Self-investigation
Self Investigation society
We founded an association called 'Itsetutkimus ry' (Self Investigation society) on February 1, 2023. But we've been having already meetings live or remotely in Zoom since 2016. The purpose of the association is to continue our gatherings regularly and to study the teachings of Christ. Itsetutkimus ry includes the board members and acts as the official administration which manages the R.O.C.K ™ - Rise of Christ Knowledge community.
BOARD MEMBERS 2025
Chairman
Jussi Penttinen
Vice-chairman
Timo Päivänsalo
Secretary
Olena Kyrychenko
Board member
Sirpa-Veronica Aalto
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If you'd like to support our activities please write to info@christis.org
Membership payment information:
IBAN: FI07 7960 0151 9643 50
BIC / SWIFT: NARYFIH2
ACCOUNT HOLDER: Itsetutkimus ry
SUM: 45€/annually
Self Investigation society rules (in Finnish)
Who am I?
This question has likely arisen in every human heart at some point: Who am I? What is the purpose of all that exists? Why was I born? These are not simply psychological curiosities but theological inquiries, reaching into the mystery of God and creation itself. For if we are created by God, then the question of identity is inseparable from the One in whose image we were made.
The tradition of the Church, as well as the wisdom of many spiritual teachers, reminds us that self-knowledge can be approached in three distinct dimensions, each leading us closer to the truth of our origin and destiny.
We often hear people say, “I have been reflecting a lot on myself lately.” Indeed, changes in life, suffering, or the approach of death awaken in us the need to ask who we really are and how we have lived in the sight of God. Such questioning is not foreign to faith—it is in fact part of conversion, repentance, and preparation for eternal life. For what awaits us beyond death? Is it truly the end, when the body dissolves? Or does the soul, as the Church teaches, continue in communion with God or separation from Him?
The first level of self-knowledge concerns the natural self—our temperament, personality, habits, and the life history that has shaped us. This is what psychology can describe, but it does not reach the mystery of the soul.
The second level is moral and spiritual reflection: the examination of how we have lived in relation to God’s law, our neighbor, and our vocation. This is close to what Christian tradition calls examination of conscience. Have I lived according to the image and likeness of God in which I was created? Have I sought His will, or have I lived only for myself? Here arise questions of fulfillment, failure, repentance, and grace.
But there is a third, deeper level—the mystery of the “I” itself. In theology, this is where the soul seeks its ground, not in passing qualities or achievements but in its origin in God. Saint Augustine said, “I have become a question to myself.” In probing this mystery, we discover that our being is not self-sustained: our “I” exists only because God continually holds it in existence.
Thus, self-investigation is not a search for autonomy but for communion—the recognition that the “I” has its source and fulfillment only in the eternal “I AM,” God Himself.
And here lies the paradox: as we descend into the depths of self, we find not isolation but participation—our true self is discovered not in clinging to the ego, but in surrendering it to God.
The Eastern Fathers spoke of this as theosis, becoming by grace what God is by nature. In that encounter, what remains is not the fragile ego, but Being-Consciousness-Bliss—what Christians would name eternal life in Christ, the fullness of truth and love in the vision of God.
Know Thyself
Every human being desires happiness. In fact, this desire is written into our very being, for God Himself created us for joy, communion, and eternal beatitude. Yet here lies the human dilemma: we often seek everlasting happiness in what is fleeting—in the possessions we acquire, the goals we achieve, the honors we receive. We tell ourselves, “When I finally arrive at this point, then I will be happy.” But life proves otherwise. Disappointments accumulate, and even when we achieve what we longed for, satisfaction quickly fades. As St. Augustine confessed: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
Religions, philosophies, and sacred Scriptures across the ages all bear witness to the same truth: there is a deeper reality, a Truth that liberates, a Living Water that quenches our thirst once and for all. This promise of eternal fulfillment awakens hope in us, urging us to set out on a spiritual journey.
Today, we are faced with a vast multitude of spiritual paths and teachings. Many of them, however, remain bound to a dualistic approach: there is the practitioner and the practice, the seeker and the object sought, the effort and the hoped-for reward. Christianity recognizes this dynamic as part of our human striving, but it also reveals something more profound: salvation is not achieved by human effort alone but is a gift of grace, flowing from God’s initiative.
This is where the path of true self-investigation takes on a theological depth. The ancient Greek command, “Know thyself” (engraved at Delphi), is not merely a philosophical riddle, but a summons to recognize that the human “self” cannot be fully understood apart from its Source. To “know oneself” in the truest sense is to recognize oneself as created in the image of God, sustained by His Spirit, and destined for communion with Him.
We may know much about our outward life—our body, our emotions, our memories, our character. These form the story of “me and my life,” but they do not yet penetrate the mystery of our being. For at the heart of every person lies the irreducible awareness: “I am.” No one can deny this fact of existence. Yet what does this “I” mean? From where does it come?
