Sri Ramana Maharishi & Self-Enquiry
Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) was a 20th century Indian saint who had awakened from the sleep of ignorance at the age of sixteen, after having a dramatic death experience. Shorty after his awakening he decided to leave his home to travel to the holy mountain of Arunachala, where he spent the remaining fifty-four years of his life, unceasingly helping seekers from all over the world.
When asked about his teaching, he would often say: “silence is the teaching”, but for those who did not comprehend his silence, he prescribed the path of self-enquiry, and self-surrender as the most effective and direct means of attaining true Self-knowledge, and consequently freedom from the bondage of a finite existence.
Even though he talked about two methods, he often explained that self-inquiry and self-surrender are fundamentally the same path expressed in two different ways. They are inseparable as two sides of a single sheet of paper, that ultimately lead to the same goal, the annihilation of the ego and the realization of our true nature.
Sri Ramana tells us that the ego, our finite sense of self, or our erroneous identification with body and mind, is the root of all of our suffering. All the problems we face are problems that manifest after the seeming emergence of the ego - therefore, if we wish to get rid of our suffering we must get rid of the ego.
Sri Ramana says that the only and the most effective way to free ourselves from the ego is to meticulously investigate it until we discern its true nature. As he often used to say, the only way to get rid of the illusory snake, and the problems caused by such misconception, is to keenly look at it until we see it's just a rope.
In Nan Yar (Who am I?), the first set of instruction given by Sri Ramana around the year 1902, he describes the practice of self-enquiry (the process by which we attempt to look at ourselves) as follows:
“However many thoughts rise, what [does it matter]? Vigilantly, as soon as each thought appears, if one investigates to whom it has occurred, it will be clear: to me. If one investigates who am I [by vigilantly attending to oneself, the ‘me’ to whom everything else appears], the mind will return to its birthplace [namely oneself, the source from which it arose]; [and since one thereby refrains from attending to it] the thought that had risen will also cease. When one practices and practices in this manner, for the mind the power to stand firmly established in its birthplace increases.”
Self-enquiry is not to be confused with a mental exercise, or anything that requires mental effort. it is the abandonment of all mental activity, concepts, and objects of perception, and the return to our natural state of just being. We are seeking to experience the truth before it gets distorted and convoluted by the mind.