SRM

 Your summary captures a great deal of the spirit of Ramana Maharshi’s teaching, especially the centrality of Self-enquiry and the fact that he repeatedly brought every question back to the questioner: “Who is asking this?”

If one were to express his teaching in a few simple points for ordinary people, it might look something like this:

1. The fundamental problem is mistaken identity.
   We take ourselves to be the body, mind, personality, history, and thoughts. This is the root error.
2. The first thought is “I”.
   Other thoughts arise only after the sense of “I am this person” appears.
3. Investigate the “I”.
   Instead of chasing thoughts, ask:
   “Who am I?”
   “To whom has this thought arisen?”
   Trace the sense of “I” back to its source.
4. Do not seek intellectual answers.
   Self-enquiry is not a philosophical exercise. The purpose is not to formulate a better concept of yourself, but to turn attention toward the experiencer.
5. The Self is already present.
   Realization is not acquiring something new. It is recognizing what has always been there.
6. Silence is the highest teaching.
   Words point; direct experience reveals. Ramana often taught that truth is ultimately beyond verbal explanation.
7. Grace is ever-present.
   Grace is not something occasionally bestowed. The very urge to seek truth is itself an expression of grace.
8. All genuine spiritual paths can purify the mind.
   Devotion, prayer, mantra, meditation, surrender, and selfless action all have value. They help quiet the mind and prepare it for realization.
9. Surrender and enquiry lead to the same destination.
   Either ask, “Who am I?” or surrender everything to God. In the end, both dissolve the separate ego.
10. The Self alone is real.
    The world, ego, and individual identity appear and disappear, but the underlying awareness in which they appear remains unchanged.

Your formulation about gods being “anchored” to the “I” reflects a theme Ramana often emphasized: before debating God, world, soul, religion, philosophy, or metaphysics, first discover who it is that is holding those beliefs. The seeker is more immediate than the object of seeking.

One nuance worth adding is that Ramana did not usually dismiss God as irrelevant or merely subjective. For many devotees he spoke of God, Guru, and Self as ultimately not separate. He often said:

God, Guru, and the Self are one.

So while enquiry begins with the apparent individual “I”, it does not end in a kind of isolated individualism. Rather, the separate individual is found never to have existed independently of the one reality.

If I had to reduce Ramana Maharshi’s teaching to a single sentence, it would be:

“Turn attention away from objects, thoughts, and beliefs, and discover who it is that experiences them.”