Here theology and self-investigation converge. The “I am” of the human heart is not self-originating; it is an echo of the eternal “I AM” revealed to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). To know oneself, then, is to seek not merely the contours of one’s psyche but the Source of one’s being in God. The path of self-investigation, in this theological light, is not a turning inward for the sake of isolation, but a turning inward to discover the presence of the One who dwells within us, closer to us than we are to ourselves.
Thus, the first step in this journey is simple yet profound: to attend to the “I” we constantly invoke, and in so doing, to open ourselves to the mystery of its origin in God. To truly know oneself is to discover that we are not self-made but God-breathed, not autonomous but dependent, not restless wanderers but beloved children destined to find our rest in Him.
What is self-investigation?
The ancient practice known in Sanskrit as ātma-vicāra—commonly rendered as “self-enquiry”—was commended by sages such as Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Adi Śaṅkara as a direct means of discerning the true nature of the self. The term itself, however, is richer than the English word “enquiry.” The word vicāra carries the sense of “investigation,” “scrutiny,” or “examination,” and thus ātma-vicāra is best understood as self-investigation—a sustained attentiveness to our most fundamental awareness: the fact of our own being, expressed in the simple intuition, “I am.”
From a theological standpoint, this practice intersects profoundly with the biblical revelation of God. When Moses encountered the burning bush, the Lord declared His Name as “I AM WHO I AM” (Exod. 3:14). This mysterious Name reveals that God is the ground of all being, the One whose essence is pure existence itself. In light of this, the human awareness “I am” is not self-originating, but derivative. It is a creaturely participation in the eternal “I AM.” To engage in true self-investigation, therefore, is not merely to analyze the ego or psyche, but to attend to the mystery of existence itself, which points beyond us to the One who sustains us.
Sri Ramana’s formulation of self-investigation as the inner inquiry, “Who am I?”, is not to be understood as an exercise in verbal questioning, nor as an abstract philosophical puzzle. Rather, it is an existential scrutiny—an attentive dwelling upon the consciousness of being. The goal is to strip away false identifications (with body, thoughts, achievements, or roles) in order to perceive directly the essence of selfhood. From a Christian perspective, this essence is discovered most fully in relation to God, for as St. Paul teaches, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Thus, ātma-vicāra in its deepest sense is not a retreat into solipsism but an opening into the mystery of God’s sustaining presence. By investigating the “I” with uncompromising attention, one eventually perceives that the “I” has no autonomous existence—it subsists only in communion with God, who is Being itself. This is why the practice has profound resonance with the Christian path of contemplative prayer, in which the soul descends inward, not to glorify the self, but to discover the indwelling Spirit who conforms us to Christ, the true image of the invisible God.
In this light, the question “Who am I?” becomes inseparable from the deeper theological truth: I am not my own; I belong to the One who is, and who has revealed Himself in Christ, the Alpha and the Omega. Self-investigation, therefore, is ultimately theocentric—it is a journey into the mystery of the self as created, sustained, and fulfilled in the eternal I AM.
Happiness
‘Since all sentient beings want to be always happy without what is called misery, since for everyone the greatest love is only for oneself, and since happiness alone is the cause for love, to obtain that happiness, which is one’s own nature, which one experiences daily in deep sleep, which is devoid of mind, oneself knowing oneself is necessary.
For that, jñana-vicara (awareness-investigation) called ‘who am I’ alone is the principal means.’
(Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, from the introduction to 'Nan Yar?, Who am I?')
Teachings
‘Nan Yar?’ (link)
In 1901, a young man was sitting on the holy mountain Arunachala in South India, when a scholar, Sivaprakasam Pillai, came to him with burning questions about the nature of Truth.
As he was not speaking at that time, the answers were given in silence, written in the sand. The young man was to become the renowned saint Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Twenty years after the initial interview, in the early days of the Ramana Ashram, he himself edited his answers given that day, which became the first ashram publication setting out his essential teachings.
‘Upadesa Undiyar’ (link)
Upadesa Undiyar is a thirty-verse philosophical poem composed by Ramana Maharshi in 1927. The original was in Tamil, but Bhagavan later wrote other versions in Telugu, Sanskrit and Malayalam.
Sadhu Om and Michael James made a word-for-word translation of the Tamil text in the 1980s and added a long introduction and a commentary on each verse.
This work (Upadesa Undiyar of Bhagavan Sri Ramana) was published by Sri Ramana Kshetra but it has been out of print for many years. Since it is not likely to be published again in the near future, I sought and received Michael’s permission to post the whole work on this site.
‘Ulladu Narpadu’ (link)
“So that we may be saved, [graciously] reveal to us the nature of reality and the means to attain [or experience]it.”
This is the prayer that Sri Muruganar made to Bhagavan Sri Ramana when requesting him to compose Ulladu Narpadu, and these are the words with which he beginsthe first verse of his payiram or preface to this great work.
In answer to this prayer Sri Bhagavan composed Ulladu Narpadu, and in accordance with it he thereby revealed to us not only the nature of reality but also the means by which we can attain direct experience of it.
