Ramana's teaching · The text he loved

The Ribhu Gita: the non-dual song Ramana loved

Of all the scriptures of non-duality, this was the one Ramana seemed to love most ~ a torrential, relentless song of pure Advaita, chanted daily in his presence, and said to give a taste of the Self merely by being read, even without understanding.

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Ramana wrote almost nothing of his own accord, and recommended fewer books still. So when we find a text that he actively encouraged ~ that he had chanted daily in his presence, that he pointed devotees toward again and again ~ it is worth paying close attention. The Ribhu Gita is that text. Of all the scriptures of non-duality, this was the one Ramana seemed to love most: a torrential, overwhelming song of pure Advaita, hammering home a single truth with such relentless force that, he indicated, simply to read it ~ even without understanding ~ could quiet the mind and give a taste of the state it describes.

What the Ribhu Gita is

The Ribhu Gita is the “Song of Ribhu” ~ the teaching given by the sage Ribhu to his disciple Nidagha. It forms part of a larger Sanskrit text, the Sivarahasya (“the secret of Shiva”), one of the traditional works in the glory of Shiva and, fittingly, closely tied to Arunachala. There is also a celebrated Tamil version, by the poet-saint Bhikshu Sastrigal (Ulaganatha Swamigal), and it was this Tamil Ribhu Gita that was ~ and still is ~ regularly chanted at Sri Ramanasramam. The text is vast, running to many hundreds of verses across dozens of chapters, and it has a single, overwhelming subject: the absolute, seamless identity of the Self with Brahman ~ that all is the one Self, and nothing else whatsoever exists.

The hammer of “I am Brahman”

What makes the Ribhu Gita unlike almost any other text is its method, which is sheer relentless repetition. It does not argue, or reason gently, or build a careful philosophy. It declares ~ over and over, in wave after wave, with a force that batters down the mind's resistance. Everything is Brahman. There is no world; there is no body; there is no mind; there is no bondage and no liberation; there is no seeker and nothing to seek; there is only the one, absolute, ever-perfect Self, and you are That. Verse after verse, chapter after chapter, the same shattering truth returns and returns, refusing every foothold the ego tries to find, until the very repetition begins to do its work ~ to wear away the deep-grooved habit of taking oneself to be a separate, limited thing. It is less a book to be studied than a force to be submitted to.

It does not argue. It declares ~ wave after wave: there is only the one Self, ever-perfect, and you are That. Until the very repetition wears the ego away.

Why Ramana loved it

Ramana's regard for the Ribhu Gita was marked and often noted. He arranged for it to be chanted regularly at the ashram, took evident joy in it, and would sometimes explain its verses. He is recorded as saying, in effect, that merely reading the Ribhu Gita ~ even mechanically, even without grasping the meaning ~ produces the state it speaks of; that the very act of dwelling on those declarations of the Self settles the mind into stillness. This is a striking claim, and it goes to the heart of Ramana's own understanding: that the truth of the Self is not finally a matter of intellectual comprehension but of recognition, and that soaking the mind in the sound and sense of “I am the one Self” can, of itself, loosen the false identification and let the recognition dawn. The Ribhu Gita was, for Ramana, a kind of chanted self-inquiry ~ the same turning toward the Self that inquiry accomplishes, approached through the door of overwhelming affirmation.

Reading it today

A word of honest guidance, for it is an unusual text to approach. The Ribhu Gita is not a gentle introduction ~ a newcomer is far better to begin with Who Am I? or the Upadesa Saram. Its power is of a particular kind, best met once the ground has been prepared: taken in small daily doses, read slowly or aloud, or listened to as chant, letting its huge repeated affirmations wash over and through you rather than trying to master it. Sri Ramanasramam publishes excellent editions and translations (including selections Ramana especially favoured), and the chanting can be heard through the ashram's official audio. Approached in the right spirit ~ not as study but as immersion ~ it does exactly what Ramana said it does: it dissolves, for a while, the one who reads, and leaves only the Self it endlessly proclaims. That is why he loved it.

Last updated 21 October 2026. Following the documented record preserved by Sri Ramanasramam and his devotees; where an account is traditional, it is told as such.