6. Pure awareness-Ego awareness and Self-enquiry

7. Is there a need to achieve anything in this world?

9. Can the mind do Self-enquiry?

10. What is it that to be investigated in Self-enquiry?

13. Self-enquiry and Surrender

14. Self-enquiry is the process of dissolution of ego in Self

Arunachala Siva Page 5 of 77

16. Self-enquiry bridges the relative with the absolute

17. Self-enquiry is the right way to relate with the Self-ignorance

18. Awareness in Self-enquiry destroys the ego which is the

19. From chaos to clarity – the way of Self-Enquiry

20. Self-enquiry - Witnessing consciousness - Pure Awareness

21. Self-enquiry is the way for comprehensive inner revolution for

23. Suryanarayana Raju: Self-enquiry--The way of wisdom.

24. Self-enquiry is tracing back to our source by holding on to the

26. Self-enquiry. is a journey from utilities to the essential and then

27. Self-enquiry is the art observing without the observer

28. Self-enquiry is a quantum leap in the understanding the nature

Arunachala Siva Page 6 of 77

Arunachala Siva Page 7 of 77

Bhagawan reveals that neti,neti is not intended to denote a method of

In verses 16 of Upadesa Saram Bhagawan said, Wise people observe the

Arunachala Siva Page 8 of 77

In the verse 18 of Upadesa Saram Bhagawan said,

Arunachala Siva Page 9 of 77

In the verse 19 of Upadesa Saram Bhagawan said, When one inwardly

So from 16th -19th verse of Upadesa Saram Bhagawan teaches us the

Spiritual initiation through Mantra is common in India and abroad. It can

Arunachala Siva Page 10 of 77

In contemporary world reason has become supreme and it suppressed

Arunachala Siva Page 11 of 77

It is in everybody's experience that in deep sleep we are very happy and

Unburdened by anything that content-less consciousness, that what we are!

Arunachala Siva Page 12 of 77

Once there is stillness of thought born out of understanding, Self-enquiry

Arunachala Siva Page 13 of 77

In the psychological arena just perception is complete action. In Self-

Life is miserable if we are not aware. We think this object knowing

Such a life is a bed of thorns of anger, violence, greed, hatred, ambition,

When we are aware whatever we do and demechanize what we call the

The awareness of Self-enquiry brings these to conscious level and in the

When we reverse our gear from unconsciousness to consciousness,

Arunachala Siva Page 14 of 77

What Bhagawan did is real Self-enquiry. Death is a concept of "I"

In Self-enquiry we witness everything consciously. That which is

In death your awareness doesn’t die, the awareness that is imprisoned in

Arunachala Siva Page 15 of 77

This is utopia which means "that which never comes". Movement of

In Self-enquiry which is done with awareness we no longer give energy

It is so blissful, tranquil, serene, without any pain, sorrow, limitation.

It can be also pronounced as Purhusha which means whose passions are