When a confessed atheist provocatively asked him (Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi),
"Is there God; can you prove the existence of God?"
he smiled and replied,
"Why worry about God? Let Him worry about Himself! Find out who raises the question."
The atheist was puzzled. Sri Ramana recommended that he read the book `Who am I?' The visitor, who only wanted to stay for a few hours, ended up staying for several days. Finally he said,
"Bhagavan! When I came here as an atheist, denying God, I was happy. But, now, after asking myself the question `Who am I?' I am thoroughly confused. I feel I have deteriorated; therefore I am very unhappy."
Sri Ramana smiled at him and said,
"Your confusion is not a state of deterioration. All these days you have been indifferent to the truth behind your own existence. Now you have raised the fundamental question; thereby you have moved away from indifference. So it is only an improvement! From indifference to confusion, from confusion to clarity, from (intellectual) clarity to experience and from experience to abidance in the Self - this is the order of ascendancy in spiritual sadhana.