Thread by @HinduMediaWiki

Words of wisdom from Sri Ramana Maharishi about Desire and Aatma :

Atman is verily what you call your Self. It is pure Consciousness / Awareness. It is the source within you. It has no other attributes.

You are identified with the body and the mind (ego) and hence you think you are limited. When you transcend this body/mind complex, you'll see you are pure awareness.

Ambitions, love, fear etc. are all extensions of desire. Desire comes from ignorance - of the fact that by nature (as your true Self) you are complete.

The incompleteness stems from identifying with the body, mind, ego and are not attributes of the Self (Atman).

These vikaras (deformities) keep coming with the individual unless the individual tries to overcome these with Sadhana.

Time and space are no bar. Every night is followed by day but you are the same as you were yesterday.

The need to overcome these deformities is not of the Self. It is of the ego. This is because at some point you get bored with the things happening to you day in and out. You see it is going in cycles (Samsaara).

Even things that bring happiness (Sukha) to you cannot give you permanent happiness but can only give you sadness in their absence. For instance if I like an ice cream, I can only have a limited amount. If I attempted to eat Kilograms of it, it'd cause me immense trouble (Dukha).

And when you are aghast that it happens so frequently, you naturally progress to question how you can somehow attain more permanent happiness. This innate seeking is what leads you to find out the true cause of your sadness and find means of liberating yourself (Moksha).

So the point remains that until you find your real Self, bliss keeps evading because bliss is only found in Silence (of the mind).

References: sriramanamaharshi.org/resource_centr… - Talks with Ramana Maharshi.