What do you think of this quote by Ramana Maharshi?

Question

A disciple asked Ramana Maharshi:
Should I not try to help the suffering world?

And he replied:
The Power that created you has created the world as well. If it can take care of you, It can similarly take care of the world also.... If God has created the world it is His business to look after it not yours.

I think I disagree with this, unless I'm misunderstanding it. I believe we should do everything we can to alleviate suffering in the world.
Am I missing the intent of Ramana Maharshi's statement?
What are your thoughts on this?

Last Ent - he is a famous Hindu from the earlier part of the 20th century.

Answer 1

The point which is made here is that one should not take on an attitude of self-importance. The 'I' that asks the question is an instrument. Similarly the "I" which is prompted to help a suffering world should do so at the behest of a higher power.

This is clarified in the following quote from Ramana Maharshi: "all this is not to say that while you are in the dream you can act as if the pain you feel there is not real. The hunger in the dream has to be assuaged by the food in the dream. The fellow beings you found in the dream so hungry had to be provided with food in that dream. You can never mix up the two states, the dream and the waking state. Till you reach the state of jnana and thus wake out of this maya, you must do social service by relieving suffering whenever you see it. But even then you must do it, as we are told, without ahamkara, i.e., without the sense “I am the doer,” but feeling, “I am the Lord’s tool.” Similarly one must not be conceited, “I am helping a man below me. He needs help. I am in a position to help. I am superior and he inferior.” But you must help the man as a means of worshipping God in that man. All such service too is for the Self, not for anybody else. You are not helping anybody else, but only yourself."

Ramana was ever mindful that ego should not be encouraged.

Answer 2

I think that what Ramana Maharshi meant to say was that we cannot play the role of God. You are correct to say that we have our part to play in alleviating world suffering. However, some people take this conviction and go overboard. They want everything to be nice and orderly, thus becoming control freaks.

I'm sure that were Ramana Maharshi to encounter a man who has fallen in a ditch, that he would extend his arm to help this man. We all have to help one another, but we cannot play the role of God. That is His business. Besides, we can only do that much. This is my interpretation. Thanks for bringing this subject up. (^_^)

Additional: If you were to play God, and helped all the suffering people that you can, would you believe that it will mostly come to naught? You find this impossible to believe, right? But this is the truth. Please note that I didn't say ALL, but MOSTLY. Not everyone deserves help.

Answer 3

The statement implis that he believes in not helping the world. I believe we should help the world, because we should help those that helped us. But I also understand what he means, because it is a heavy burden to try and alleviate the entire world's sufferings. Look at his actions, he is a teacher, instructing his students. He is not saving the entire world, but then again, he is not simply sitting back and doing nothing about the suffering. He is doing what he is good at, providing wisdom and insight. And that is what I think we should all do, whatever it is that we are good at, and I think that will help the world's sufferings.

Answer 4

RAMANA MAHARISHI'S teachings are highly philosophical and sometime it is very difficult to understand also. You have quoted the incident from a book by him or on him. Try to read it again again from beginning to end and you will definitely get the correct meaning he has conveyed.

SRI Ramona's teachings about Self-Inquiry can be classified as the Path of Knowledge (Jnana marga) among the Indian schools of thought. The teachings are non-dualistic (Advaitic) (please see below the comparison of Sri Ramana's teachings and traditional non-dualistic schools).

Once he was not well and he said - "Yes, death has come; let it come. What is death? To whom does it come? To me. Who am I? What is it that is dying? Yes, it is this body that is dying; let it die ".-

Answer 5

Ramana Maharshi had merged with the Transcendental Reality and knew how it all works.So he is giving advice from his perspective,otherwise he would be lying.We see ourselves as independent beings and function from that view.

Answer 6

Well, to me, a relatively icy-hearted atheist, yes, it does sound a bit callus. But all he's saying is that he sees no role for himself in relieving the suffering of others and he allows that you too may see things his way. If you are one of those who views the suffering of others as something you can solve, then maybe you can ignore him. Yogis, rabbis, monks don't know everything. They teach but they study too.

I do believe that you don't owe the world to relieve the suffering of others and that you can't materially relieve it. Sure, you can feed a starving person but can you get one kid off meth? Employ one more Zimbabwean?

Answer 7

It is important not to feel that we are responsible for saving the world and burden ourselves with that responsibility because that is just not possible. But the things that are possible for us, we should do. If a child was starving and I had food, I would not say God will help him, this is not my job.....obviously I would give the child the food! I agree with you, we should help anyone when it is possible for us to do so.

Answer 8

I also disagree. If God did not mean for us to take physical action in the real world, why do we have bodies?

Answer 9

I disagree with it also! Bad things happen because Adam and Eve fell, eating the fruit.. God gave us free will for a reason, he didn't make us brainwashed, he didn't give us 'personality disorders,' he gave us a choice! He gave us free will so we could make up our own minds if we are to follow him, worship him, fulfilling our purpose in this world! He gave us a choice, and for that reason bad things happen! I think we need to do everything in our power to stop them! God cleaned up our mess once, he aint gonna do it again!

Answer 10

I disagree with the quote and agree with you. Is that person Buddhist, it sounds a little Buddhist to me.

Anyway, we should try to alleviate suffering and poverty when we can, where we can.

God bless!