Ramana Maharshi

" The ten foolish men in the parable forded a stream and on reaching
the other shore wanted to make sure that all of them had in fact
safely crossed the stream. One of the ten began to count, but while
counting others left himself out. " I see  only nine; we have lost
one. Who can it be ?" he said. "Did you count correctly?" asked
another, and did the counting himself. But he too counted only nine.
One after the other, each each of the ten counted only nine, missing
himself." We are only nine, they all agreed, " but who is the
missing one?" they asked themselves. Every effort they made to
discover the `missing' individual failed. "Whoever he is that is
drowned, " said the most sentimental of ten fools, " we have lost
him."

  So saying, he burst into tears, and the rest of the nine followed
suit. Seeing them, weeping on the river bank , a sympathetic
wayfarer inquired for the cause. They related what had happened and
said that even after counting themselves several times they could
find no more than nine. On hearing the story, but seeing all the ten
before him, the wayfarer guessed what had happened. In order to make
them know for themselves that they were really ten, that all of them
had come safe from the crossing, he told them, " Let each of you
count for himself but one after the other serially, one, two three
and so on, while I shall give you each a blow so that all of you may
be sure of having been included in the count, and included only
once. The tenth `missing' man will then be found." Hearing this,
they rejoiced at the prospect of finding their "lost" comrade and
accepted the method suggested by the wayfarer. While the wayfarer
gave a blow to each of the ten in turn, he that got the blow counted
himself aloud. " Ten", said the last man as he got the last blow in
his turn. Bewildered, they looked at one another. We are ten, " they
said with one voice and thanked the wayfarer for having removed
their grief.

That is the parable. From where was the tenth man brought in? Was he
ever lost? By knowing that he had been there all the while, did they
learn anything new? The cause of their grief was not the real loss
of any one of the ten; it was their own ignorance, rather their mere
supposition that one of them was lost( though they could not find
who he was) because they counted only nine.

Such is the case with you. Truly there is no cause for you to be
miserable and unhappy. You yourself impose limitations on your true
nature of infinite  Being and then weep that you are but a finite
creature. Then you take up this or that sadhana to transcend the
nonexistent limitations. But if you sadhana itself assumes the
existence of the limitations, how can it help you to transcend them?

Hence I say know that you are really the infinite, pure Being, the
Self Absolute. You are always that Self and nothing but that Self.
Therefore, you can never be really ignorant of the Self; your
ignorance is merely a formal ignorance, like the ignorance of the
ten fools about the " lost " tenth man. It is this ignorance that
caused them grief.

Know then that true Knowledge does not create a new Being for you:
it only removes your "ignorant ignorance". Bliss is not added to
your nature; it is merely revealed as your true natural state,
eternal and imperishable. The only way to be rid of your grief is to
know and be the Self. How can this be unattainable?

The Self is God. "I am " is God. If God is apart from the Self, He
must be a selfless God, which is absurd. All that is required to
realize the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that? "