" Being" is stationary...

Sri Bhagavan said to Lady Bateman: There is a fixed state; sleep,
dream and waking states are mere movements in it. They are like
pictures moving on the screen in a cinema show.

Everyone sees the screen as well as the pictures but ignores the
screen and takes in the pictures alone. The Jnani however considers
only the screen and not the pictures. The pictures certainly move
on the screen yet do not affect it. The screen itself does not move
but remains stationary.

Similarly, a person travels in a train and thinks that he moves.
Really speaking he sits and reposes in his seat, and it is the train
which is steaming fast. He however superimposes the motion of
the train on himself because he has identified himself with the
body.

He says, “I have passed one station - now another - yet
another - and so on”. A little consideration will show that he sits
unmoved and the stations run past him. But that does not prevent
him from saying that he has travelled all the way as if he exerted
himself to move every foot of the way.

The jnani is fully aware that the true state of Being remains fixed
and stationary and that all actions go on around him. His nature
does not change and his state is not affected in the least. He looks
on everything with unconcern and remains blissful himself.


Talks with Ramana #607