Who Am I?

Who Am I? is a brief text compiled from Ramana Maharshi's answers to a seeker's questions, setting out the essence of his teaching in spare, direct form. Its central claim is that the sense of individual selfhood is illusory, and that what truly exists is pure awareness, the ever-present Self.

The method it presents is atma-vichara, self-inquiry: persistently asking "Who am I?" and tracing the "I"-thought back to its source until the false self dissolves. The text dispenses with elaborate ritual and belief, reducing realization to a single precise practice available to anyone.

It became one of the most influential modern statements of Advaita Vedanta and a primary conduit for nondual teaching into Western consciousness culture. Its emphasis on awareness as the sole reality anticipates the consciousness-first framing later central to nondual discourse.