Devotee: All are said to be Brahman.
Ramana Maharishi: Yes, they are. But so long as you think that they are apart they are to be avoided. If on the other hand they are found to be Self there is no need to say ‘all’. For all that exists is only Brahman. There is nothing besides Brahman.
Devotee: Ribhu Gita speaks of so many objects as unreal, adding at the end that they are all Brahman and thus real.
Ramana Maharishi: Yes. When you see them as so many they are asat, i.e., unreal. Whereas when you see them as Brahman they are real, deriving their reality from their substratum, Brahman.
Devotee: Why then does Upadesa Sara speak of the body, etc., as jada i.e. insentient?
Ramana Maharishi: Inasmuch as you say that they are body, etc., apart from the Self. But when the Self is found this body, etc., are also found to be in it. Afterwards no one will ask the question and no one will say that they are insentient.
Devotee: Viveka is said to be discrimination between the Self and the nonself. What is the non-self?
Ramana Maharishi: There is no non-self, in fact. The non-self also exists in the Self. It is the Self which speaks of the non-self because it has forgotten itself. Having lost hold of itself, it conceives something as non-self, which is after all nothing but itself.
Ramana Maharishi: Yes, they are. But so long as you think that they are apart they are to be avoided. If on the other hand they are found to be Self there is no need to say ‘all’. For all that exists is only Brahman. There is nothing besides Brahman.
Devotee: Ribhu Gita speaks of so many objects as unreal, adding at the end that they are all Brahman and thus real.
Ramana Maharishi: Yes. When you see them as so many they are asat, i.e., unreal. Whereas when you see them as Brahman they are real, deriving their reality from their substratum, Brahman.
Devotee: Why then does Upadesa Sara speak of the body, etc., as jada i.e. insentient?
Ramana Maharishi: Inasmuch as you say that they are body, etc., apart from the Self. But when the Self is found this body, etc., are also found to be in it. Afterwards no one will ask the question and no one will say that they are insentient.
Devotee: Viveka is said to be discrimination between the Self and the nonself. What is the non-self?
Ramana Maharishi: There is no non-self, in fact. The non-self also exists in the Self. It is the Self which speaks of the non-self because it has forgotten itself. Having lost hold of itself, it conceives something as non-self, which is after all nothing but itself.
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