THE REINCARNATING EGO

The Teachings of Ramana Maharashi in His Own words

A Science lecturer from a university asked 

Q.: Whether the intellect survives a man’s death and was told:

B.: “Why think of death? Consider what happens in your sleep. What is your experience of that?”

Q.: But sleep is transient, whereas death is not.
 

B.: Sleep is intermediate between two waking states, and in the same way death is intermediate between two births. Both are transient.
 

Q.: I mean when the spirit is disembodied, does it carry the intellect with it?
 

B.: The spirit is not disembodied; the bodies differ. If not a gross body it will be a subtle one, as in sleep, dream or day-dream.
 

Q.: Is the Buddhist view that there is no continuous entity answering to the idea of the individual soul right or not? Is this consistent with the Hindu doctrine of a reincarnating ego? Is the soul a continuous entity which reincarnates again and again,according to the Hindu doctrine, or is it a mere conglomeration of mental tendencies?
 

B.: The real Self is continuous and unaffected. The reincarnating ego belongs to a lower plane, that of thought. It is transcended by Self-realisation. Reincarnations are due to a spurious offshoot of Being and are therefore denied by the Buddhists. The human state is due to a mingling of the sentient with the insentient.

Courtesy: Ramana Hridayam