Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi Complete ... - BrahminVoice.org

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
There is no difference between a Jnani and an ajnani in their
conduct. The difference lies only in their angles of vision. The
ignorant man identifies himself with the ego and mistakes its
activities for those of the Self, whereas the ego of the Jnani has
been lost and he does not limit himself to this body or that, this
event or that, and so on.
There is action in seeming inaction, and also inaction in seeming
action as in the following instances:
1. A child is fed while asleep. On waking up the next morning, he
denies having been fed. It is a case of inaction in seeming action.
For although the mother saw him take his food the child himself
is not aware.
2. The cartman sleeps in the cart when it jogs along the way in the
night and yet he reaches the destination and claims to have driven
the cart. This is a case of action in seeming inaction.
3. A man appearing to listen to a story nods his head to the speaker
but yet his mind is otherwise active and he does not really follow
the story.
4. Two friends sleep side by side. One of them dreams that both
of them travel round the globe and have varied experiences. On
waking the dreamer tells the other that both of them have been
round the earth. The other treats the story with contempt.
The lady protested that dream and sleep do not make any appeal to
her. She was asked why then she should be careful about her bed
unless she courted sleep.
She said that it was for relaxation of the exhausted limbs, rather a
state of auto-intoxication. “The sleep state is really dull, whereas
the waking state is full of beautiful and interesting things.”
M.: What you consider to be filled with beautiful and interesting things
is indeed the dull and ignorant state of sleep, according to the Jnani:
Ya nisha sarva bhootanam tasyam jagrati samyami.
The wise one is wide awake just where darkness rules for others.
You must certainly wake up from the sleep which is holding you
at present.
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