satyam

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Srinivas Sista <sista at ecn.purdue.edu> wrote:

>Here is a suggestion. Ask, "who is it that thinks that he/she cannot
>ask the question `who am I' and is not an advanced and a pure being"?
>The reason why I am suggesting it is, there seems to be a wide spread
>opinion that enquiry should be `asking the question who am i' and
that
>is only for advanced and pure beings. Since the objective is to mov\
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Actually that is indeed the situation.  The most famous proponent of
this method, namely Ramana Maharshi admits this in many places. I have
read the autobiographies of all his close disciples and they say that
they could not do this for a very long time. For some, it took many
years after Maharshis death to engage in enquiry. Read for eg,
Devaraja Mudaliars autobiography or Ganapati Munis autobiography. Mind
you they even had the benefit of personal association.

It may come naturally for you, but for most people (including me) its
virtually impossible. Since I know you personally, I can well believe
that it comes naturally for you. However, I am quite skeptical of
droves of these internet gurus who attained realization by looking at
a picture of Ramana Maharshi.

Rama