How Can the Self Be Beyond the Mind and Yet Be Realized Through It? | Ramana Answers

🪔 This video is made with excerpts taken from Ramana's own teachings from the book "Be As You Are", recorded with a human voice and made by devotees for devotees.

Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) was one of the greatest sages of modern India, whose silent presence and direct teachings on Ātma-vicāra (Self-inquiry) revived the timeless wisdom of Advaita Vedānta. Born in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu, his spontaneous realization at sixteen led him to Arunachala, the sacred hill that became his lifelong abode. Ramana's life embodied the essence of simplicity, peace, and stillness—his words consistently pointed to the direct experience of the Self (Ātman) as pure Consciousness, beyond mind and ego. Through his teachings, he guided seekers to turn inward, transcending thought and duality, revealing that liberation (mokṣa) is not attained but rather revealed as eternal Nature itself.

In this profound dialogue from the book "Be As You Are," Ramana addresses a subtle paradox of spiritual practice: if the Self is beyond the mind, how can realization occur through it? His answer reveals the key to nondual understanding—realization occurs through mṛta manas, the "dead mind," which is a mind free of thoughts and turned inward toward its own Source. Just as a lamp is necessary to see objects in the dark but becomes unnecessary when the sun rises, the mind is necessary to perceive the world; however, when it turns toward the Heart—the luminous Self—it dissolves, and only pure Consciousness remains.

Ramana explains that the true Essence of the mind is cit, pure Consciousness. When it identifies with the ego, it becomes the faculty of thought and feeling, creating the illusion of individuality. The cosmic Mind, free of ego, is pure Consciousness itself—the same truth expressed in the biblical phrase "I Am That I Am." When the mind merges with its Source, all notions of action, knowledge, and desire disappear, revealing liberation as the natural state, free from saṁsāra, the cycle of birth and death.

The dialogue deepens as Ramana addresses the nature of ahaṁkāra (ego). To ask how to destroy it is to strengthen it; instead, one must seek its source. In seeking, the ego reveals itself to be nonexistent—an illusion that fades when examined. Realization arises when this false identification, the idea of ​​dehātma buddhi (I am the body), dissolves, leaving only the pure "I," shining in the silence between thoughts and states beyond. Ramana compares the ego to a caterpillar that lets go only after clinging to another branch—it cannot exist without an object. The pure Self is discovered only when this objectifying tendency ceases and the mind rests in its natural stillness.

In these luminous words, Ramana unveils the mystery of Self-realization—not as an achievement through effort, but as the effortless recognition of What already is. The mind, when stilled and turned inward, becomes the very door through which the eternal Self reveals itself as a pure, self-luminous Being.

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