[Advaita-l] 'Who Am I?' - Eminently Upaniṣadic

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Namaste Bhaskarji
The context in which Sri Lakshmana Sarma says it resolves the question.

He had 2 options -
1. The direct upadesha and samvAda with a 'living' Guru in whose words
Lakshmana Sarma had 100% Astikya buddhi and pramANatva buddhi.

2. Pore over several books and bhAShya-s on the Upanishads and figure out
things by himself.

He exalts the first alternative. Perfectly understandable. svAtantreNa
shAstrANveshaNam na kuryAt. He was convinced his Guru was giving him the
essence of the shAstra alone, not some different teaching contrary to
shAstra.

It is mistakenly assumed that Sri Ramana Maharshi was mostly silent. That
is not at all true. It was only in the initial years until 1916 that this
is the case. For the last 30 odd years, Sri Ramana Maharshi was freely
accessible and held on occasion long conversations etc. For Lakshmana Sarma
he taught him the prakaraNa grantha 'Forty verses on Reality' over hunderds
of hours of teaching him on a one-to-one basis. Quite effective shravaNam
for the student. Better than self-study of 'old lore' for him.

Om