On Ramana Maharshi: Source of thought

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

“I is the root of all thoughts because in the end very thought occurs to the ‘I’.

So, first try to get hold of who this ‘I’ is, which will lead the enquirer dissolve and merge in the source.”

~ Sri Raman Maharishi

Question: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! I want to know the source of thought.

Whenever I enquire, I cannot dig deep. There is no intensity in the digging. How to get that intensity in the enquiry? Also, please explain these lines by Sri Raman Maharishi.

Acharya Prashant Ji: What enquiry do you want to do Ashish (the questioner)? Why do you want to know the source of thought?

Why is an enquiry needed at all?

Don’t you directly see where your thoughts are coming from? Don’t you know ‘desire’? Don’t you know ‘jealousy’? Don’t you know ‘competition’?

Where else are your thoughts coming from?

That which is directly available to be known, must not be unnecessarily made mysterious.

You are saying, “Whenever I enquire, I cannot dig deep. There is no intensity in the digging.” You cannot dig deep because there is nothing to dig at. Only the Truth is deep, and you cannot dig your way down to the Truth. When you will dig, you will come to your own personal center, and that’s all. And that center is shallow. So how deep can you dig?

Your digging cannot take you to Atman or Truth.

As long as the digger is there as someone separate from the Atman, as long as there is someone doing the digging, how are you going to reach the Atman?

The very act of digging, will keep the digger intact.

The very act of trying to know the source of thought, will keep the striving one, the effortful one intact.

You want to know where your thoughts are coming from?

Your thoughts are coming from the same point, from where the desire to know the source of thoughts is coming.