----- Original Message ----- From: Viorica Weissman
To: RamanaMaharshi (AT) yahoogroups (DOT) com
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2001 5:35 AM
Subject: [RamanaMaharshi] world - real and unreal
"As I recalled Bhagavan saying sometimes that unreal [mithya ,
imaginary ] and real [ satyam] mean the same , but did not quite
understand , I asked him about it. He said , "Yes , I do
sometimes say that .What do you mean by real ? What is it that
you call real ? " I answered : "According to Vedanta , only that
which is permanent and unchanging can be called real . That is
the meaning of Reality." "Then Bhagavan said :'The names and
forms which constitute the world continually change and perish
and are therefore called unreal. It is unreal [ imaginary ] to
limit the Self to these names and forms and real to regard all as
the Self. The nondualist says that the world is unreal , but
he also says , "All this is Brahman." So it is clear that
what he condemns is regarding the world as objectively real in
itself , not regarding it as Brahman. He who sees the Self sees
the Self alone in the world also. It is immaterial to the
Enlightened whether the world appears or not. In either case , his
attention is turned to the Self. It is like the letters and the
paper on which they are printed . You are so engrossed in the
letters that you forget about the paper , but the Enlightened sees
the paper as the substratum whether the letter appear on it or
not. ____________________________________________ The
Teachings of Ramana Maharshi Arthur Osborne
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