Sadhguru On Ramana Maharishi’s “Who Am I”

Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. What do you do when you burn with the question “Who am I?” Sadhguru answers this question with an insightful, thought provoking, inspiring, and humorous response. This is a profound lesson on how to turn inward and delve deep into your soul.

Transcript

Who am I is not a question that you ask somebody.

It's a question that you ask yourself.

You don't know who you are.

Is it a small problem?

So if you genuinely… if this question is burning within you,

Then you come.

Questioner 1 – Pranam Sadhguru.

I'm from West Bengal.

My name is Shourab Rathu Mukherjee.

I've been following you for last three months and… Sadhguru – Was that a warning?

Questioner 1 – No,

No.

Why?

Why,

Sir?

Sadhguru – No.

Questioner 1 – I have been following you for several last few months and I have been watching your videos and literally I can say that I'm your fan.

But I have one question that I have noticed that you have said that whatever we accumulate in our life like our salary,

Our reputation,

Our wealth,

Our body fat also,

It's all… we can say that it's mine,

But it's not me.

You say… I have seen this and it's extremely logical.

Sure,

I can say that the house is mine,

But that's not me.

I can say that the body is mine,

But that's not me.

Then what is me?

Then what is me?

If we… if I release whatever I earned,

If I remove whatever I earn,

Then what is me?

What is my existence?

That's what I want to know.

Why are you asking me,

Hmm?

Listen now.

Well,

What is you?

Right now,

What you think is me is just a bundle of thoughts,

Emotions,

Ideas,

Prejudices,

Philosophies,

Ideologies,

A hodgepodge of many things that you picked up.

You're a scrapbook.

Tch,

That doesn't sound good.

No,

You're a cocktail.

Shall we upgrade him a little more?

You are a bouquet of flowers.

All right.

So what is you?

This happened at the Cincinnati airport in Ohio,

United States.

People had lined up to check in at the airline ticket booth.

One man just skipped the line and came straight in the front and thrust his ticket.

The lady at the counter,

She said,

Sir,

There is a line.

He said,

No,

No,

I'm in a hurry.

She said,

Everybody's in a hurry,

You're on the same plane.

Please stand in the line.

Then he said,

Do you know who I am?

She looked at him,

Promptly picked up the microphone and said,

There is a man here who does not know who he is,

Can somebody help him?

So who am I is not a question that you ask somebody.

It's a question that you ask yourself.

Make it more and more profound.

Yes,

If you had stood up,

This is like a.

.

.

What you are asking is like a morning prayer,

You know,

How people pray.

Oh,

If you could learn one mantra,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

Your child is… hey,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No.

And phone also you can attend in between these days.

Even in the temple,

Priest is attending the phone in between,

All this.

This happened closer to Christmas,

A lady in Minnesota was praying,

It was overheard by the neighbors.

She was praying,

Dear God,

Please this time,

Last time that old fool Santa Claus came and he mistook my prayers.

What I want is a thin,

Slim body and a fat bank balance.

Last time he mistook this.

Why I'm saying this is,

You please look at all the prayers on the planet.

Dear God,

Give me this,

Give me that,

Save me,

Protect me.

Does it look like something divine or does it look like simple survival?

Survival,

Outsourced.

To survive on this planet,

You just need four limbs and a few brain cells which work.

So right now,

Sadhguru,

All that is okay but I want to know who I am.

This whole who am I business became very popular because of Ramana Maharshi,

You know.

You heard of Ramana Maharshi?

He's not a Bengali.

So Ramana said,

Who am I and sat down there.

People today think they don't have to do anything.

If they once in a while ask somebody,

Who am I,

They think they're being spiritual.

I was… I was teaching a program in Los Angeles.

There's a bunch of people,

About hundred-and-fifty people,

All prominent people,

Many of them from the Hollywood crowd and a whole lot of young women were looking similar.

They… they're not sisters,

They have the same doctor.

And then one of them says,

Sadhguru,

I'm just teaching them a simple twenty-one minute practice.

Why?

To turn you inward.

Because you're asking this question out,

You will not find anything.

If I tell you,

You are an atman,

Parmatman,

Nonsense,

Where does it take you?

Just more vocabulary.

See,

If I tell you,

You are a soul,

You are a divine entity,

You are atman,

You are parmatman,

You didn't get anywhere.

You just got more nonsensical vocabulary.

That's all you got.

