In the vision articulated by Ramana Maharshi, the sustained practice of Self-Inquiry, centered on the question “Who am I?”, gradually undermines false identifications with body, mind, emotions, and personal history. By persistently tracing every thought back to its origin—asking to whom it has arisen—the practitioner begins to see that the familiar “I-thought” is not the true Self but a transient construct. As this insight deepens, the ego-sense loses its apparent solidity, and attachment to mental fluctuations and external circumstances weakens. This dissolution of the ego is not a mere psychological adjustment; it is a fundamental reorientation of identity away from the changing and toward the unchanging.

As attention is turned inward from objects to the very subject that knows them, there is an increasing abidance in pure awareness, often described as the Self or Ātman. The mind, no longer constantly propelled outward by unchecked tendencies and desires, becomes quieter and more transparent, revealing a natural stillness and clarity. From this stillness arises a pervasive peace and equanimity that does not depend on favorable conditions, and the habitual cycle of desires, fears, and mental suffering loses its grip. The weakening of identification with the body–mind complex also fosters a spontaneous non-attachment to worldly gains and losses, while ordinary functioning in the world continues.

Over time, this inward turning matures into a direct experience of the Self as pure Being–Consciousness–Bliss, in which the sense of being a separate individual is seen as illusory. The apparent division between subject and object, self and world, is recognized as a product of the ego-mind, and with its dissolution there is a recognition of a single, indivisible reality. This realization brings a profound freedom from psychological bondage and from the fear of change and death, since the real “I” is understood as not born and not dying. Ramana Maharshi presents this as liberation or moksha: stable, effortless abidance in the Self, from which peace, clarity, compassion, and right action naturally flow.