Ramana Maharshi quotes - page 2

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)
Let knowledge be guessed by the sign of equality to all beings. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
What message is needed when heart speaks to heart? View quote
Ramana Maharshi
Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that. I Am That I Am sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in Be Still. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
Reality is simply the loss of ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and reality will shine forth by itself. View quote
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. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true Self. Man's real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true Self. Man's search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true Self. The true Self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
19. 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. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
We see only the script and not the paper on which the script is written. The paper is there, whether the script is on it or not. To those who look upon the script as real, you have to say that it is unreal--an illusion--since it rests upon paper. The wise person looks upon both paper and script as one. View quote
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. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
If other thoughts rise, one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire, 'To whom did they arise?', it will be known 'To me'. If one then enquires 'Who am I?', the mind (power of attention) will turn back to its source. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases. (Ramana Maharshi)
Truly there is no cause for you to be miserable and unhappy. You yourself impose limitations on your true nature of infinite Being and then weep that you are but a finite creature. Then you take up this or that sadhana to transcend the nonexistent limitations. But if your sadhana itself assumes the existence of the limitations, how can it help you to transcend them? Hence I say know that you are really the infinite, pure Being, the Self Absolute. You are always that Self and nothing but that Self. Therefore, you can never be really ignorant of the Self; your ignorance is merely a formal ignorance... Know then that true Knowledge does not create a new Being for you; it only removes your "ignorant ignorance." Bliss is not added to your nature; it is merely revealed as your true and natural state, eternal and imperishable. The only way to be rid of your grief is to know and be the Self. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
All bad qualities centre round the ego. When the ego is gone, Realisation results by itself. There are neither good nor bad qualities in the Self. The Self is free from all qualities. Qualities pertain to the mind only. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
Silence is also conversation. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
If there is anything besides the Self there is reason to fear? Who sees the second? First, the ego arises and sees objects as external. If the ego does not rise, the Self alone exists and there is no second. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
All activities and events that a body is to go through are determined at the time of conception. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
17. The Jnanin present in the heart sees the mind merged in the light of the heart, like moonlight in the presence of the sun during the day. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
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)
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. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
2. That, from where all the activities of the embodied beings emerge, is mentioned as the heart. The description of its form is conceptual. View quote
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. View quote
Ramana Maharshi
8. For one stationed in the Self, Sahasrara will be of pure effulgence. There: if any mental formulation falls within its presence, it will not live. View quote
Ramana Maharshi