Who am I? is the title given to a set of questions and answers bearing on Self-enquiry. The questions were to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi by Sri M. Sivaprakasam Pillai, about the year 1902. Sri Pillai, a graduate in philosophy, was ath the time employed in the Revenue Department of the South Arcot Collectorate. During his visit to Tiruvannamalai in 1902 on official work, he went to Virupaksha Cave on Arunachala Hill and met the Maharshi there. He sought from him spiritual guidance and solicited answers to questions relating to Self-enquiry. As Bhagavan was not talking then, not because of any vow he had taken but because he did not have the inclination to talk, he answered questions put to him by writing. As recollected and recored by Sri Sivaparakasam Pillai, there were thirteen questions and answeres to them given by Bhagavan. This record was first published by Sri Pillai in 1923 (in the original Tamil), along with couple of poems composed by himself relating how Bhagavan's grace operated in his case by dispelling his doubts and by saving him from a crisis in life. Who am I? has been published several times subsequently. We find thirteen questions and answers in some editions and twenty-eight in others. Threre is also another published version in which the questions are not given, and the teachings are rearranged in the form of an essay. The extant English translation is of this essay. The present rendering is of the txt in the form of twenty-eight questions and answers.
Along with Vicharasangraham (Self-Enquriy), Nan Yar (Who am I?) constitutes the first set of instructions in the Master's own words. These two are the only prose pieces among Bhagavan's works. They clearly set forth the central teaching that the direct path to liberation is Self-enquiry. The particular mode in which the enquiry is to be made is lucidly set forth in Nan Yar. The mind consists of thoughts. The "I" -thought is the first to arise in the mind. When the enquiry "Who am I?" is persistenty pursued, all other thoughts get destroyed, and finally the "I" - thought itself vanishes leaving the supreme non-dual Self alone. The false identification of the Self with the phenomena of non-self such as the body and mind, thus ends, and there is illumination, sakshatkara. The process of enquiry, of cource , is not an easy one. As one enquires "Who am I?", other thoughts will arise, but as therse arise, one should not yield to them by following them; on the contary, one should ask, "To whom do they arise?" In order to do this, one has to be extremely vigilant. Through constant enquiry one should make the mind stay in its source, without allowing it to wanter away and get lost in the mazes of thought created by itself. All other disciplines such as breath-control and meditation on the forms of God should be regarded as auxiliary practices. They are useful so far as they help the mind to become quiescent and one-pointed. For the mind that has gained skill in concentration Self-enquiry becomes comparatively easy. It is by ceaseless enquiry that the thoughts are destroyed and the Self realised -- the plenary Reality in which there is not even the "I" -thought, the experience which is referred to as "Silence".
This, in substance, is Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi's teachings in Nan Yar (Who am I?)
T.M.P Mahadevan
University of Madras
June 30, 1982