Question: Is it not possible for God and the Guru to effect the liberation of a soul?
Ramana Maharshi: God and the Guru will only show the way to liberation; they will not by themselves take the soul to the state of liberation. In truth, God and the Guru are not different.
Just as the prey which has fallen into the jaws of a tiger has no escape, so those who have come within the ambit of the Guru’s gracious look will be saved by the Guru and will not get lost; yet, each one should, by his own effort pursue the path shown by God or Guru and gain liberation.
One can know oneself only with one’s own eye of knowledge, and not with somebody else’s. Does he who is Rama require the help of a mirror to know that he is Rama?