Ramana Maharshi’s “Who am I?” is such a wonderful text. Consider just one brief line of inquiry.

A Dialogical Summary

His interlocutor asks him about when Self-realization will occur (Question 4). Not until the idea that the world is real has been removed, replies Bhagavan.

There can’t be?, queries the disciple. Nope, says Bhagavan.

Why (Question 6)? Because the world, which seems to you to be real, is a name and form that’s veiling the nature of the Self.

When will the world as only apparently real be seen through (Question 7)? “When the mind, which is the cause of all cognition and of all actions, becomes quiescent, the world will disappear,” Bhagavan answers.

Then what’s the nature of the mind (Question 8)? And here we come, finally, to Self-inquiry!

The Pith

Step 1: The world seems real, and so long as this is the case, your attention will be glued on it (as if you were utterly obsessed with the evening news). As a result, you won’t be able to “see” Reality, the Self. It won’t disclose Itself.

Step 2: Now we start to take the backward step. Thus: the world seems real because the mind seems real. Indeed, the world cannot appear unless the mind has risen.

Step 3: Now we take a second step backward, or a turn inward. Then what is the nature of the mind? The nature of the mind is thought, and at the center of thought is the ego-sense, i.e., the I-thought.

Step 4: Since the world “hinges” on the mind and since the mind “hinges” on the I-sense, we need only attend to this I-sense. Isn’t that straightforward! We attend to the I-sense quite simply by turning our attention around and by fixing our attention on the I-sense alone.

Realization: “What is Release?,” asks his student in Question 28, the final question. Bhagavan: “Inquiring into the nature of one’s self that is in bondage, and realizing that one’s true nature is release.” In other words, I inquire into the nature of the ego and realize that the true nature of the (actually nonexistent) ego is the Self.