Ram: What I find interesting is that Ramana does not actually use his own words to answer this fellow. He is using the Upanishadic words. Or he is so steeped in the tradition that the Upanishadic words have become his words. He might be doing this because he knows the difference between smriti and sruti and he wants the words he uses to have the weight of the Upanishad. It shows the great respect he had for the tradition. That he was a great personality is undeniable, but he was not a ‘personality’ in the conventional sense, like Aurobindo, who may have realized the Self but who felt the need to convince the world of his greatness by redefining and attempting to more or less rewrite the Vedas according to his own personal vision…which included the whole notion of human evolution. This notion is definitely outside the Upanishadic tradition which is concerned only with removing ignorance of one’s limitless nature. Ramana wasn’t a do-gooder, trying to change the world with some sort of messianic vision. He saw the truth clearly and he expressed it in a straightforward manner…just as it is expressed in the Upanishad.
