A short pamphlet first published in 1923 reproducing Ramana Maharshi's written answers to a young devotee's questions about meditation, the nature of the self, and the practice he is most associated with: the inquiry "who am I?" that turns attention back on its own source. Originally written in Tamil; the English translation by T. M. P. Mahadevan has been the standard for decades.
The text dates to around 1902, when M. Sivaprakasam Pillai put fourteen questions to the silent young swami living on Arunachala. Ramana wrote his answers on the floor in Tamil; Pillai later edited and published them as Nan Yar?. The pamphlet remains the shortest formal statement of Ramana's teaching and is distributed at Sri Ramanasramam in Tiruvannamalai as the standard entry point.
Reception
The shortest and most-circulated of the primary Ramana texts — distributed at Sri Ramanasramam in Tiruvannamalai, frequently the first piece of his teaching new readers encounter. Within modern Advaita it is treated as the cleanest single statement of self-inquiry; the longer Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi is the reference work, and Who Am I? is the gateway. Critical reception is essentially nonexistent because the text is short, attributed, and faithfully transcribed; the interpretive debate is downstream, around how literally Ramana's method should be taken by someone without his maturation.
Frequently asked
What is Who Am I? by Ramana Maharshi about?
It is a 1923 pamphlet reproducing Ramana Maharshi's written answers to fourteen questions put to him by M. Sivaprakasam Pillai around 1902. The questions concern meditation, the nature of the self, and the practice of self-inquiry — turning attention back on its source by asking "who am I?".
Is this the same text as Nan Yar??
Yes. Nan Yar? is the original Tamil title; "Who Am I?" is the English translation by T. M. P. Mahadevan, which has been the standard rendering for decades. Both refer to the same short text published by Sri Ramanasramam in Tiruvannamalai.
Why is Who Am I? considered the gateway to Ramana's teaching?
It is the shortest and most-circulated of the primary Ramana texts and the cleanest single statement of self-inquiry (atma vichara). The longer Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi is the reference work; Who Am I? is the entry point most readers encounter first.