Ramana Maharshi Quotes

1. “Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.”

— Ramana Maharshi

2. “The question ‘Who am I?’ is not really meant to get an answer, the question ‘Who am I?’ is meant to dissolve the questioner.”

— Ramana Maharshi

3. “Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.”

— Ramana Maharshi

Featured in: Mindfulness Quotes, Desire Quotes

4. “Thoughts come and go. Feelings come and go. Find out what it is that remains.”

— Ramana Maharshi

5. “Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”

— Ramana Maharshi

6. “Silence is truth. Silence is bliss. Silence is peace. And hence Silence is the Self.”

— Ramana Maharshi

7. “Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself.”

— Ramana Maharshi

8. “You are already that which you seek.”

— Ramana Maharshi

9. “If one’s mind has peace, the whole world will appear peaceful.”

— Ramana Maharshi

10. “As you are, so is the world.”

— Ramana Maharshi

11. “Peace is your natural state. It is the mind that obstructs the natural state.”

— Ramana Maharshi

12. “The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts and the degree of concentration on a single thought are the measures to gauge spiritual progress.”

— Ramana Maharshi

13. “Silence is most powerful. Speech is always less powerful than silence.”

— Ramana Maharshi

14. “How to get rid of the mind? Is it the mind that wants to kill itself? The mind cannot kill itself. So your business is to find the real nature of the mind. Then you will know that there is no mind. When the Self is sought, the mind is nowhere. Abiding in the Self, one need not worry about the mind.”

— Ramana Maharshi

15. “Correcting oneself is correcting the whole world. The Sun is simply bright. It does not correct anyone. Because it shines, the whole world is full of light. Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole world.”

— Ramana Maharshi

16. “If the ego rises, all else will also rise; if it subsides, all else will also subside.”

— Ramana Maharshi

17. “Pleasure and pain are only aspects of the mind. Our essential nature is happiness.”

— Ramana Maharshi

18. “The Self alone exists. When you try to trace the ego, which is the basis of the perception of the world and everything else, you find the ego does not exist at all and neither does all this creation that you see.”

— Ramana Maharshi

19. “He who thinks he is the doer is also the sufferer.”

— Ramana Maharshi

20. “Grace is ever present. All that is necessary is that you surrender to it.”

— Ramana Maharshi

21. “When one makes the mind stick to one thought, the mind becomes rock-steady and the energy is conserved.”

— Ramana Maharshi

22. “Why should you trouble yourself about the future? You do not even properly know about the present. Take care of the present, the future will take care of itself.”

— Ramana Maharshi

23. “Realisation is not acquisition of anything new nor is it a new faculty. It is only removal of all camouflage.”

— Ramana Maharshi

24. “You are all searching for the silence of the mountain. But you’re looking for something outside. This silence is accessible to you right now, inside the center of your own being.”

— Ramana Maharshi

25. “When there are thoughts, it is distraction: when there are no thoughts, it is meditation.”

— Ramana Maharshi

26. “Silence is also conversation.”

— Ramana Maharshi

27. “The fact is that the mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The mind is fattened by new thoughts rising up. Therefore it is foolish to attempt to kill the mind by means of the mind. The only way of doing it is to find its source and hold on to it. The mind will then fade away of its own accord.”

— Ramana Maharshi

28. “Self-inquiry is the process and the goal also. ‘I am’ is the goal and the final reality. To hold to it with effort is self-inquiry. When spontaneous and natural it is realization.”

— Ramana Maharshi

29. “The inquiry “who am I” turns the mind introvert and makes it calm.”

— Ramana Maharshi

30. “The thing to do is to concentrate on the seer and not on the seen, not on the objects, but on the Light which reveals them.”

— Ramana Maharshi

31. “There is nothing wrong with God’s creation. Mystery and Suffering only exist in the mind.”

— Ramana Maharshi

32. “The end of all wisdom is love, love, love.”

— Ramana Maharshi

33. “That which is not present in deep dreamless sleep is not real.”

— Ramana Maharshi

34. “The world is not outside you.”

— Ramana Maharshi

35. “Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that. I Am That I Am sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in Be Still.”

— Ramana Maharshi

36. “Calmness is the criterion of spiritual progress. Plunge the purified mind into the Heart. Then the work is over.”

— Ramana Maharshi

37. “You and I are the same. What I have done is surely possible for all. You are the Self now and can never be anything else. Throw your worries to the wind, turn within and find Peace.”

— Ramana Maharshi

38. “I see only what you see, but I notice what I see.”

— Ramana Maharshi

39. “In truth, you are spirit. The body has been projected by the mind, which itself originates from Spirit.”

— Ramana Maharshi

40. “There is neither creation nor destruction, neither destiny nor free will, neither path nor achievement. This is the final truth.”

— Ramana Maharshi

41. “To ask the mind to kill itself is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see where the mind rises from, and then it will cease to exist.”

— Ramana Maharshi

42. “Reality is simply the loss of ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and reality will shine forth by itself.”

— Ramana Maharshi

43. “Forgetfulness of your real nature is true death; remembrance of it is rebirth.”

— Ramana Maharshi

44. “True Silence is really endless speech.”

— Ramana Maharshi

45. “When the mind is left without anything to cling to, it becomes still.”

— Ramana Maharshi

46. “The ultimate truth is so simple. It is nothing more than being in the pristine state. This is all that needs to be said. Only mature minds can grasp the simple truth in all its nakedness.”

— Ramana Maharshi

47. “The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything.”

— Ramana Maharshi

48. “Doubts arise because of an absence of surrender.”

— Ramana Maharshi

49. “The world is illusory, Only Brahman is real, Brahman is the world.”

— Ramana Maharshi

50. “The very fact that we wish for liberation shows that freedom from all bondage is our real nature. It is not to be freshly acquired. All that is necessary is to get rid of the false notion that we are bound.”

— Ramana Maharshi