Body is not the Self

Sri Ramana Maharshi

V: I am not confusing the body with the operator; rather, I was referring to Krishna's words in the 61st verse, Chapter 18 of the Gita.

ईश्वरः सर्वभूतानां ह्रुदेशेऽर्जुन तिष्ठति|

भ्रामयन्सर्वभूतानि यन्त्रारूढानि मायया ||

M: The functions of the body involving the need for an operator, are borne in mind; since the body is jada or insentient, a sentient operator is necessary. Because people think that they are jivas, Krishna said that God resides in the heart as the operator of the jivas. In fact, there are no jivas and no operator, as it were, outside them; the Self comprises all. It is the screen, the pictures, the seer, the actors, the operator, the light, the theatre and all else. Your confounding the Self with the body and imagining yourself the actor, is like the seer representing himself as an actor in the cinema-show. Imagine the actor asking if he can enact a scene without the screen! Such is the case of the man who thinks of his actions apart from the Self.

V: On the other hand, it is like asking the spectator to act in the cinema picture. So we must learn sleep waking!

M: Actions and states are according to one's point of view. A crow, an elephant, a snake, each makes use of one limb for two alternate purposes. With one eye the crow looks on either side; for the elephant the trunk serves the purpose of both a hand and a nose, and the serpent sees as well as hears with its eyes. Whether you say the crow has an eye or eyes, or refer to the trunk of the elephant as hand or nose or call the eyes of the serpent its ears, it means all the same. Similarly in the case of the jnani, sleep-waking or waking sleep or dream-sleep or dreaming-wakefulness, are all much the same thing.

V: But we have to deal with a physical body in a physical, waking world! If we sleep while work is going on, or try to work while asleep, the work will go wrong.

M: Sleep is not ignorance, it is one's pure state; wakefulness is not knowledge, it is ignorance. There is full awareness in sleep and total ignorance in waking. Your real nature covers both and extends beyond. The Self is beyond both knowledge and ignorance. Sleep, dream and waking states are only modes posing before the Self: they proceed whether you are aware of them or not. That is the state of the jnani, in whom pass the states of samadhi, waking, dream and deep sleep, like the bulls moving, standing, or being unyoked, while the passenger is asleep. These answer are from the point of view of the ajnani, otherwise these questions would not arise.

V: Of course they cannot arise for the Self. Who would be there to ask? Unfortunately, I have not yet realized the Self!

M: That is just the obstacle in your way. You must get rid of the idea that you are an ajnani and are yet to realize the Self. You are the Self. Was there ever a time when you were not aware of that Self?

V: So we must experiment in sleep waking or in day dreaming.

M: (Laughs)