David Godman:
The essence of Sri Ramana's teachings is conveyed in his frequent assertions that there is a single immanent reality, directly experienced by everyone, which is simultaneously the source, the substance and the real nature of everything that exists. He gave it a number of different names, each one signifying a different aspect of the same indivisible reality. The following classification includes all of his more common synonyms and explains the implications of the various terms used.

1. The Self
This is the term that he used the most frequently. He defined it by saying that the real Self or real 'I' is, contrary to perceptible experience, not an experience of individuality but a non- personal, all-inclusive awareness. It is not to be confused with the individual self which he said was essentially non-existent, being a fabrication of the mind which obscures the true experience of the real Self. He maintained that the real Self is always present and always experienced but he emphasized that one is only consciously aware of it as it really is when the self-limiting tendencies of the mind have ceased. Permanent and continuous Self-awareness is known as Self- realization.

2. Sat-chit-ananda
This is a Sanskrit term which translates as being-consciousness-bliss. Sri Ramana taught that the Self is pure being, a subjective awareness of 'I am' which is completely devoid of the feeling 'I am this' or 'I am that'. There are no subjects or objects in the Self, there is only an awareness of being. Because this awareness is conscious it is also known as consciousness. The direct experience of this consciousness is, according to Sri Ramana, a state of unbroken happiness and so the term ananda or bliss is also used to describe it. These three aspects, being, consciousness and bliss, are experienced as a unitary whole and not as separate attributes of the Self. They are inseparable in the same way that wetness, transparency and liquidity are inseparable properties of water.

3. God
Sri Ramana maintained that the universe is sustained by the power of the Self. Since theists normally attribute this power to God he often used the word God as a synonym for the Self. He also used the words Brahman, the supreme being of Hinduism, and Siva, a Hindu name for God, in the same way. Sri Ramana's God is not a personal God, he is the formless being which sustains the universe. He is not the creator of the universe, the universe is merely a manifestation of his inherent power; he is inseparable from it, but he is not affected by its appearance or its disappearance.

4. The Heart
Sri Ramana frequently used the Sanskrit word hridayam when he was talking about the Self. It is usually translated as `the Heart' but a more literal translation would be `this is the centre'. In using this particular term he was not implying that there was a particular location or centre for the Self, he was merely indicating that the Self was the source from which all appearances manifested.

5. Jnana
The experience of the Self is sometimes called jnana or knowledge. This term should not be taken to mean that there is a person who has knowledge of the Self, because in the state of Self- awareness there is no localized knower and there is nothing that is separate from the Self that can be known. True knowledge, or jnana, is not an object of experience, nor is it an understanding of a state which is different and apart from the subject knower; it is a direct and knowing awareness of the one reality in which subjects and objects have ceased to exist. One who is established in this state is known as a jnani.

6.Turiya and turyatita
Hindu philosophy postulates three alternating levels of relative consciousness - waking, dream and deep sleep. Sri Ramana stated that the Self was the underlying reality which supported the appearance of the other three temporary states. Because of this he sometimes called the Self turiya avastha or the fourth state. He also occasionally used the word turiyatita, meaning `transcending the fourth', to indicate that there are not really four states but only one real transcendental state.

7. Other terms
Three other terms for the Self are worth noting. Sri Ramana often emphasized that the Self was one's real and natural state of being, and for this reason, he occasionally employed the terms sahaja sthiti, meaning the natural state, and swarupa, meaning real form or real nature. He also used the word `silence' to indicate that the Self was a silent thought-free state of undisturbed peace and total stillness.

Q: What is reality?

A: Reality must be always real. It is not with forms and names. That which underlies these is the reality. It underlies limitations, being itself limitless. It is not bound. It underlies unrealities, itself being real. Reality is that which is. It is as it is. It transcends speech. It is beyond the expressions `existence, non-existence', etc.

