Who Am I?

Along with Vicharasangraham (Self-Enquiry), Nan Yar (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. They clearly set forth the central teaching that the direct path to liberation is Self-enquiry. The particular mode in which the enquiry is to be made is lucidly set forth in Nan Yar. 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 alone. The false identification of the Self with the phenomena of non-self such as the body and mind thus ends, and there is illumination, Sakshatkara. 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...

It was about six weeks before I left Madura for good that the great change in my life took place. It was quite sudden. I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle's house. I seldom had any sickness, and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it, and I did not try and account for it or to find out whether there was any reason for the fear. I just felt ' I am going to die' and began thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or my elders or friends; I felt that I had to solve the problem by myself, there and then. The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words: 'Now death has come; what does it mean? What is is that is dying? The body dies.' And I at once dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out stiff, as t...

Ramana Maharshi wrote little and usually taught in silence, but once he prepared the following, condensed by Shirish Murthy, who will be known to all those who visited Ramesh Balsekar . In the vast ocean of cause and effect, actions happen and impermanent results follow. If one takes them as ‘my’ actions the idea of having a free will gets stronger. This sense of personal doership gives rise to a feeling of guilt or pride and effectively blocks the spiritual understanding that everything happens according to the will of God. When there is total acceptance that all actions happen purely by the will of God, and if the fruits and the consequences are accepted as His grace, the mind gets purified and attains freedom from expectations. Accepting and understanding that God has created the world for His sport and God is playing the lila through billions of body-mind organisms, is better than chanting the sacred names of the Lord, which in turn is superior to worshipping the image of t...

Wayne Liquorman was both a spiritual seeker and a family man with a successful export business, when he met his first and final guru, Ramesh Balsekar, in September 1987. In April 1989 the process of seeking ended when enlightenment happened through the body-mind mechanism called Wayne. Wayne describes the event as being “of interest only to seekers.” His first book, No Way: A Guide For the Spiritually ‘Advanced’ was published in 1990 under the pen name Ram Tzu because he “didn't want a bunch of miserable seekers cluttering up his living room.” In fact, Wayne did not speak publicly until Ramesh asked him to do so in 1996. This enlightenment event and its aftermath are described in Wayne's second book, Acceptance of What IS, published in 2000. He is also the author of Never Mind... A journey into Non-duality, and the editor of Consciousness Speaks and several other books by Ramesh Balsekar, who refers to Wayne as his “spiritual son.” The teaching, as it happens through Wayne, is ...

The great Advaita Sage Nisargadatta Maharaj was born Maruti Kampli to devout Hindu parents on a small farm south of Mumbai in 1897. He left at 18 and settled in Mumbai. In spite of his poverty and lack of formal education, a forceful personality and desire for independence led him to start a string of eight retail shops that eventually employed 30 people. He also married and fathered four children. He had an interest in spiritual matters that worldly success did not satisfy, and in 1933 he was convinced to meet a friend’s guru - Siddharameshwar Maharaj. He quickly became a disciple and took the name Nisargadatta Maharaj. Shortly after the death of his guru in 1936, Nisargadatta attained realization. “My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense ‘I am’ and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures.” He left his family and business, expecting to live a life of renunciation in the Himalayas. H...

Om. I am neither the mind, Intelligence, ego nor chitta. Neither the ears, the tongue, Nor the senses of smell and sight. Neither ether nor air. I am eternal bliss and awareness - I am Shiva! I am Shiva! I am neither the prana, Nor the five vital breaths. Neither the seven elements of the body, Nor its five sheaths, Nor hands, nor feet, nor tongue, Nor other organ of action. I am eternal bliss and awareness - I am Shiva! I am Shiva! Neither fear, greed, delusion, Loathing, nor liking have I. Nothing of pride, or ego, Or dharma or liberation. Neither desire of the mind, Nor object of its desiring. I am eternal bliss and awareness - I am Shiva! I am Shiva! Nothing of pleasure or pain, Or virtue or vice, do I know. Of manta, of sacred place, Of Vedas or sacrifice. Neither I am the eater, The food or the act of eating. I am eternal bliss and awareness - I am Shiva! I am Shiva! Fear or death, I have none, Nor any distincton of caste. Neither father nor mother, Not even a birth, have I. Neit...

Al Drucker's talk about Sai Baba in 2003 can be seen here