Ramana Maharshi's Who Am I?

turning our entire attention back on ourself to know our own fundamental awareness ‘I am’.

experiencing the outside world, because in experiencing the outside world we learn about ourself.’ While acknowledging that such external exploration offered only superficial knowledge, it represented his first steps to finding what he was seeking.

this practice of self-investigation not only purifies the mind more quickly and effectively than any other practice, but it is also the only practice that will get rid of the root of all impurities, namely ego.

The ego, being that which is aware of phenomena, can only be transcended by freeing oneself from all taste for phenomena. ‘This taste for phenomena, this liking to be aware of phenomena, is the very nature of the ego.’

We love only those things that make us happy. However, our love for ourself is unlimited, unlike our love for other things; our love for other things is limited.

Anything that is not our nature detracts from our happiness, so we always want to be free of what is unnatural in order to experience the happiness that is our nature.

it is only happiness that makes us love things. Thus, we love whatever makes us happy, and if something does not make us happy, we do not love it.

However, our love for ourself is unlimited, unlike our love for other things; our love for other things is limited.

The Tamil noun அறிவு (aṟivu) derives from the verb அறி (aṟi), which means to know, be aware, cognise, perceive, experience, ascertain or understand, so அறிவு (aṟivu) means knowledge in the broadest sense, and is therefore used to denote many different forms of knowledge, including awareness, consciousness, wisdom, intelligence, learning, understand