From 'Maharshi's Gospel': II.I ('Self-Enquiry').
Devotee : But is it not funny that the ‘I’ should be searching for the ‘I’? Does not the enquiry, ‘Who am I?’ turn out in the end an empty formula? Or, am I to put the question to myself endlessly, repeating it like some mantra?
Maharishi : Self-enquiry is certainly not an empty formula; it is more than the repetition of any mantra. If the enquiry, ‘Who am I?’ were a mere mental questioning, it would not be of much value. The very purpose of Self-enquiry is to focus the entire mind at its source. It is not, therefore, a case of one ‘I’ searching for another ‘I’.
Much less is Self-enquiry an empty formula, for it involves an intense activity of the entire mind to keep it steadily poised in pure Self-awareness.
Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, to realise the unconditioned, Absolute Being that you really are.
Sri Ramana Maharishi
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