You must admit your own existence. That existence is the Self. It is already realised.

Devotee:  I feel I am like froth.


Ramana Maharishi:  Cease that identification with the unreal and know your real identity. Then you will be firm and no doubts can arise.


Devotee:  But I am the froth.


Ramana Maharishi:  Because you think that way there is worry. It is a wrong imagination. Accept your true identity with the Real. Be the water and not the froth. That is done by diving in.


Devotee:  If I dive in, I shall find........


Ramana Maharishi:  But even without diving in, you are That. The ideas of exterior and interior exist only so long as you do not accept your real identity.


Devotee:  But I took the idea from you that you want me to dive in.


Ramana Maharishi:  Yes, quite right. It was said because you are identifying yourself with the froth and not the water. Because of this confusion the answer was meant to draw your attention to this confusion and bring it home to you. All that is meant is that the Self is infinite inclusive of all that you see. There is nothing beyond It nor apart from It. Knowing this, you will not desire anything; not desiring, you will be content. The Self is always realised. There is no seeking to realise what is already - always - realised. For you cannot deny your own existence. That existence is consciousness - the Self. Unless you exist you cannot ask questions. So you must admit your own existence. That existence is the Self. It is already  realised. Therefore the effort to realise results only in your realising your present mistake - that you have not realised your Self. There is no fresh realisation. The Self becomes revealed.


Devotee:  That will take some years.


Ramana Maharishi:  Why years? The idea of time is only in your mind. It is not in the Self. There is no time for the Self. Time arises as an idea after the ego arises. But you are the Self beyond time and space; you exist even in the absence of time and space.

The objects can be differentiated by means of their names and forms, whereas each one’s name is only one and that is ‘I’

Ramana Maharishi:  The mind remaining still is samadhi, no matter whether the world is perceived or not. Environment, time and objects are all in me. How can they be independent of me? They may change, but I remain unchanging, always the same. The objects can be differentiated by means of their names and forms, whereas each one’s name is only one and that is ‘I’. Ask anyone, he says ‘I’ and speaks of himself as ‘I’, even if He is Isvara. His name too is ‘I’ only. So also of a locality. As long as I am identified with the body so long a locality is distinguishable; otherwise not. Am I the body? Does the body announce itself as ‘I’? Clearly all these are in me. All these wiped out entirely, the residual Peace is ‘I’. This is samadhi, this is ‘I’.

There are many process of creation. Which of them is true?

Devotee:  There is one process of creation mentioned in the Upanishads and another in Puranas. Which of them is true?

Ramana Maharishi:  They are many, and meant to indicate that the creation has a cause  and a creator should be posited so that one might seek the cause. The emphasis is on the purpose of the theory and not on the process of creation. Moreover, the creation is perceived by someone. There are no objects without the subject, i.e., the objects do not come and tell you that they are, but it is you who says that there are the objects. The objects are therefore what the seer makes of them. They have no existence independent of the subject. Find out what you are and then you understand what the world is. That is the object of the theory.

Devotee:  The soul is only a small particle whereas the creation is so huge. How can we surmise it?

Ramana Maharishi:  The particle speaks of the huge creation; where is the contradiction?  There are so many theories, scriptural and scientific. Have they reached any finality? They cannot. Brahman is said to be subtler than the subtlest, wider than the widest. Anu is an atom, infinitesimal. It ends in subtle perception. The subtlety is of the sukshma body, i.e., the mind. Beyond the mind there is the Self. The greatest of things are also conceptions, the conceptions are of the mind; beyond the mind there is the Self. So the Self is subtler than the subtlest. There may be any number of theories of creation. All of them extend  outwardly. There will be no limit to them because time and space are unlimited. They are however only in the mind. See the mind; time and space are transcended and the Self is realised. Creation is explained scientifically or logically to one’s own satisfaction. But is there any finality about it? Such explanations are called krama srishti (gradual creation). On the other hand, drishti srishti (simultaneous or sudden creation) is yugapad srishti. Without the seer there are no objects seen. Find the seer and the creation is comprised in him. Why look outward and go on explaining the phenomena which are endless?

There is no period of time when realisation is not.

Ramana Maharishi:   What is maya? The knowledge that the mind is divorced from the Reality is maya. The mind is in Reality only and not apart. This knowledge is the elimination of maya.
…

Devotee:  The understanding is intellectual.

Ramana Maharishi:   Intellect. Whose intellect? The problem revolves round that  question.  You admit that you exist even in the absence of intellect - say, in sleep. How do you know that you exist if you have not realised your existence? Your very existence is realisation. You cannot imagine a point of time when you do not exist. So there is no period of time when  realisation is not.

Are there heaven (swarga) and hell (naraka)?

Devotee: Are there heaven (swarga) and hell (naraka)?

Ramana Maharishi: There must be someone to go there. They are like dreams. We see time and space exist in dream also. Which is true, dream or wakefulness?