Nan Yar? Who Am I?

The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi
What is liberation? How does the mind become still? What is happiness?

Who am I? is the title of a series of 28 questions and answers that Sri M. Shivaprakasham Pillai asked the Indian master Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi around 1902. He visited the master in a cave on Mount Arunachala in southern India and asked for spiritual guidance.

It is recorded that Ramana Maharshi answered these questions in Tamil, the language he was familiar with. This text was first published in Tamil in 1923, underwent several revisions, was translated into English by an Indian scholar from the University of Madras in 1982 and finally translated into a modern German version in 2002. The questions that were asked over a hundred years ago have lost none of their validity. The radical answers bear witness to a profound knowledge of the nature of the human spirit and point in an emphatic and uncompromising way to the possibility of realising our true self. This work is one of the only two prose pieces among Ramana Maharshi’s messages in his own words. They clearly represent the central teaching that the path of knowledge, the enquiry with the question ‘Who am I?’ is the direct path to liberation.

‘Self-enquiry leads directly to Self-realisation by removing the obstacles that make us think that the Self is not yet realised.’
Sri Ramana Maharshi

In the foreword, OM C. Parkin describes the essence of this spiritual treasure in clear and impressive words: ‘All questions that arise from the depths of the human soul ultimately lead to a single one: “Who am I?” The instruction to this last of all questions contains the knowledge that everything a person seeks can only be found within. Love is within. Truth is within. God is within. God is the Self.’

Spoken by: OM C. Parkin