Who Am I? - INTRO-&-Q-1
Introduction:
(an edited excerpt from the Introduction given in the publication, Who Am I? , Sri Ramanasramam)
“Who am I?” (Nan Yar, in Tamil) is the title given to a set of questions and answers put to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi (known at that time, as Brahman Swami) by one Sri M. Sivaprakasam Pillai about the year 1902; when Brahman Swami was residing at the Virupaksha Cave on the mountain Arunachala, in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India. Sivaprakasam Pillai, a graduate in Philosophy, was at the time employed in the Revenue Department. During his visit to Tiruvannamalai in 1902 on official work, he went to Virupaksha Cave on Arunachala Hill and met the Master there. He sought from him spiritual guidance, and solicited answers to questions relating to Self-enquiry.
Brahman Swami was maintaining silence then, not because of any vow he had taken, but because he did not have the inclination to talk. He answered the questions put to him by gestures, and when offered a piece of paper, in writing.
As recollected and recorded by Sivaprakasam Pillai, there were fourteen questions and their answers. This record was first published by Sri Pillai in 1923, along with a couple of poems composed by himself relating to how Bhagavan’s grace operated in his case by dispelling his doubts and by saving him from a crisis in life.
We find thirty questions and answers in some editions and twenty-eight in others. The present English translation is of the text in the form of twenty-eight Q & A rearranged in the form of an essay.
Along with Vichara Sangraha (Self-Enquiry), Nan Yar, or Who am I? constitutes the first set of
instructions in the Master’s own words. These two are the only prose pieces among Bhagavan’s
Works.
The central teaching is that the direct path to liberation is, Self-enquiry.
The particular mode in which the enquiry is to be made is lucidly explained by Sri Ramana Maharshi. The mind consists of thoughts. The ‘i’ thought is the first to arise in the mind. When the enquiry ‘ Who am I?’ is persistently pursued, all other thoughts get destroyed, and finally the ‘i’ thought itself vanishes leaving the supreme non-dual Self (the "I") alone.
The process of enquiry of course, is not an easy one. As one enquires ‘Who am I?’, other thoughts will arise; but as these arise, one should not yield to them by following them , on the contrary, one should ask ‘To whom do they arise ?’
All other disciplines such as breath-control and
meditation on the forms of God should be regarded as auxiliary practices. They are useful in so far
as they help the mind to become quiescent and one-pointed.
This, in substance, is Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teaching in Nan Yar (Who am I?).
(an edited excerpt from the Introduction given in the publication, Who Am I? , Sri Ramanasramam)
Q 1: Who am I ?
The gross body which is composed of the seven humours (dhatus), I am not; the five cognitive
sense organs, viz. the senses of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell, which apprehend their
respective objects, viz. sound, touch, colour, taste, and odour, I am not; the five cognitive sense organs, viz. the organs of speech, locomotion, grasping, excretion, and procreation, which have as
their respective functions speaking, moving, grasping, excreting, and enjoying, I am not; the five
vital airs, prana, etc., which perform respectively the five functions of in-breathing, etc., I am not;
even the mind which thinks, I am not; the nescience too, which is endowed only with the residual
impressions of objects, and in which there are no objects and no functioning, I am not.
Негізгі бет Who Am I? - INTRO-&-Q-1
Пікірлер