self

Everyone is the Self, indeed infinite. 

Yet each one mistakes the  body for the Self. 

To know anything, illumination is necessary. 

Such illuminating agency can only be in the form of light which is however lighting the physical light and darkness. So then that other  Light lies beyond the apparent light and darkness. It is itself neither  light nor darkness but is said to be Light because It illumines both. 

It is also Infinite and remains as Consciousness. 

Consciousness is  the Self of which everyone is aware. 

No one is away from the Self. 

So each one is Self-realised. 

Yet what a mystery that no one knows 

this fundamental fact, and desires to realise the Self? 

This ignorance is due to the mistaking of the body for the Self. 

Realisation now consists in getting rid of this false idea that one  is not realised. Realisation is not anything newly got. It must  be already there in order that it may be permanent. Otherwise  Realisation is not worth attempting.

After the false notion ‘I-am-the-body’ or ‘I have not realised’  is removed, Supreme Consciousness or the Self alone is left 

over, which is however called Realisation in the present state of  knowledge. 

However, the truth is that Realisation is eternal and  already there, here and now.

Finally, Realisation amounts to elimination of ignorance and  nothing more or less.

# Talk 482.

~ Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi