Maharshi: Creation -<1>

[Guest guest]

Sri Ramana Maharshi:

 

All metaphysical discussion is profitless unless it causes

us to seek within the Self for the true reality.

 

All controversies about creation, the nature of the universe, evolution, the

purpose of God, etc., are useless. They are not conducive to our true happiness.

People try to find out about things which are outside of them before they try to

find out "Who am I?" Only by the latter means can happiness be gained.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Comments by David Godman:

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi had little or no interest in the theoretical side of

spirituality. His principal concern was to bring people to an awareness of the

Self and, to achieve this end, he always insisted that practice was more

important than speculation. Sri Ramana was known to have views which were

totally at variance with the common-sense view of the world. As with most other

topics he tailored his statements to conform to the different levels of

understanding he encountered in his questioners, but even so, almost all his

ideas were radical refutations of the concepts of physical reality that most

people cherish.

 

Sri Ramana adopted three different standpoints when he spoke about the nature of

the physical world. He advocated all of them at different times but it is clear

from his general comments on the subject that he only considered the first two

theories given below to be either true or useful.

 

a.. Ajata vada or the theory of non-causality. This is an ancient Hindu

doctrine which states that the creation of the world never happened at all. It

is a complete denial of all causality in the physical world. Sri Ramana endorsed

this view by saying that it is the jnani's (Man who is Self-realised) experience

that nothing ever comes into existence or ceases to be because the Self alone

exists as the sole unchanging reality. It is a corollary of this theory that

time, space, cause and effect, essential components of all creation theories,

exist only in the minds of ajnanis (ignorant) and that the experience of the

Self reveals their non-existence.

This theory is not a denial of the reality of the world, only of the creative

process which brought it into existence. Speaking from his own experience Sri

Ramana said that the jnani is aware that the world is real, not as an assemblage

of interacting matter and energy, but as an uncaused appearance in the Self. He

enlarged on this by saying that because the real nature or substratum of this

appearance is identical with the beingness of the Self, it necessarily partakes

of its reality. That is to say, the world is not real to the jnani simply

because it appears, but only because the real nature of the appearance is

inseparable from the Self.

 

The ajnani on the other hand, is totally unaware of the unitary nature and

source of the world and, as a consequence, his mind constructs an illusory world

of separate interacting objects by persistently misinterpreting the

sense-impressions it receives. Sri Ramana pointed out that this view of the

world has no more reality than a dream since it superimposes a creation of the

mind on the reality of the Self. He summarised the difference between the

jnani's and the ajnani's standpoint by saying that the world is unreal if it is

perceived by the mind as a collection of discrete objects and real when it is

directly experienced as an appearance in the Self.

 

b.. Drishti-srishti vada. If his questioners found the idea of ajata or

non-causality impossible to assimilate, he would teach them that the world comes

into existence simultaneously with the appearance of the 'I' -thought and that

it ceases to exist when the 'I' -thought is absent. This theory is known as

drishti-srishti, or simultaneous creation, and it says, in effect, that the

world which appears to an ajnani is a product of the mind that perceives it, and

that in the absence of that mind it ceases to exist. The theory is true in so

far as the mind does create an imaginary world for itself, but from the

standpoint of the Self, an imaginary 'I' creating an imaginary world is no

creation at all, and so the doctrine of ajata is not subverted. Although Sri

Ramana sometimes said that drishti-srishti was not the ultimate truth about

creation he encouraged his followers to accept it as a working hypothesis. He

justified this approach by saying that if one can consistently regard the world

as an unreal creation of the mind then it loses its attraction and it becomes

easier to maintain an undistracted awareness of the 'I'-thought.

 

c.. Srishti-drishti vada (gradual creation). This is the common-sense view

which holds that the world is an objective reality governed by laws of cause and

effect which can be traced back to a single act of creation. It includes

virtually all western ideas on the subject from 'big bang' theory to the

biblical account in Genesis. Sri Ramana invoked theories of this nature when he

was talking to questioners who were unwilling to accept the implications of the

ajata and drishti-srishti theories. Even then, he would usually point out that

such theories should not be taken too seriously as they were only promulgated to

satisfy intellectual curiosity.

Literally, drishti-srishti means that the world only exists when it is perceived

whereas srishti-drishti means that the world existed prior to anyone's

perception of it. Although the former theory sounds perverse, Sri Ramana

insisted that serious seekers should be satisfied with it, partly because it is

a close approximation to the truth and partly because it is the most beneficial

attitude to adopt if one is seriously interested in realising the Self.

 

Be As You Are , www.hinduism.co.za