ॐ
What is called happiness is only svarūpa [the ‘own form’ or actual nature] of ātmā [self];
Happiness and ātma-svarūpa [our own actual self] are not different.
Ātma-sukha [the happiness of self] alone exists; that alone is real.
Happiness is not obtained from any of the objects of the world. We think that happiness is obtained from them because of our lack of discrimination.
When [our] mind comes out, it experiences unhappiness.
In truth, whenever our thoughts [or wishes] are fulfilled, it [our mind] turns back to its proper place [the core of our being, our real self, which is the source from which it arose] and experiences only the happiness of self.
In the same way, at times of sleep, samādhi [a state of intense contemplation or absorption of mind] and fainting, and when a desired thing is obtained, and when termination occurs to a disliked thing [that is, when our mind avoids or is relieved from some experience that it dislikes], [our] mind becomes introverted and experiences only the happiness of self.
In this way [our] mind wavers about without rest, going outwards leaving self, and [then] turning [back] inwards.
At the foot of a tree the shade is delightful. Outside the heat of the sun is severe. A person who is wandering outside is cooled by going into the shade. Emerging outside after a short while, he is unable to bear the heat, so he again comes to the foot of the tree. In this way he continues, going from the shade into the sunshine, and going [back] from the sunshine into the shade. A person who acts in this manner is someone lacking in discrimination. But a person of discrimination will not leave the shade.
Similarly, the mind of a jñāni [a person of true self-knowledge] does not leave brahman [the fundamental and absolute reality, which is our own actual self and the sole substance of everything].
But the mind of an ajñāni [a person lacking true self-knowledge] continues to undergo misery by roaming about in the world, and to obtain happiness by returning to brahman for a short while.
What is called the world is only thought [because like the ‘world’ that we experience in a dream, all that we experience as the ‘world’ in this waking state is nothing but a series of mental images, ideas or thoughts that we have formed in our mind by our power of imagination].
When the world disappears, that is, when thought ceases, [our] mind experiences happiness; when the world appears, it experiences unhappiness.
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi - WHO AM I?, Paragraph Fourteen
Original Tamil prose by Bhagavan Sri Ramana with English translation by Michael James
