Sri Ramana: the Jnani and the World #5

[Guest guest]

D: As I said before, we see, feel, and sense the world in so many

ways. These sensations are the reaction to the objects seen, felt,

etc., and are not mental creations as in dreams, which differ not

only form person to person but also with regard to the same person.

Is that not enough to prove the objective reality of the world?

M: All this talk about inconsistencies and their attribution to the

dream world arises only now, when you are awake. While you were

dreaming, the dream was a perfectly integrated whole. that is to say,

if you felt thirsty in a dream, the illusory drinking of illusory

water did quench your illusory thirst. But all this was real and not

illusory to you so long as you did not know that the dream itself was

illusory. Similarly with the waking world; and the sensations you now

have get coordinated to give you the impression that the world is

real. If on the contrary, the world is a self-existent reality (this

is what you evidently mean by its objectivity). what prevents the

world from revealing itself to you in sleep? You do not say you have

not existed in your sleep.

 

To be continued.

The Spiritual Teachings of Ramana Maharshi ..Shambala Press