Voices of the Eternal — Ramana: The Question That Dissolves the Questioner
- Sukhdev Virdee
- Jul 26
- 3 min read
When someone asked Ramana Maharshi,
“Who are you?”,
he didn’t rush to answer.
He just looked at them.
Not in the way people look.
But as stillness looks —
from the place before thought, before identity, before the answer.
Eventually, he said:
“Find out who is asking the question.”
And that wasn’t a clever reply.
That was the answer.
The Real Inquiry
Ramana wasn’t interested in teaching philosophies.
He wasn’t trying to convince anyone of anything.
He simply pointed to one thing over and over again:
“Who am I?”
Not intellectually.
Not as a riddle.
Not as a technique.
But as a pathless path into silence.
Why "Who Am I?" Isn't a Question
It's not a question you answer with words.
The mind wants to say:
“I’m the Self.”
“I’m consciousness.”
“I’m That.”
But Ramana would just look at you,
not as someone needing better concepts,
but as someone already free —
just dreaming of bondage.
His "Who am I?" wasn't a search for identity.
It was a dismantling of it.
Like taking apart a clock, gear by gear,
until you’re left with nothing ticking inside.
It's Not About Getting the Right Answer
Most seekers come with a spiritual résumé:
“I’ve read Nisargadatta. I’ve done Vipassana. I chant Om.”
But to Ramana, none of it mattered.
He wasn’t impressed by progress.
He wasn’t interested in your past or how much you’ve suffered.
He just wanted you to stop running.
“Be still,” he said,
“and know that you are the Self.”
Not the person.
Not the story.
Not the thoughts claiming ownership of a body.
Just the silent, unchanging witness behind it all.
That Day on Arunachala…
I remember walking up the sacred hill of Arunachala,
the very mountain Ramana called his guru.
There was no fanfare.
Just dirt, rock, sun, and the occasional monkey.
But something deeper stirred —
a presence so silent it felt like the air was listening.
I sat under a tree,
closed my eyes,
and asked, “Who am I?”
And for a moment…
There was no answer.
No seeker.
No Sukhdev.
Just awareness.
Just presence.
Just this.
No Drama in Truth
Ramana’s greatness was not in what he said,
but in how he said nothing.
He didn’t market enlightenment.
He didn’t travel or create a movement.
He just sat… day after day… in stillness.
And people came.
Because truth doesn’t need promotion.
It just is.
And those ready to see it… will.
The Trap of the Mind
We think we’re walking toward truth,
but often we’re just walking in circles,
carrying spiritual books and concepts like baggage.
Ramana invites us to drop all of it.
Not later.
Now.
“There is no reaching the Self. You are the Self.”
So the journey isn’t forward.
It’s inward.
And then—
inward collapses too.
What remains is That.
A Living Silence
Ramana’s presence was silence,
not the absence of sound,
but the absence of the one who reacts to sound.
The absence of the “me” who tries to grasp truth.
And that’s why even now,
decades after his body dissolved,
his voice still echoes:
“Find out who is asking the question.”
Because in the end,
there is no answer.
There’s only the quiet dissolving of the questioner.
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Words may point, but silence reveals.
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