Sunday, November 9, 2014

The Self is not a seer. But here he is said to see the world. So he is differentiated as the Jiva.

A question was asked why it was wrong to say that there is a multiplicity of jivas. Jivas are certainly many. For a jiva is only the ego and forms the reflected light of the Self. Multiplicity of selves may be wrong but not of jivas.

Ramana Maharishi  Jiva is called so because he sees the world. A dreamer sees many jivas in a dream but all of them are not real. The dreamer alone exists and he sees all. So it is with the individual and the world. There is the creed of only one Self which is also called the creed of only one jiva. It says that the jiva is only one who sees the whole world and the jivas therein.

Devotee:  Then jiva means the Self here.

Ramana Maharishi:  So it is. But the Self is not a seer. But here he is said to see the world. So he is differentiated as the Jiva.

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