So I said,

We're teaching you a simple process,

Twenty-one minutes,

How to turn inward.

But you're telling us all these twenty-one minutes,

We have to do all this.

But Ramana Maharshi said,

You don't have to do anything.

I said,

Whoa,

Whoa,

Ramana got to Los Angeles?

But Ramana did nothing,

That's a fact.

He simply sat like that,

Cross-legged,

Simply doing nothing,

Absolutely.

Rodents came and bit and ate his flesh.

It festered wounds,

Became worm infected.

He simply sat doing nothing.

If you can do that kind of doing nothing,

Immediately there is an answer,

All right?

But now in California,

They made like this,

If a mosquito bites,

They'll call 911.

Yes,

That's how it is.

In this state,

You don't ask.

So right now,

If this is an existential question,

This is not a small question.

You don't know who you are,

Is it a small problem?

Hmm?

It is a fundamental problem,

Isn't it?

And you're getting up and introducing yourself,

Where you… Bengal you come from and everything.

And now you're asking the question.

The question is not matured yet.

If you stood up and you could not ask question and tears came to you,

I would have answered this question completely differently.

But now it's a joke,

So I'm joking with you.

Is that okay?

Hmm?

Question is there,

It's a good thing,

The question is there.

But the question needs sharpness to penetrate.

It still doesn't have enough intensity that it can penetrate something.

It's right now a casual question.

So right now,

I can tell you something,

Who you are,

But it's not in your experience.

If I tell you something which is not in your experience,

What can you do?

You can believe it or you can disbelieve it.

If you believe it,

You are not any closer to it.

If you disbelieve it,

You are not any closer to it.

If you believe me,

You can go and tell some fancy positive story.

If you disbelieve me,

You can go and tell some negative story about me.

But you have not moved an inch,

Isn't it?

So if you genuinely… if this question is burning within you,

If tonight if this question bothers you so much,

You cannot sleep,

You cannot sit,

You cannot stand.

If it bothers you like that,

Then you come,

I'll give you something else,

Something totally different.

Thank you.

Reviews

You're just a precious teacher🌹 Namaste 🙏💫

Entertaining.

Always awesome!

Always so much wisdom, thank you 🙏

Profound.

It’s burning inside me Who Am I. Love to hear next podcast talk. 🙏

He’s the best

Laughter softens the correction. xx

Love every talk of it

I am light and peace, www.yogananda-srf.org. I am LOVE, all else is imagined confusion. When “right sized”, this body, this mind, this breath, these thoughts and awarenesses are simply tools, not who I am.

I am filled with www.gratefulness.org that pain (body) and suffering (mind) no longer haunt me. I am no longer “my body”, no longer attached to “my mind”. I am simply graced by this mind, this body as they serve me and I am blessed to be a steward of them.

I am grateful that Isha Kriya Yoga, “INNER ENGINEERING {author: Sadhguru}”, “the untethered soul {Michael A Singer, author, www.tou.org}” and the precise directions of pgs 1-103, 417, 567-8 of Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, www.aa.org, have supported me as I realize, moment by moment, that I am
acceptance,
community,
courage,
equality,
faith,
honesty,
hope,
humility,
integrity,
justice,
perserverance,
service,
simplicity,
spiritual fitness,
stewardship,
willingness, the SPICESS of LIFE (Living Integrated, FULLy Embodied, www.living-compassion.org).

In gratitude for this amazing inquiry, “Who am I” that only divinity can answer for each of us.

The divinity that flows through EACH of us, unique to NO one of us. The divinity whose CENTER is EVERYwhere, whose circumference is NOwhere.

In gratitude for Sadhguru and his dynamic embrace of life’s flow and the nuance of directing each of us to look inwardly, not heirarchically as we explore, “Who am I” in this moment, ahimsa

Excellent response. The question is “immature.”
A well formulated question has the answer embedded in it.

Haha this was spot on funny yet apropos.

Why are you asking me? 😁
Always a joy.
Thank you 🙏🏻😌

Excellent insight as always. Thank you for sharing this with me and the world. 🤲❤️🤲

Wisdom infused with humor. He is my guru. ☺️🙏🏽☺️

This talk highlights our inner journey of self awareness.
This place of letting go of who we think we are and to just be grateful we are coming home to awakening of our own inner universe.

Always a joy to listen to 🙏

That airport joke is a classic - once everyone realises who they are you might move into comedy...