Sri Ramana Maharshi Teachings. श्री रमण महर्षि के उपदेश

 The unreal (asat) has no existence and

the real (sat) never ceases to exist.

The relative reality of both (sat and asat)

has been perceived by

the seers of the ultimate truth.

Bhagavad Gita ,Chapter :2, Shloka:16

This verse reads like a riddle.

It is told that Lord Ganesha

who was writing down

when Vyasamaharshi was dictating Mahabharata,

had put a condition.

The condition was that he

would continue writing only so long as

Vyasa was able to dictate continuously

without pausing even for a minute.

Vyasa had also put a counter condition that

Ganesa should not proceed ahead with

writing until and unless he thoroughly

understood the meaning of the verse

under dictation.

So, Vyasa deliberately introduced some riddle-

like verses in Bhagavad Gita

(which was part of Mahabharata)

so that by the time Ganesa paused to think

of the meaning of such a verse,

Vyasa was able to gather his

thoughts for further dictation.

In the classical texts,

the following is the example given

to define an ‘Asat” or unreal object:-

“There goes the son of a barren woman

with his head adorned by flowers grown

in the sky and carrying a horn of rabbit”.

Here, there cannot be the son of a

barren woman who is an asat

but you may see one in your dream.

Similarly the flower in the sky as also

the horn of a rabbit are unreal objects and

cannot have an existence

of their own except in a dream or imagination.

Here, Asat refers to the body and

also to opposite pairs (Dvandvas) like heat and cold,

pleasure and pain etc.

These ‘Asat’ objects have no existence of their own.

They are all products of the mind imagined

due to past conditioning.

The body is thus a superimposition

like the dream objects seen in a dream.

If a pot is made up of clay,

pot is only a transformation of clay.

It is the clay which was its material cause

and it only sustains the form of a pot.

So a pot is called ‘asat’.

Pot is a name given to a transformed form of clay.

The pot has no true existence as such.

By ‘Sat’ is meant the final truth i.e. the Atman (Self).

As it is all pervasive and ever present in all beings,

there is no time or space where the Self ceases to exist.

It is the seers of yore who,

as result of their Self-enquiry and Self-relaisation,

were able to come to their firm conclusion

about the distinction between

Self and non-Self

which are known as Sat and Asat respectively

(as per Sankara Bhashya on Gita).

“Yes it is like a cinema show.

You are the screen.

The Self has created the ego,

the ego has its accretion of thoughts

which are displayed as the world,

the trees, plants, etc.,

of which you are asking.

In reality,

all these are nothing

but the Self,

the same will be found to be all,

everywhere and always.

Nothing but the Self exists.”

(Talk with Sri Ramana Maharshi No. 13).

This verse has been quoted verbatim

by Bhagavan Ramana in talk No 203 also.

~ From Gita Sarah book

(Commentary on the slokas of Bhagavad Gita selected

by Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi)