What did Sri Ramana Maharshi say about the world?
To understand what Sri Ramana Maharshi said about the world, his utterances regarding this can be divided into four categories
The Unreality of the World
The Enticement of the World
The Barrenness of the World
All these four categories and the verses that come under it have been taken from the English translation of Guru Vachaka Kovai by Dr. T. V. Venkatasubrahmaniam, Robert Butler and David Godman. Edited and annotated by David Godman.
1) The Unreality of the World :
'Though this world that manifests before your eyes, appearing and disappearing, does not exist all the time, it is still real [when it appears].’ So insist some people with great confidence. We refute their assertion by questioning, 'Is not an eternally existing nature one of the hallmarks of reality?’ {Guru Vachaka Kovai, verse 63}
'Though this world seems fragmented to the senses, it's fragmentary nature does not invalidate it's reality.’ So argue some people. We refute their assertion by questioning, 'Is not indivisible wholeness [ paripuranam ] also a characteristic of reality?’ {Guru Vachaka Kovai, verse 64}
Those who have known the truth as it really is will not declare this world, which is forever undergoing destruction by the wheel of time, to be real. Only the plenitude that shines uninterruptedly at all times and in all places, transcending time and space, is the nature of reality. {Ibid. 65}
2) The Enticement of the World :
For the sake of impermanent worldly prosperity, people will gleefully wander in vain, like the pointless swinging of a goat's dewlap, but they will look contemptuously upon the conduct that leads to liberation, the eternal Self. Alas! The conduct of such ignorant people is so pitiable, the wise cannot even bear to see it. {Ibid. 71}
People of the world will pine for the thoroughly dubious pleasures, tiny as sesame seeds, obtained laboriously ploughing with their minds the brackish land of sense objects, which are a creation of maya. They will not desire the unlimited bliss that is produced by easily ploughing, through consciousness, the truly fertile field of the Heart, the source of the mind. What can one say about the wonder of maya? {Ibid. 72}
Even at the very moment that the 'I’ rises, this lady, the moonlike sense of individuality, is duty bound to carefully conduct herself in a chaste way in the Heart — the space of consciousness — as the legitimate wife of the Lord, the Self that is the sun of jnana. If she forsakes the bliss of the Self, which is in harmony with her Dharma, and slips from that chaste conduct through infidelity, hankering after worldly enjoyment and wallowing in it, this is just frenzied act of stupidity caused by beginningless, past karma. {Ibid. 73}
3) The Barrenness of the World
Unlike those crazy people who are deluded into believing that this false world is real, jnanis who have realised the truth will not consider anything other than Brahman, which is wholly consciousness, to be worth attaining and enjoying. {Ibid. 75}
Will those whose consciousness goes to and rests in reality stray towards the despicable ways of the world? To plunge headling into and merge with that unreal world — is this not the activity of a base animal that, operating exclusively through the senses, has no stability in consciousness? {Ibid. 76}
There is no happiness that exists in its own right in any single one of the objects of the inert world. When this is the case, why does the stupid mind delude itself, imagining that happiness arises from the objects of the world? {Ibid. 78}
Wealth will pass away, leaving in want and suffering those foolish ones who once exulted in and felt pride in the wealth they formerly possessed. {Ibid. 79}
Reach the Heart by clearly knowing your true nature and abide there permanently as that unattached Supreme Self, without slipping from the state of knowledge. Then, act according to the human role you have assumed, outwardly behaving as if, like all others in the world, you are experiencing joy and misery. {Ibid. 81}
Sage Vasishta also gave similar advice to Sri Rama. This advice, which originally appeared in Yoga Vasishta, was translated into the following Tamil verses by Bhagavan (which the editor David Godman has produced in support of the verse 81 of the Guru Vachaka Kovai) :
Having investigated the various states of being, and seizing firmly by the mind that state of supreme reality, play your part, O hero, ever in the world. You have known the truth which is at the heart of all kinds of appearances. Without ever turning away from that reality, play in the world, O hero, as if in love with it.
Seeming to have enthusiasm and delight, seeming to have excitement and aversion, seeming to exercise initiative and perseverance, and yet without attachment, play, O hero, in the world. Released from all bonds of attachment and with equanimity of mind, acting outwardly in all situations in accordance with the part you have assumed, play as you please, O hero, in the world.
Guru Vachaka Kovai, containing the sayings of Sri Ramana Maharshi was composed in verse form by his foremost disciple Sri Muruganar.
All the verses in this book were read and verified by Sri Ramana Maharshi himself. And wherever necessary, Sri Ramana Maharshi himself composed additional verses and added them along with the original verses composed by Sri Muruganar.
