# Quote — Ramana Maharshi, Be As You Are

> The srutis [scriptures] speak of the Self as being the size of one's thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. They have no foundation in fact. It is only being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply being.

- Author: [Ramana Maharshi](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ramana-maharshi.md)
- Book: [Be As You Are](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ramana-maharshi/be-as-you-are.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi#Be_As_You_Are:_The_Teachings_of_Sri_Ramana_Maharshi,_by_Sri_Ramana_Maharshi,_edited_by_David_Godman_(September_1988)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ramana-maharshi/be-as-you-are/the-srutis-scriptures

## More from this book

> The reality which shines fully, without misery and without a body, not only when the world is known but also when the world is not known, is your real form [nija-swarupa].

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ramana-maharshi/be-as-you-are/the-reality-which-shines.md)

> The Self That in which all these worlds seem to exist steadily, that of which all these worlds are a possession, that from which all these worlds rise, that for which all these exist, that by which all these worlds come into existence and that which is indeed all these - that alone is the existing reality. Let us cherish that Self, which is the reality, in the Heart.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ramana-maharshi/be-as-you-are/the-self-that.md)

> Remembrance also is similarly relative, requiring an object to be remembered and a subject to remember. When there is no duality, who is to remember whom? The Self is ever-present. Each one wants to know the Self. What kind of help does one require to know oneself ? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light etc. How can it be so? It is not light, not darkness. It is only as it is. It cannot be defined.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ramana-maharshi/be-as-you-are/remembrance-also-is-similarly.md)