Maharshi on Gita

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Visitor: Does not Bhagavan (Maharshi) see the world?

Master: Whom do you mean by Bhagavan?

V: A jiva advanced more than I.

M: If you understand your jiva, the other jiva is also understood.

V: I do not want to discuss. I want to learn. Please instruct me.

M: Because you desire to learn, discussion is unavoidable. Leave all this aside. Consider your sleep. Are you then aware of bondage or do you seek means for release? Are you then aware of the body itself? The sense of bondage is associated with the body. Otherwise there is no bondage, no material to bind with and no one to bound. These appear, however, in your wakeful state. Consider to whom they appear.

V: To the mind.

M: Watch the mind. You must stand aloof from it. You are not the mind. And the Self will remain ever.

V: Does Bhagavan believe in evolution?

M: Evolution must be from one state to another. When no differences are admitted, how can evolution arise?

V: Why does Sri Krishna say, "After several rebirths the seeker gains knowledge and thus knows Me." There must be evolution from stage to stage.

M: How does Bhagavad Gita begin? "Neither I was nor you nor these chiefs etc." "Neither it is born, nor does it die, etc." So there is no birth, no death, no present as you look at it. Reality was, is, and will be. It is changeless. Later Arjuna asked Sri Krishna how he could have lived before Aditya. Then Krishna, seeing Arjuna was confounding Him with the gross body, spoke to him accordingly. The instruction is for the one who sees diversity. In reality there is no bondage nor mukti for himself or for others from the jnani's standpoint.