Devotee: Should we understand the world as transient (anitya)?
Ramana Maharishi: Why so? Because you are now considering it to be permanent (nitya) the Scriptures tell you that it is not so in order to wean you from wrong ideas. This should be done by knowing yourself to be eternal (nitya) and not by branding the world as transitory (anitya).
Devotee: We are told to practise indifference (udasina) which is possible only if the world is unreal.
Ramana Maharishi: Yes. Oudasinyam abhipsitam. Indifference is advised. But what is it? It is absence of love and hatred. When you realise the Self on which these phenomena pass, will you love or hate them? That is the meaning of indifference.
Devotee: That will lead to want of interest in our work. Should we do our duty or not?
Ramana Maharishi: Yes - certainly. Even if you try not to do your duty you will be perforce obliged to do it. Let the body complete the task for which it came into being. Sri Krishna also says in the Gita, whether Arjuna liked it or not he would be forced to fight. When there is work to be done by you, you cannot keep away; nor can you continue to do a thing when you are not required to do it, that is to say, when the work allotted to you has been done. In short, the work will go on and you must take your share in it - the share which is allotted to you.
Devotee: How is it to be done?
Ramana Maharishi: Like an actor playing his part in a drama - free from love or hatred.
Ramana Maharishi: Why so? Because you are now considering it to be permanent (nitya) the Scriptures tell you that it is not so in order to wean you from wrong ideas. This should be done by knowing yourself to be eternal (nitya) and not by branding the world as transitory (anitya).
Devotee: We are told to practise indifference (udasina) which is possible only if the world is unreal.
Ramana Maharishi: Yes. Oudasinyam abhipsitam. Indifference is advised. But what is it? It is absence of love and hatred. When you realise the Self on which these phenomena pass, will you love or hate them? That is the meaning of indifference.
Devotee: That will lead to want of interest in our work. Should we do our duty or not?
Ramana Maharishi: Yes - certainly. Even if you try not to do your duty you will be perforce obliged to do it. Let the body complete the task for which it came into being. Sri Krishna also says in the Gita, whether Arjuna liked it or not he would be forced to fight. When there is work to be done by you, you cannot keep away; nor can you continue to do a thing when you are not required to do it, that is to say, when the work allotted to you has been done. In short, the work will go on and you must take your share in it - the share which is allotted to you.
Devotee: How is it to be done?
Ramana Maharishi: Like an actor playing his part in a drama - free from love or hatred.
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