This individual is not altogether unreal; he is not so in the same sense as the barren woman’s son is unreal. The Real Self is present as the Substratum on which the sense of an individual soul is superimposed, and hence even though unreal, he is taken to be real.

The element of Reality of the ‘soul,’ which is the “I,” is the consciousness, which is the Nature of the Real Self. By taking hold of this element of Reality the seeker of Deliverance is enabled to engage in the Quest of the Self.

–K. Lakshmana Sarma, “Verses 473 and 474,” The Supreme Science as Taught by Sri Ramana, pp. 227-8.

This is a beautiful depiction of Self-inquiry (atma vichara).

In the first verse, we learn that the sense I have of myself isn’t totally unreal, only confused. It’s not unreal in the sense of being a square circle or of being a barren woman’s son. It is unreal in that what it appears to be–an individual jiva–is not what it essentially and actually is (the Real Self).

The second verse shows us how to inquire. To begin with, we are only to scrutinize that “element of Reality” known as the “I.” Therefore, all forms–such as I-with-emotion, I-with-thought, I-with-activity, and so on–are to be put off to the side.

What we’re left with, then, is the sense of I alone. But then the first verse comes in to help since it tells us that this sense of I alone is not what it appears to be. Hence, there’s a certain suspense that I feel or that I surrender myself to as I turn inward. It’s as if I were to say, “I know that I am present; I know, also, that I am something; but what ‘this something is’ is not readily discernible. It’s, as it were, partially veiled and partially clear.”

I maintain myself in this state of suspense. How? I am to take hold of “this element of Reality.” In other words, as I attend only to I, to this very I, I am to “look into” or “open myself to” this element of Reality. This element of Reality and nothing else. Without asking, I feel keenly, “What is this? What am I?”

In other words, I first turn inward to discover this sense of I. To turn inward is to turn away from sense perceptions, bodily sensations, thoughts, feelings, and desires. Then I “scrape” all otherness (form) off of this I. At which point, I hold onto the I with an earnest resolve because whatever superimpositions remain, I’m told, are nothing but concoctions, concepts. I have trust (sraddha). Holding onto this I alone, I look deeply into this element of Reality.

Early on, I’m told to “dive into” the Self. Later on, I’m told to “abide as” the Self. The first is enjoined upon those whose outward-going tendencies are still very strong while the second is communicated to those whose outward-going tendencies are appreciably attenuated.