Q: Which is genuine Vichara – asking myself Who am I?  every time a thought arises or keenly investigating the problem of who I am? 
B: The latter. If you want to get rid of a poisonous tree, do you lop off its leaves one by one? What is the use of such an approach? In the time it takes for you to cut down one leaf, leaves multitudinous in number and multifarious in variety would have sprouted forth from the vicious tree. Instead, attack the poisonous root of illusion, namely the ahamvritti, straightaway!
 
Q: But I have heard it spoken of amongst Bhagavan’s devotees that Vichara, according to Bhagavan, can be compared to an aged mongoose waiting for a snake to come out of a discarded anthill that the latter happens to be using as its place of residence. 
B: Yes. The sword can be used for slicing as well as for stabbing. In the preliminary phase of sadhana, when thoughts rush out furiously one after the other, Vichara is used as a tool to go on returning the mind to its native state of thought-free pure Subjective Consciousness. It is always to be practised as and when it is discovered that the mind has strayed away from this natural state. 
      However, there is also the subsequent stage, where thoughts have largely subsided. Now, the investigation Who am I? is used to seek the mind with mind. Use the mind to scrutinise closely what ‘I’ is. Rather than creating something called ‘I’ and then looking at it so as for fulfilling the instruction to closely scrutinise ‘I’, seek ‘I’, whatever it might be and whether it might exist or not, without harbouring notions as to its existence or non-existence.
 
Q: I am trying to follow Bhagavan’s instructions. But my vasanas prove to be an obstacle. What can I do? 
B: Never mind obstacles. Keep on going. Do not sit down or pause to moan or complain, but keep on going. The only important thing is to keep on going. If you try to take stock of progress yet to be made, you will feel alarmed and then further progress would have become impossible. So, never stop, but go on escalating. One day you will reach the summit, or rather, realise that you never left it. Until then, climb relentlessly and incessantly. Do not bother about obstacles, progress, and the like. Simply and only, go on scaling. 

Bhagavan: ( )…Otherwise, the aspirant will in all likelihood unknowingly mistake the shunyastithi [state of emptiness] to be Jnana and rest in it, eventually becoming hopelessly lost.   

It is an unfortunate fact that many teachers of meditation tutor shunyastithi and purposely delude their pupils into believing that it is Jnana.

Shunyastithi [state of emptiness] is a deadly spiritual poison. 

It drives one away from the Heart, thereafter the lost ground has to be recovered all the way by means of doubling-back if Jnana is to be reached. That is why meditation is not encouraged here, but only Vichara.