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Ramana Maharshi described his Self as a „force“ or „current“, which descended on him in his death-experience, and continued throughout his life:

… a force or current, a centre of energy playing on the body, continuing regardless of the rigidity or activity of the body, though existing in connection with it. It was that current, force or centre that constituted my Self, that kept me acting and moving, but this was the first time I came to know it […] I had no idea at that time of the identity of that current with the personal God, or Iswara as I used to call him […] I was only feeling that everything was being done by the current and not by me […] This current, or avesam, now felt as if it was my Self, not a superimposition […] That avesam continues right up to now.^{[web 1]}

Ramana Maharshi used various terms to denote this Self.^{[note 12]} The most frequently used terms were sat-chit-ananda, which translates into English as „truth-consciousness-bliss“;^[83] God, Brahman and Siva,^{[note 13]} and the Heart, which is not to be confused with the physical heart, or a particular point in space, but was rather to indicate that „the Self was the source from which all appearances manifested“.^[82]

According to David Godman, the essence of Ramana Maharshi’s teachings is that the „Self“ or real „I“ is a „non-personal, all-inclusive awareness“: ^[84]

The real Self or real ‚I‘ is, contrary to perceptible experience, not an experience of individuality but a non-personal, all-inclusive awareness. It is not to be confused with the individual self which (Ramana Maharshi) said was essentially non-existent, being a fabrication of the mind, which obscures the true experience of the real Self. He maintained that the real Self is always present and always experienced but he emphasized that one is only consciously aware of it as it really is when the self-limiting tendencies of the mind have ceased. Permanent and continuous Self-awareness is known as Self-realization.^[84]

Ramana Maharshi considered the Self to be permanent and enduring,^[85] surviving physical death.^[86] „The sleep, dream and waking states are mere phenomena appearing on the Self,“^[87] as is the „I“-thought.^[85] Our „true nature“ is „simple Being, free from thoughts“.^[88]

Ramana Maharshi would field many questions about jnanis („liberated beings“) from devotees, but even the terms jnani and ajnani (non-liberated being) are incorrect, since it leads one to the idea of there being a knower and a known, a subject and an object. The truth of it according to Ramana Maharshi is that there are neither jnanis nor ajnanis, there is simply jnana, which is Self:^[89]

The jnani sees no one as an ajnani. All are only jnanis in his sight. In the ignorant state one superimposes one’s ignorance on a jnani and mistakes him for a doer. In the state of jnana, the jnani sees nothing separate from the Self. The Self is all shining and only pure jnana.^[90]

Even Jidhu Krishnamurti has also state it many times that there is no such thing as a self, rather the self is a sum of ideas, experiences, memories, knowledge etc, all compiled and maintained, since there are all product of though, and once thought ceases, they all cease as well as a consequence, since they are all simulations and mental representations which also add to one’s own misery as they are being perpetuated.