Ramana Maharshi

One day when someone was talking of doing this and that, Bhagavan asked, "Why do you think that you are the doer? There lies all the trouble. It is quite absurd, as it is obvious to all that `I’ does nothing. It is only the body that acts, `I’ is always the witness. We so associate ourselves with our thoughts and actions that we continually say, `I did this or that,’ when we did nothing at all. Concentrate on being the witness and let things take their course, they will go on anyhow, you cannot prevent them." That's the point! Things will go on anyhow, but Bhagavan taught that though we had no power to stop them, we did have the power to observe them from a detached point of view, as the witness and not as the doer. That was the purpose of life, and Sadhana consisted exactly in that. ~ Sadhu Arunachala ...from: "A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi"