Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

What shall I do?” he said.

Stretching out his hand towards the disciple, Bhagavan
said, “What do you think the book is teaching? You see
yourself and then see me. It is like asking you to see yourself
in a mirror. The mirror shows only what is on the face. If
you see the mirror after washing your face, the face will
appear to be clean. Otherwise the mirror will say there is
dirt here, come back after washing. A book does the same
thing. If you read the book after realising the Self, everything
will be easily understood. If you read it before realising the
Self, you will see ever so many defects. It will say, ‘First set
yourself right and then see me.’ That is all. First see your
Self. Why do you worry yourself about all that book
learning?”
The disciple was satisfied and went away encouraged.

Another disciple who has the courage to ask questions on
such matters, took up the thread of the conversation and
said, “Bhagavan, you have given him a peculiar
interpretation.” Bhagavan replied, “What is peculiar in it?
It is all true. What books did I read when I was young?
What did I learn from others? I was always immersed in
meditation. After some time, Palaniswamy used to bring from
various people a number of books containing Vedantic
literature and used to read them. He used to make many
mistakes in reading. He was elderly and was not well-read.

He was however anxious to read. He used to read with
tenacity and religious faith. Because of that I used to feel
happy. So, when I took those books in order to read them
myself, and tell him what was in them, I found that what all
was written therein had already been experienced by myself.

I was surprised. I wondered, ‘What is all this? It is already
written here in these books about myself.’ That was so in
every one of those books. As whatever is written there has
already been experienced by myself, I used to understand
the text in no time. What took him twenty days to read, I
used to finish reading in two days. He used to return the
books and bring others. That was how I came to know about
what was written in the books.”
One of the disciples said, “That is perhaps why
Sivaprakasam Pillai, while writing Bhagavan’s biography,
referred to Bhagavan even at the outset as ‘One who is a
Brahma Jnani without knowing the name of Brahman’.”
Bhagavan said: “Yes, Yes, that is right. That is why it is said
that one should first know about oneself before reading a
book. If that is done, it will be known that what is written in
the book is only an epitome of what is really experienced by
oneself. If one does not see one’s Self but reads a book, one
finds a number of defects.” “Is it possible for all to become
like Bhagavan? The use of a book at least helps one to set
right one’s defects,” said the disciple. “That is so. I did not
say that reading is no help. I merely said that there is no
need for illiterate people to think they can never attain moksha
on that account and thereby feel disheartened. See how
depressed he was when he asked me. If the facts are not
explained properly, he will feel still further depressed,” said
Bhagavan.