In the teaching of Self-Inquiry associated with Ramana Maharshi, the mind occupies a paradoxical position: it is both the instrument of investigation and the very field that is to be examined. At the outset, it is the mind that poses the question “Who am I?” and gathers its powers of attention to turn away from external objects toward the inner sense of “I.” This same mind then begins to scrutinize its own contents—thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and roles—asking whether any of these can truly be the Self. In this way, the mind is not trusted as the final knower but is employed as a provisional tool to illuminate its own operations.

Central to this process is the “I-thought,” or ego, which is understood as the root of the mind’s activity and the primary object of inquiry. Rather than accepting conceptual answers, the practice directs attention to the very arising of this “I-thought,” tracing it back to its source. The mind’s proper function in this context is not to construct new philosophies or images of the Self, but to negate false identifications—seeing clearly that whatever can be observed, thought, or claimed as “mine” cannot be the real “I.” Through this discriminative seeing, the mind gradually relinquishes its habitual outward tendencies.

As inquiry matures, the mind’s role shifts from active questioning to a kind of self-dissolution. Persistently turning toward the source of the “I-thought” causes the movements of mind to subside, and the ego-sense that initiated the search is drawn back into its origin, often described as the Heart or Self. The mind, initially indispensable, becomes a temporary vehicle—like a thorn used to remove another thorn—and its investigative function falls away when its work is done. What remains is not a new state of mind, but the recognition of pure awareness, which is prior to and independent of the mind’s fluctuations.

Thus, the mind in Self-Inquiry is both the means and what must ultimately be transcended. It begins as the focused instrument that turns inward, becomes the object that is relentlessly examined and negated, and finally is quieted and absorbed in its own source. In that absorption, the “I-thought” ceases, and the Self stands revealed as the only true knower, while the mind’s earlier prominence is seen to have been merely provisional.