The Alpha and Omega of Self-Inquiry

Authors Note.In the last century a significant event has taken place in the spiritual history of man on the form of Self realization of Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi.Many saints got Self realized but Bhagawan's appears to be unique.When Bhagawan got Self realized he is only 16 years of age,not yet under any established spiritual discipline.He never heard the word Brahman but he became Brahman.His death experience is unique in the spiritual history.Actually he underwent physical death at...
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Authors Note.In the last century a significant event has taken place in the spiritual history of man on the form of Self realization of Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi.Many saints got Self realized but Bhagawan's appears to be unique.When Bhagawan got Self realized he is only 16 years of age,not yet under any established spiritual discipline.He never heard the word Brahman but he became Brahman.His death experience is unique in the spiritual history.Actually he underwent physical death at the time of Self realization.During that period the conscious aspect of his mind inquired into what is death.He inquired into it with watchfulness, witnessing, without any interference of thought in the form of preconceived ideas, beliefs, dogmas, ideas of reincarnation etc about the death,so he is in direct contact with the "fact of death".After inquiring into death,he has gone beyond death, mrutyunjaya.But luckily for all of us the life forc has entered again into his body and he started moving.All this happened in just 20 minutes which never happened so easily in any other saints history.Similar death experiences happened two more times and Bhagawan existentially came to know that his essential nature is Pure conscious being but not body-mind complex as he previously thought to be.Since then he established as Brahman and lived life accordingly.He diagnosed the root cause of suffering is body identity through "I-am-the-body-idea".He found self-inquiry is the best and direct method to root out that identity with the body.All spiritual disciplines keep the "me" which is the source of misery and they go on "doing" something to attain the Self.In self-inquiry the very existence of me is questioned and scrutinized.So "me" is not used to do self-inquiry.In Upadesa saram in 17th sutra Bhagawan said when we set out find where is the "me",it will be found non-existent.(Naiva Manasam).So self-inquiry is a scientific method done with awareness about nature,structure,style of functioning of the "me".So self-inquiry does not belong to any religion and can be done by any sincre truth seeker irrespective of his background of what religion,belief,dogma he belongs to.So self-inquiry is an inquiry into the nature of impediments which are obstructing the discovery of inner Self,the immeasurable,that which is timeless and so eternal.In this book the author gives a brief biography of Bhagawan, his death experience in his own words, his original "Who-am-I" text, and the observations of the author on self-inquiry which may be useful for those who are doing self-inquiry in the light of Bhagawan.Bhagawan is such a great saint he conferred Self knowledge to a cow which we usually hear in ancient Puranas.His equanimity towards all beings is quite significant.The way he died is also unique.After his leaving the body,a blue light arose from his body,went high up in the sky like a meteor and finally merged in the holy mountain of Arunachala. Such event happened only in the case of Lord Krishna and Manikya Vachakar. For the author he is a living guru for him because "presence" of Bhagawan is palpable.