Five Verses on the Self
“Katma Panchakam”
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

1.) He who is forgetful of the Self, mistaking the physical body for it, and goes through innumerable births, is like one who wanders all over the world in a dream. Thus realizing the Self would only be like waking up from the dream-wanderings.
2.) One who asks, “Who am I?” and “Where am I?” is like a drunken man who enquires about his own identity and whereabouts.
3.) While in fact the body is in the Self, he who thinks the Self is within the insentient body is like one who considers the cloth of the screen which supports a cinema picture to be contained within the picture.
4.) Does an ornament exist apart from the gold of which it is made? Where is the body apart from the Self? He who considers his body to be himself is an ignorant man. He who regards himself as the Self is the Enlightened One who has realized the Self.
5.) The One Self, the Sole Reality, alone exists eternally. When even the Ancient Teacher, Dakshinamurti, revealed It through speechless eloquence, who else could convey it by speech?

Ramana Maharshi
The Collected Works
edited by Arthur Osborne