Self Never Lost

Sri Ramana Maharshi

D: Do a person’s actions in this life affect him in future births?

B: Are you born now? Why do you think of future births? The truth is that there is neither birth nor death. Let him who is born think of death and palliatives for it.

D: Is the Hindu doctrine of reincarnation right?

B: No definite answer is possible. Even the present incarnation is denied, for instance in the Bhagavad Gita.

D: Isn’t our personality beginningless?

B: Find out first whether it exists at all and after you have solved that problem, ask the question. Nammalwar says: “In ignorance, I took the ego to be the Self, but with right knowledge the ego is not and only you remain as the Self ”. Both the non-dualists and the dualists agree on the necessity for Self-realisation. Attain that first and then raise other questions. Nondualism or dualism cannot be decided on theoretical grounds alone. If the Self is realised, the question will not arise. Whatever is born must die; whatever is acquired must be  lost; but were you born? You are eternally existent. The Self can never be lost.