Ramana Maharshi Quotes

102 Sourced Quotes

Relative knowledge pertains to the mind and not to the Self. It is therefore illusory and not permanent. Take a scientist, for instance. He formulates a theory that the Earth is round and goes on to prove it on an incontrovertible basis. When he falls asleep the whole idea vanishes; his mind is left a blank. What does it matter whether the world remains round or flat when he is asleep? So you see the futility of all such relative knowledge. One should go beyond relative knowledge and abide in the Self. Real knowledge is such experience, and not apprehension by the mind.

Ramana Maharshi
Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage is characterized by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a fast rotating gyroscope.

Ramana Maharshi
Even if you try not to do your duty you will be perforce obliged to do it. Let the body complete the task for which it came into being. Sri Krishna also says in the Gita, whether Arjuna liked it or not he would be forced to fight. When there is work to be done by you, you cannot keep away; nor can you continue to do a thing when you are not required to do it, that is to say, when the work allotted to you has been done. In short, the work will go on and you must take your share in it — the share which is allotted to you. [Question: How can it be done? Reply:] Like an actor playing his part in a drama: free from duality.

Ramana Maharshi
We loosely talk of Self-realization, for lack of a better term. But how can one realize or make real that which alone is real? All we need to do is to give up our habit of regarding as real that which is unreal. All religious practices are meant solely to help us do this. When we stop regarding the unreal as real, then Reality alone will remain, and we will be That.

Ramana Maharshi
Know Thyself. All else will be known to thee of its own accord. Discriminate between the undying, unchanging, all-pervading, infinite Atma and the ever-changing, phenomenal and perishable universe and body. Enquire, "Who am I?" Make the mind calm. Free yourself from all thoughts other than the simple thought of the Self or Atma. Dive deep into the chambers of your heart. Find out the real, infinite "I". Rest there peacefully for ever and become identical with the Supreme Self.

Ramana Maharshi
Under whatever name or form we worship It, It leads us on to knowledge of the nameless, formless Absolute. Yet, to see one's true Self in the Absolute, to subside into It and be one with It, this is the true Knowledge of the Truth.

Ramana Maharshi
That which rises in this body as 'I' is the mind. If one enquires 'In which place in the body does the thought 'I' rise first?', it will be known to be in the heart [spiritual heart is 'two digits to the right from the centre of the chest']. Even if one incessantly thinks 'I', 'I', it will lead to that place (Self)'.

Ramana Maharshi
There are no impediments to meditation. The very thought of such obstacles is the greatest impediment.

Ramana Maharshi
Meditation is sticking to one thought. That single thought keeps away other thoughts; distraction of mind is a sign of its weakness; by constant meditation it gains strength.

Ramana Maharshi
Having set one's family in consonance with the community, he should make his family prosperous to ensure the prosperity of the community.

Ramana Maharshi
Why should you trouble yourself about the future? You do not even properly know about the present. Take care of the present, the future will take care of itself.

Ramana Maharshi
A man does not have to go and find where his eyes are in order to see. The heart is there, always open to you, if you care to enter it, always supporting your movements, although you may be unaware of it. It is perhaps more correct to say that the Self is the Heart. Really the Self is the centre and is everywhere aware of itself as the Heart or Self-awareness.

Ramana Maharshi
Existence of Isvara follows our conception of Isvara. Let us first know whose concept He is. The concept will be only according to the one who conceives. Find out who you are and the other problem will solve itself.

Ramana Maharshi
Even the structure of the atom has been found by the mind. Therefore the mind is subtler than the atom. That which is behind the mind, namely the individual soul, is subtler than the mind.

Ramana Maharshi
Peace is for the purification of one's mind. Power is for the growth of the community. Having established the community with power, one should then establish supreme peace.

Ramana Maharshi
Because truth is exceedingly subtle and serene, the bliss of the Self can manifest only in a mind rendered subtle and steady by assiduous meditation.

Ramana Maharshi
This perception of division between the seer and the object that is seen, is situated in the mind. For those remaining in the heart, the seer becomes one with the sight.

Ramana Maharshi
The macrocosm is in its entirety in the body. The body is in its entirety in the heart. Therefore heart is the summarised form of all the macrocosm.

Ramana Maharshi
What message is needed when heart speaks to heart?

Ramana Maharshi
It is said that a good brotherly feeling with a sense of equality is the supreme goal to be reached collectively by all members of the community.

Ramana Maharshi
I want you to dive consciously into the Self, i. e., into the Heart.

Ramana Maharshi
Peace is your natural state. It is the mind that obstructs the natural state.

Ramana Maharshi
[A member of the community] should conduct himself always by word, mind and body in such a fashion that it results in help to the society. He should also make his own men understand this.

Ramana Maharshi
There is no greater mystery than this: being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.

Ramana Maharshi
When one makes the mind stick to one thought, the mind becomes rock-steady and the energy is conserved.

Ramana Maharshi
The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry 'Who am I?'. The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre.

Ramana Maharshi
The ego's phenomenal existence is transcended when you dive into the source from where the I'-thought rises

Ramana Maharshi
The deeply learned ones know the mind as the directly expressed meaning of the supreme knowledge. The heart is the meaning aimed at. The Supreme is none other than the heart.

Ramana Maharshi
As in the night when the sun is not present, one sees the light in the moon, the man who is not present in the heart, sees merely the mind.

Ramana Maharshi
It is said that the heart is in the microcosm just as the orb of the sun in the macrocosm. The mind in Sahasrara is like the disc of the moon.

Ramana Maharshi