Sri Ramana Maharshi's Teachings - Self-Enquiry

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Self-Enquiry

The way shown by Ramana is called 'self-enquiry'. What does it mean? Ramana begins by pointing out that the very centre of all our lives is the feeling 'I'. This feeling is expressed as "I came", "I did", "I went" and so on. Which means this 'I' is the subject of all our thoughts and actions. Knowledge of the subject begins by paying attention to this 'I'.

Our 24-hour day may be divided for convenience of analysis into three parts. The time when we are awake, the time when we are asleep and dreaming and the time when we are in deep, dreamless sleep. Let us say that about 15 to 16 hours is waking time. At this time, we operate with a particular identity. There is a particular name, Rama, Siva, Lakshmi, and a particular form, dark, fair, tall, short, male, female, etc. Now let us see what happens in dreams. It is everybody's experience that in dreams the identifications and situation of the same person may be different from the waking state of identification. A powerful king Vikrama may be dreaming that he is a poor beggar called Ramu going round the street begging for alms. A specialist doctor Keshav may be dreaming that he is a patient named Seshadri taking treatment from an expert. Such situations are many. One who does not know where his next meal would come from may be a globe trotting world tourist. Hence one can say one's identity as a particular form with a name need not continue in dream but may be a different.

Examining further, when we are in deep sleep we have no identity at all. When one is sleeping soundly, even if someone shouts his name loudly and repeatedly to wake him up it would be useless because that name does not register while one is in a deep sleep. One has to be physically shaken to be woken up.

Ramana points to the dream state and deep sleep state and raises the question whether in the circumstances one is right in assuming that the waking identity is the true and complete identity. Must not our true identity be something that includes all the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep? Therefore there must be an extra dimension to ourselves, which we must become aware of in order to know the truth about ourselves. The question would then arise "What is the way for discovering this?"

For this Ramana has provided a method in the form of the question 'Who am I?' Though it is put in the form of a question its real purpose is to raise a doubt in your mind as to whether one is right in thinking that one is a particular name and form. This is an unthinking assumption, which has been made so far. Once this seed of doubt is planted you must water it by constant questioning of your assumption based only on the waking experience.

Ramana also provides a complimentary means to supplement the result of the doubt sown. This is in the form of another question 'Whence am I?' Here one has to ponder over the meaning of the question. Since the identity was not there in deep sleep, but has come back intact on waking the question as to where it had disappeared would naturally arise. There is no break in one's waking identity each day after sleep so where did it disappear in deep sleep? It must therefore have a source into which it must have merged for sometime in deep sleep and risen again from the same source. The second question therefore creates interest in our roots. This daily disappearing and reappearing must make one wonder as to what the source of one's individuality is.