State of attenuated body consciousness. (Glossary for the Vahinis)

All agitations will cease the moment one enters on the inquiry, ‘Who am I?’ This was the Sadhana that Ramana Maharshi achieved and taught to his disciples. That is also the easiest of all the disciplines. First, there must be the Subhechcha, the desire to procure one’s own welfare. This will lead to the study of books about Brahman and its principles, the search for the company of the good, the withdrawal from sensory pleasures, and the thirst for liberation. Even the Mahavakya (profound spiritual truth), ‘Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahmam),’has a trace of ignorance sticking on to it, the Aham, considered as separate but identical. This Aham (Jiva, I) is so persistent that it will disappear only through ceaseless meditation on the implications of ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ (That thou art) and the all-inclusive Atma or Brahman. This is the Vicharana stage or Bhumika; the Bhumika, subsequent to the Subhechcha stage. By these means, the Mind can be fixed very soon on the contemplation of Brahman. Each stage is a step in the ladder for the progressive rise of the Mind, from the concrete to the subtle and the subtle to the non-existent. This is the Tanumanasi or the last stage – non-existent state of mind. (JV, p.19)