(Master is Ramana Maharshi)
... Experiences such as, ‘I went; I came; I was; I did’ come naturally to everyone. From these experiences, does it not appear that the consciousness ‘I’ is the subject of those various acts? Enquiry into the true nature of that consciousness, and remaining as oneself is the way to understand, through enquiry, one’s true nature.
('Self-enquiry', Questions 1-2)
That's a great citation from a great master, actually, some enquiries in the same line as above must have been what started the science of Yoga. Enquiries made indipendently from the early pioneers of self realization.
Now we have many paths at our disposal, the Whole science of Raja Yoga, Kriya Yoga, disciplines suited to all spiritual tastes.
Before, there was nothing. Those early pioneers most probably started there own disciplines by enquiries similar to the one outlined by Rahmana Maharsi,
We all carry a lot of baggage. The Master leads us into situations where we become more and more aware of our heavy loads. We shed those loads more and more along the way. We become lighter and our true nature is less and less identified with identifications we once stuck to. We become freer and freer and have more and more experiences with our true self and less and less experiences with the 'pseudo' self.
I remember Amma once telling a story similar to this : We are much like a man who carries a suitcase on our back running to and froe on a train car. Someone asks us: Why are you going back and forth on the train with that heavy load on your back? We hear the answer that we need to get somewhere. Little do we recognize that the train is taking us to that some place already and we can relax, put the suitcase down and let the train take us to our destination.
Such is our relationship with life and our Master.