Talk No 451 . Ramana Maharshi

 From: ~ Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 451.

Q.:

How can the world

be an imagination or a thought?

Thought is a function of the mind.The mind is located in the brain.The brain is within the skull of a human being,who is only an infinitesimal part of the universe.

How then can the universe be contained in the cells of the brain?

M.:So long as the mind is considered to be an entity of the kind described,the doubt will persist. But what is mind? Let us consider.

The world is seen when the man wakes up from sleep.It comes after the ‘I-thought’. The head rises up.So the mind has become active.

What is the world?

It is objects spread out in space.

Who comprehends it?

The mind.

Is not the mind,which comprehends space,itself space (akasa)?

The space is physical ether (bhootakasa).

The mind is mental ether (manakasa)

which is contained in transcendental ether (chidakasa).

The mind is thus the ether principle, akasa tattva.

Being the principle of knowledge (jnana sattva),

it is identified with ether (akasa) by metaphysics.

Considering it to be ether (akasa), there will be no difficulty

in reconciling the apparent contradiction in the question.

Pure mind (suddha manas) is ether (akasa).The dynamic and dull (rajas and tamas) aspectsoperate as gross objects, etc.

Thus the whole universe is only mental.