the Self is here and now and you are It always

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The Teachings of BhagavanSri Ramana Maharshiin His Own WordsCHAPTER ONERELIGIONSSpiritual experience may be differently expressed because someform must be given to the Formless in order to express themat all, but essentially they are the same.Devotee: Is the experience of the highest state the same to all, oris there any difference?Bhagavan: The highest state is the same and the experience is thesame.D.: But I find some difference in the interpretation givenof the highest truth.B.: The interpretations are made with the mind. The mindsare different, so the interpretations also differ.D.: I mean to say that the seers express themselves differently.B.: Their modes of expression may differ according to thenature of the seekers for whose guidance they are intended.D.: One speaks in terms of Christianity, another of Islam,a third of Buddhism, etc. Is that due to their upbringing?B.: Whatever may be their upbringing, their experience is thesame. Only the modes of expression differ according to circumstances. 1So also with different paths or schools within a religion.D.: Different teachers have set up different schools andproclaimed different truths and so confused people. Why?B.: They have all taught the same truth but from differentstandpoints. Such differences were necessary to meet the needsof different minds differently constituted, but they all revealthe same truth.D.: Since they have recommended different paths, whichis one to follow?B.: You speak of paths as if you were somewhere and theSelf somewhere else and you had to go and attain it. But in factthe Self is here and now and you are It always. It is like beinghere and asking people the way to Ramanasramam and thencomplaining that each one shows a different path and askingwhich to follow. 21 Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, 595.2 Day by Day with Bhagavan by A. Devaraja Mudaliar (5th Edition, 2002), p. 270.