Creation theories and the reality of the world, #3

[Guest guest]

Questioner: You seem to be an exponent of ajata doctrine of advaita

Vedanta.

 

Maharshi: I do not teach only the ajata doctrine. I approve of

all schools. The same truth has to be expressed in different

ways to suit the capacity of the hearer.

 

The Ajata doctrine says, `Nothing exists except the one reality.

There is no birth or death, no projection or drawing in, no seeker,

no bondage, no liberation. The one unity alone exists.'

 

To such as find it difficult to grasp this truth and who ask, `How

can we ignore this solid world we see all around us?', the dream

experience is pointed out and they are told, `All that you see

depends on the seer. Apart from the seer, there is no seen.' This is

called the drishti-srishti vada or the argument that one first

creates out of one's mind and then sees what one's mind itself has

created. Some people cannot grasp even this and they continue to

argue in the following terms:

 

`The dream experience is so short, while the world always

exists. The dream experience was limited to me. But the world is felt

and seen not only by me, but by so many others. We cannot call such a

world non-existent.'

 

When people argue in this way they can be given a

srishti-drishti theory, for example, `God first created such and

such a thing, out of such and such an element, and then

something else was created, and so on.' That alone will satisfy this

class. Their minds are otherwise not satisfied and they ask

themselves, `How can all geography, all maps, all sciences, stars,

planets and the rules governing or relating to them and all knowledge

be totally untrue?' To such it is best to say, `Yes, God created all

this and so you see it.'

 

 

 

> taken from

> Be As You Are, The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi

> Edited by David Godman