Ramana Maharshi Says Knower[Jiva],Known[World] And Knowing [Five Senses] Are Equally False

1) If I feel that I see the world, what is the secret behind this? It is that a world of sense-objects and a seer of it rise in ‘me’, the space of the perfect and true light of unbroken [Self-]Knowledge. Know thus definitely.

Sadhu Om: This world-appearance, which is composed of the five sense-knowledges, and the jiva who sees it are not real. They are mere false appearances like a mirage, having Self as their base,and they appear only with the help of the light of Self. Moreover,this world-appearance is not even seen by Self, but only by the jiva, who is himself a part of it.

Refer here to verse 7 of Ulladu Narpadu, in which Sri Bhagavan says, “Although the world [the objects seen] and the mind [the jiva who sees it] rise and set together, it is [not by Self, but] by the mind alone that the world is seen. [Self, on the other hand, is] the Whole which is the base for [the false appearance of] the world and the mind to rise from and set in, but which Itself shines without rising or setting, [and hence] It alone is the reality.”

2) The conviction created by the senses that the appearance is real is a mistaken conviction. Know that both the senses, which enable the appearance to be known, and the jiva, the knower of it, are of the same degree of reality as the appearance.

Sadhu Om: Since the knower [the jiva], the known [the worldappearance] and the knowing [the act of perceiving the world through the five senses] form a triad [triputi], all of them are equally false. In other words, since even the jiva who is seen and his act of seeing are both a part of the world-appearance, they are both unreal as that appearance.

To illustrate this, let us suppose that a film is taken of a king watching a cinema show; when this film is projected, are not the king and his act of watching the cinema show, both pictures in the film?

3) Until the false appearance of the snake goes, the real rope, the base, will not be known. [Likewise] until the false appearance of the world vanishes, the real Self,the base, will not be seen.

Sadhu Om: The same idea is expressed by Sri Bhagavan in the following passage of Who am I?: “Just as unless the knowledge of the snake, the imaginary superimposition, goes, the knowledge of the rope, which is the base, will not be obtained, so unless the perception of the world, which is an imaginary superimposition,ceases, the realization of Self, which is the base, will not be obtained”.

Source: GURU VACHAKA KOVAI The Light of Supreme Truth or THE COLLECTION OF GURU’S SAYINGS translated from original Tamil By Sadhu Om and Michael James

Guru Vachaka Kovai is the biggest collection of Bhagavan’s spoken teachings that was thoroughly checked and revised by him during his lifetime. As such it has a unique place in the Ramana literature.


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http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/12/ramana-maharshi-says-self-is-in-heart.html