Awareness is being.
Awareness is not doing.

Doing is work of mind.
Watching is work of mind.

Awareness cannot watch awareness.
Awareness just can be.


Ego sum qui sum.

If you are not sure how to do vichara,
it is better to do mental japa
than to waste time discussing how to do vichara.

When it is difficult to do mental japa,
how is it possible to do vichara
which is much subtler?

Japa, which is outside in the beginning,
will pull you down  from inside
and lead you to the Heart.
Then you will know how to do vichara.

    Japa means clinging to one though to the exclusion of all other thoughts. That is its purpose.
    It leads to dhyana which ends in Selfrealization or jnana.
                                           (Maharshi's Gospel)


Non veritatem amant,  sed disputationem.
Notice the difference between these two questions:

 1. To whom does this thought arise?

 2.  Who is thinking?


 The answer to the first question is  'To me'.

 But the answer to the second question is not  'It is I (who is thinking)'.
 The answer is  'It is not I (who is thinking)'.
'Who am I?' should be asked in the heart, not in the head.

Discriminate I-thought, which rests in the heart as the seer of other thoughts, from other thoughts which come and go in the head.


       The individuality of the person is operative as the perceiver of the existence of thoughts and of their sequence. This individuality is the ego, or as people say ‘I’. Vijnanamaya kosa (intellect) is only the sheath of ‘I’ and not the ‘I’ itself.
                   (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi) 


Vacate, et videte quoniam ego sum Deus.
Meditation should be done in the heart, not in the head.

Meditation in the heart is comfortable,
while meditation in the head is stressful.

You should not feel tension in your head in meditation.
Your head should be relaxed.

Meditation in the head might do more harm than good.
It can cause mental disorder.
It can create euphoric false happy feeling.
It can bring you into mano-laya.

Before starting meditation, first let your mind sink in the heart.
This is done with quiet of mind and humility.


   If concentration is made with the brain, sensations of heat and even headache ensue. Concentration has to be made in the heart, which is cool and refreshing.
                             (Guru Ramana by S.S.Cohen)
Whether one should concentrate on the right side of the chest
 or not -

You should not confuse 'concentration on the Heart on the right side of the chest' with 'concentration on the right side of the chest'.

Suppose you are concentrating on a cinema on a screen.
If you concentrate on the cinema, your concentration naturally comes on the screen.
But the converse is not necessarily true.
If you concentrate on the screen, it does not mean you concentrate on the cinema. You would miss the cinema.

The spiritual Heart lies in the right side of the chest.
If you concentrate on the spiritual Heart, your concentration comes naturally on the right side of the chest.

But if you concentrate on the right side of the chest, that does not mean you concentrate on the spiritual Heart.

When devotees had difficulty distinguishing these two, and mistakenly concentrating on the right side of the chest, Bhagavan advised to concentrate on the Heart, which is spiritual, not on the right side of the chest, which is physical.

When your mind becomes quiet, you feel 'I' in the right side of the chest, where the Heart lies.
While your mind is quiet, but not completely quiet, and you still have body-consciousness, you feel 'I' in the right side of the chest.
When your mind becomes even quieter and loses body-consciousness, you do not feel 'I' in relation to the body.


D.: Thoughts cease suddenly, then ‘I-I’ rises up as suddenly and continues. It is only in the feeling and not in the intellect. Can it be right?
M.: It is certainly right. Thoughts must cease and reason disappear for ‘I-I’ to rise up and be felt. Feeling is the prime factor and not reason.
D.: Moreover it is not in the head but in the right side of the chest.
M.: It ought to be so. Because the heart is there.
             (Talks, 4th February 1935, p.22)


cor sapientis in dextera eius et cor stulti in sinistra illius.