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Ramana Maharshi Quotes

Time is only an idea. There is only the Reality. Whatever you think it is, it looks like that. If you call it time, it is time. If you call it existence, it is existence, and so on. After calling it time, you divide it into days and nights, months, years, hours, minutes, etc. Time is immaterial for the Path of Knowledge.

– Ramana Maharshi

As instruments for knowing the objects, the sense organs are outside, and so they are called outer senses; and the mind is called the inner sense because it is inside. But the distinction between inner and outer is only with reference to the body; in truth, there is neither inner nor outer. The mind’s nature is to remain pure like ether.

– Ramana Maharshi

It is the Higher Power which does everything, and the man is only a tool. If he accepts that position, he is free from troubles; otherwise, he courts them.

– Ramana Maharshi

Self-reform automatically brings about social reform.

– 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.

– Ramana Maharshi

There is no doubt whatsoever that the universe is the merest illusion.

– Ramana Maharshi

The body dies, but the spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death.

– Ramana Maharshi

That which comes and goes, rises and sets, is born and dies is the ego. That which always abides, never changes, and is devoid of qualities is the Self.

– Ramana Maharshi

Mind is consciousness which has put on limitations. You are originally unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limitations and become the mind.

– Ramana Maharshi

Think of God; attachments will gradually drop away. If you wait till all desires disappear before starting your devotion and prayer, you will have to wait for a very long time indeed.

– Ramana Maharshi

Without understanding yourself, what is the use of trying to understand the world?

– Ramana Maharshi

The best way to meditate is through meditation itself.

– Ramana Maharshi

Doubts never end. If one doubt is removed, another takes its place. It is like removing the leaves of a tree one by one. Even if all the leaves are clipped off, new ones grow. The tree itself must be uprooted.

– Ramana Maharshi

Time and space always change, but there is something which is eternal and changeless. For example, the world and time, past or future, nothing exists for us in sleep. But we exist. Let us try to find out that which is changeless and which always exists.

– Ramana Maharshi

Let come what comes, let go what goes. See what remains.

– 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.

– Ramana Maharshi

All activities and events that a body is to go through are determined at the time of conception.

– Ramana Maharshi

Actions yield result by the ordinance of God as He wills.

– Ramana Maharshi

Our own self-realization is the greatest service we can render the world.

– Ramana Maharshi

Silence is ever speaking; it is the perennial flow of language.

– Ramana Maharshi

I am not the perishable body, but the eternal Self.

– 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

You need not aspire for or get any new state. Get rid of your present thoughts, that is all.

– Ramana Maharshi

Silence is also conversation.

– Ramana Maharshi

The Real is ever-present, like the screen on which the cinematographic pictures move. While the picture appears on it, the screen remains invisible. Stop the picture, and the screen will become clear. All thoughts and events are merely pictures moving on the screen of Pure Consciousness, which alone is real.

– Ramana Maharshi

No one succeeds without effort… Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance.

– Ramana Maharshi