Moving Away From Self: Bondage

Sri Ramana Maharshi/Sri Annamalai Swami

From Annamalai Swami's Diary Extracts

Since this view of the world is so contrary to what we regard as common sense, Bhagavan was frequently questioned about it. Even his long-term devotees sometimes tried to get him to modify his views a little. I remember, for instance, one evening in the hall when Major Chadwick tried to persuade B that the world did have some reality and permanence.

'If the world exists only when my mind exists', he began, 'when my mind subsides in meditation or sleep, does the outside world disappear also? I think not. If one considers the experiences of others who were aware of the world while I slept, one must conclude that the world existed then. Is it not more correct to say that the world got created and is ever existing in some huge collective mind? If this is true how can one say that there is no world and that it is only a dream?'

Bhagavan refused to modify his position. 'The world does not say that it was created in the collective mind or that it was created in the individual mind. It only appears in your small mind. If your mind gets destroyed, there will be no world.'

To illustrate this truth Bhagavan narrated a story.

Long ago there was a man whose father had died thirty years before. One day he had a dream in which his father was alive. In the dream he (the man who had the dream) was a boy who had four younger brothers. His dream father had accumulated a great fortune which he divided among the five brothers. The four younger brothers were not satisfied with their share. Out of jealousy they came to fight with the eldest brother and began to beat him up. As he was receiving the beating in the dream he woke up.

On waking up he very happily realized that he had neither a father nor any brothers. He discovered that all of the characters he had dreamt, he alone really existed.

Similarly if we go beyond this waking dream and see only our real Self we will discover that there is no world and that there are no other people. On the other hand, if we move away from the Self and see the world, we find that we are in bondage.

Bhagavan summarised these views a little later by saying, 'Every jiva (individual self) is seeing a separate world but a jnani does not see anything other than himself. This is the state of truth.'