Read the passage carefully and answer the question that follows:

Paul Brunton, who visited Ramana Maharishi's ashram in 1931, placed before the latter two fundamental questions: Is it necessary to renounce the world and move to secluded jungles or mountains to realise the truth? What method should be pursued to attain self-realisation?

In response to the first question, the Maharishi said that solidute is in the mind of a man. One might be in the thick of the world and yet maintain perfect equanimity, such a person is always in solitude. Another may stay in the jungle or on a mountain-top but still be unable to keep their mind calm. Such a person cannot be said to be in solitude. Solitude, thus, is an attitude of the mind; a detached man is always in solitude.

Ramana Maharishi further said that the life of action need not be renounced in case the seeker is able to meditate for an hour or two every day. This is because the spiritual currents generated during meditation will continue to flow even in the midst of one's work. Then the seeker can perform his wordly activities in that very current at high efficiency and output levels. Thus, while the seeker is engaged in search of God within, outer wordly activities go on spontaneously.

Replying to the second question, the Maharishi said that the method of self-inquiry is the simplest and direct method for self-realisation. He explained that the first and foremost of all thoughts, the primeval thought in the mind of every man, is the thought 'I'. It is only after the birth of this that any other thought can arise at all. The thought 'I' is also known as ahankar, ego, feeding of one's personality: Therefore, the seeker desirous of attaining Nirvana must constantly ask himself the question: who am I?

"If you meditate on this question" said Ramana Maharishi, "and begin to perceive that neither the body and brain, nor desires are really you, then the very attitude of enquiry will eventually draw the answer out of you from the depths of your own being". Something else will spontaneously arise from behind your mind and take complete possession of you. That something is the pure self-infinite, divine and eternal.

According to Maharishi, solitude is:

an attitude of the mind

According to Maharishi, solitude is: an attitude of the mind.

• The passage explicitly states that "solitude is in the mind of a man."