Sri Ramanopadesha Noonmalai

 In order to regain our natural state of thought-free self-conscious being, we must free ourself from all thoughts, including their root, our mind, which is in essence nothing but our first thought ‘I am this body, a person called so and-so’. Even if we cut a tree down to its stump, so long as its roots survive it will continue to sprout fresh stems, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. Similarly, so long as our mind —this root thought ‘I am this body’— survives, it will continue forming fresh thoughts and diversifying itself as the countless objects of this world, which it forms as mental images within itself by its power of imagination.