Just as a big banyan tree sprouts from a tiny seed, so the wide universe with names and forms sprouts forth from the heart.

Ramana Maharishi:  Just as the rivers discharged into the ocean lose their individualities, still the waters evaporate and return as rain on the hills and through rivers to the ocean, so also the individuals going to sleep lose their individualities and yet return as individuals according to their previous vasanas unawares. Thus, even in death, sat is not lost.

Devotee:  How can that be?

Ramana Maharishi:  See how a tree, whose branches are cut, grows again. So long as the life-source is not affected it will grow. Similarly the samskaras (anamneses) sink into the heart in death: they do not perish. They will in right time sprout forth from the heart. That is how the jivas are reborn.

Devotee:  How does the wide universe sprout forth from such subtle samskaras remaining sunk in the heart?

Ramana Maharishi:  Just as a big banyan tree sprouts from a tiny seed, so the wide universe with names and forms sprouts forth from the heart.

Devotee:  If the origin is sat why is it not felt?

Ramana Maharishi:  The salt in the lump is visible; it is invisible in solution. Still its existence is known by taste. Similarly sat, though not recognised by the intellect, can still be realised in a different way, i.e., transcendentally.

Devotee:  How?

Ramana Maharishi:  Just as a man blindfolded and left by robbers in a jungle enquires his way home and returns there, so also the ignorant one (blinded by ignorance) enquires of those not so blinded and seeks his own source and returns to it. Then, Gurupadesa - “Vang manasi sampadyate, manah prane, pranastejasi, tejah parasyam devatayam iti.”

Devotee:  If so, a Jnani or an ajnani dies in the same manner. Why is an ajnani reborn, whereas a Jnani is not?

Ramana Maharishi:  Just as an innocent man satyabhisandha is not affected by the test of touching red hot iron but a thief is affected, so also the sadbrahma satyabhisandha, i.e., a Jnani, enters into sat consciously and merges, whereas the other enters unaware and is thrown out unawares also.