Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

There is no difficulty in gathering them. The real difficulty
is in throwing them out. We find it difficult to see what is
inhering in us and what is foreign to us. See, what a great
tragedy it is!” said Bhagavan.

Some time ago, when a Bengali youth asked similar
questions, Bhagavan explained to him at great length. His
doubts not being cleared, that youth asked, “You say that
the Self is present at all times and at all places. Where
exactly is that ‘I’?” Bhagavan replied with a smile, “When
I say you are present at all times and at all places and you
ask where is that ‘I’, it is something like asking, when you
are in Tiruvannamalai, ‘Where is Tiruvannamalai?’ When
you are everywhere, where are you to search? The real
delusion is the feeling that you are the body. When you
get rid of that delusion, what remains is your Self. You
should search for a thing which is not with you but where
is the need to search for a thing which is always with you?
All sadhanas are for getting rid of the delusion that you
are the body. The knowledge that ‘I am’ is always there:
call it Atma, or Paramatma or whatever you like. One should
get rid of the idea that ‘I am the body’. There is no need
to search for that ‘I’ that is the self. That Self is all-
pervading.”
As an illustration of this, I give hereunder the words of
Bhagavan in “Unnadhi Nalupadhi”:
Without the Self where is time and where is space? If we
are the body, we have to be bound by time and space. Are
we the body? We are one and identical now, then and
always; here, there and everywhere. So, we are existent,
without time and space.”
Reality in Forty Verses, verse 16