All Differences Only In Mind

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Q: Will the Master say that there is no difference between the poet, the artist, the clerk and the engineer etc.?

M: The difference is only in the mind: according to the predisposition of each, the differences exist. No two individuals are alike, due to vasanas. The ignorant mind is like the sensitive plate taking images of things as they appear, whereas the wise man's mind is like a clean mirror. 

Q: Is the Master here?

Who is the Master? You think there is the Master here. You see the body of the Master, but how does the Master conceive of himself? He is the Self or Atma. He sees everybody as himself. Only if there is a world apart from him could he see a world. If the Self is identified with the world then where would be the world? There has been no creation, no destruction, no preservation. That which is, is ever the Self, the Atma. These appear according to each one's standpoint, according to the maturity of the mind, and as you progress further and further these doubts will not arise. That which exists is consciousness. Consciousness and existence are not different. Existence is the same as Consciousness, pure Consciousness, Absolute Consciousness. You say I am conscious of the body and so on, but pure Consciousness is beyond all this. It is Absolute Consciousness. There is no question of transition from unconsciousness to supreme pure Consciousness. Giving up these two, self-consciousness and unconsciousness, you inhere in the natural consciousness, that is pure Consciousness.