Skip to content

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 Interview (1945)

Another quote →

Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: Interview (c. 1945) in The Spiritual Teachings of Ramana Maharshi (1972), p. 75
Work: Interview, 1945
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Ramana Maharshi

"Knowledge itself is 'I'. The nature of (this) knowledge is existence-consciousness-bliss."

Who am I? (Nan Yar) (2015)

"Of all the thoughts that rise in the mind, the thought 'I' is the first thought."

Who am I? (Nan Yar) (2015)

Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.

Abide as the Self by Ramana Maharshi and Ram Dass (1997)

Let knowledge be guessed by the sign of equality to all beings.

Sri Ramana Gita (1998)

Unless one is happy, one cannot bestow happiness on others.

Abide as the Self by Ramana Maharshi and Ram Dass (1997)

15. As in the night when the sun is not present, one sees the light in the moon, the man who is not present in the heart, sees merely the mind.

True silence is really endless speech.

Abide as the Self by Ramana Maharshi and Ram Dass (1997)

There is no greater mystery than this: being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.

Abide as the Self by Ramana Maharshi and Ram Dass (1997)

All Ramana Maharshi quotes →

More quotes by Ramana Maharshi

Forgetfulness of your real nature is true death; remembrance of it is rebirth

Abide as the Self by Ramana Maharshi and Ram Dass (1997)

Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage is characterized by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a fast rotating gyroscope.

Abide as the Self by Ramana Maharshi and Ram Dass (1997)

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.

Until realisation there will be Karma, that is action and reaction. After realisation there will be no Karma and no world.

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.

Abide as the Self by Ramana Maharshi and Ram Dass (1997)

All Ramana Maharshi quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ramana Maharshi (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.