The reality which is the mere consciousness that remains when ignorance is destroyed along with knowledge of objects, alone is the Self [atma]. In that Brahma-swarupa [real form of Brahman], which is abundant Self-awareness, there is not the least ignorance. The reality which shines fully, without misery and without a body, not only when the world is known but also when the world is not known, is your real form [nija-swarupa].

The radiance of consciousness-bliss, in the form of one awareness shining equally within and without, is the supreme and blissful primal reality. Its form is silence and it is declared by jnanis to be the final and unobstructable state of true knowledge [jnana].

Know that jnana alone is non-attachment; jnana alone is purity; jnana is the attainment of God; jnana which is devoid of forgetfulness of Self alone is immortality; jnana alone is everything.

Q: What is this awareness and how can one obtain and cultivate it?

A: You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it. All that you have to do is to give up being aware of other things, that is of the not-Self. If one gives up being aware of them then pure awareness alone remains, and that is the Self.

Q: If the Self is itself aware, why am I not aware of it even now?

A:There is no duality. Your present knowledge is due to the ego and is only relative. Relative knowledge requires a subject and an object, whereas the awareness of the Self is absolute and requires no object. Remembrance also is similarly relative, requiring an object to be remembered and a subject to remember. When there is no duality, who is to remember whom? The Self is ever-present. Each one wants to know the Self. What kind of help does one require to know oneself ? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light etc. How can it be so? It is not light, not darkness. It is only as it is. It cannot be defined.

The best definition is `I am that I am'. The srutis [scriptures] speak of the Self as being the size of one's thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. They have no foundation in fact. It is only being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply being.

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2. Self-awareness and Self-ignorance    (excerpt)

Sri Ramana occasionally indicated that there were three classes of spiritual aspirants. The most advanced realize the Self as soon as they are told about its real nature. Those in the second class need to reflect on it for some time before Self-awareness becomes firmly established. Those in the third category are less fortunate since they usually need many years of intensive spiritual practice to achieve the goal of Self-realization. Sri Ramana sometimes used a metaphor of combustion to describe the three levels: gunpowder ignites with a single spark, charcoal needs the application of heat for a short time, and wet coal needs to dry out and heat up over a long period of time before it will begin to burn.

For the benefit of those in the top two categories Sri Ramana taught that the Self alone exists and that it can be directly and consciously experienced merely by ceasing to pay attention to the wrong ideas we have about ourselves. These wrong ideas he collectively called the 'not-Self' since they are an imaginary accretion of wrong notions and misperceptions which effectively veil the true experience of the real Self. The principal misperception is the idea that the Self is limited to the body and the mind. As soon as one ceases to imagine that one is an individual person, inhabiting a particular body, the whole superstructure of wrong ideas collapses and is replaced by a conscious and permanent awareness of the real Self.

At this level of the teaching there is no question of effort or practice. All that is required is an understanding that the Self is not a goal to be attained, it is merely the awareness that prevails when all the limiting ideas about the not-Self have been discarded.

A: Realization is nothing to be gained afresh; it is already there. All that is necessary is to get rid of the thought `I have not realized'. Stillness or peace is realization. There is no moment when the Self is not. So long as there is doubt or the feeling of non-realization, the attempt should be made to rid oneself of these thoughts. They are due to the identification of the Self with the not-Self. When the not-Self disappears, the Self alone remains. To make room, it is enough that objects be removed. Room is not brought in from elsewhere.

Q: Since realization is not possible without vasana-kshaya [destruction of mental tendencies], how am I to realize that state in which the tendencies are effectively destroyed?

A: You are in that state now.

Q: Does it mean that by holding on to the Self, the vasanas [mental tendencies] should be destroyed as and when they emerge?

A: They will themselves be destroyed if you remain as you are.

Q: How shall I reach the Self?

A: There is no reaching the Self. If Self were to be reached, it would mean that the Self is not here and now and that it is yet to be obtained. What is got afresh will also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for. So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self, you are already that. The fact is, you are ignorant of your blissful state. Ignorance supervenes and draws a veil over the pure Self which is bliss. Attempts are directed only to remove this veil of ignorance which is merely wrong knowledge. The wrong knowledge is the false identification of the Self with the body and the mind. This false identification must go, and then the Self alone remains. Therefore realization is for everyone; realization makes no difference between the aspirants. This very doubt, whether you can realize, and the notion `I-have-not-realized' are themselves the obstacles. Be free from these obstacles also.

Q: How long does it take to reach mukti [liberation]?

A: Mukti is not to be gained in the future. It is there for ever, here and now.

Q: I agree, but I do not experience it.

A: The experience is here and now. One cannot deny one's own Self.

Q: That means existence and not happiness.

A: Existence is the same as happiness and happiness is the same as being. The word mukti is so provoking. Why should one seek it? One believes that there is bondage and therefore seeks liberation. But the fact is that there is no bondage but only liberation. Why call it by a name and seek it?

Q: True - but we are ignorant.

A: Only remove ignorance. That is all there is to be done. All questions relating to mukti are inadmissible. Mukti means release from bondage which implies the present existence of bondage. There is no bondage and therefore no mukti either.

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Many of the Sri Ramana's visitors appeared to have an insatiable curiosity about the state of Self-realization and they were particularly interested to know how a jnani experienced himself and the world around him. Some of the questions he was asked on the subject reflected the bizarre notions that many people had about this state, but most of them tended to be variations of one of the four following questions:
 1. How can a jnani function without any individual awareness of consciousness?
 2. How can he say that he 'does nothing' (a statement which Sri Ramana often made) when others see him active in the world?
 3. How does he perceive the world? Does he perceive the world at all?
 4. How does the jnani's awareness of pure consciousness relate to the alternating states of body and mind consciousness experienced in waking, dreaming and sleeping?

The hidden premise behind all such questions is the belief that there is a person (the jnani) who experiences a state he calls the Self. This assumption is not true. It is merely a mental construct devised by those who have not realized the Self (ajnanis) to make sense of the jnani's experience. Even the use of the word jnani is indicative of this erroneous belief since it literally means a knower of jnana, the reality. The ajnani uses this term because he imagines that the world is made up of seekers of reality and knowers of reality; the truth of the Self is that there are neither jnanis nor ajnanis, there is only jnana.

Sri Ramana pointed this out both directly and indirectly on many occasions, but few of his questioners were able to grasp, even conceptually, the implications of such a statement. Because of this he usually adapted his ideas in such a way that they conformed to the prejudices of his listeners.

In most of the conversations in this chapter he accepts that his questioners perceive a distinction between the jnani and the ajnani,and without challenging the basis of that assumption, he assumes the role of the jnani and attempts to explain the implications of being in that state.

Q: Then what is the difference between the baddha and the mukta, the bound man and the one liberated?

A: The ordinary man lives in the brain unaware of himself in the Heart. The jnana siddha (jnani] lives in the Heart. When he moves about and deals with men and things, he knows that what he sees is not separate from the one supreme reality, the Brahman which he realized in the Heart as his own Self, the real.

Q: What about the ordinary man?

A: I have just said that he sees things outside himself. He is separate from the world, from his own deeper truth, from the truth that supports him and what he sees. The man who has realized the supreme truth of his own existence realizes the one supreme reality that is there behind him, behind the world. In fact, he is aware of the one, as the real, the Self in selves, in all things, eternal and immutable, in all that is impermanent and mutable.

Q: What is the relation between the pure consciousness realized by the jnani and the 'I am'-ness which is accepted as the primary datum of experience?

A: The undifferentiated consciousness of pure being is the Heart or hridayam, which is what you really are. From the heart arises the 'I am'-ness as the primary datum of one's experience.By itself it is completely pure [suddha-sattva] in character. It is in this form of pristine purity [suddha-sattva-swarupa], uncontaminated by rajas and tamas [activity and inertia], that the 'I' appears to subsist in the jnani.

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