TO QUESTIONS AS TO WHY he was not out helping the world, or working to ease suffering, or at least trying to reach more people with the teaching, Ramana Maharshi would answer; first, how do you know I am not? (Your judgments are based on physical appearances only.) And secondly, why do you assume that there is something that needs to be done, that the world needs helping or that people need to hear a teaching?

From a certain perspective, there seem to be many ironies to this whole awakening thing. One such apparent irony has to do with why social action seems to be engaged in by so few of the truly awakened.

These body/mind instruments in whom is known first hand and without doubt the dream-like and illusory nature of what others call the ‘real’ world, to whom this world truly appears, in the Buddha’s words,

"as a star at dawn, a bubble floating on a stream; a flickering lamp, a flash of lightning in a summer cloud; an echo, a rainbow, a phantom, and a dream;" (The Diamond Sutra)

For the most part,

"The one who has fully investigated himself, the one who has come to Understand, will never try to interfere with the play of Consciousness." (Nisargadatta Maharaj)

The profound awareness is that everything is perfect as it is:

"That is perfect. This is perfect. Perfect comes from Perfect. Take Perfect from Perfect, and the remainder is Perfect." (Isha Upanishad)

And by ‘perfect’ I do not mean any kind of judgment about good or bad, or being better than something else. I mean it in the sense that,

"The Understanding is perfect as yast space is perfect, where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess." (Seng-Ts'an)

To use Nisargadatta’s terms again,

"This dream you call the world is not the problem; your problem is that you like certain parts of the dream and dislike others. Once you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs to be done."

It may be helpful to let go of the idea that God has somehow screwed up and needs your help and involvement, or that of the sage, to set things right. What is, cannot but be the perfect unfolding in Consciousness. And if an adjustment is needed to maintain the cosmic balance, some ‘one,’ perhaps ‘you,’ will be irresistibly motivated to perform an action which will serve that purpose. And that too will be the perfect unfolding. Just don’t take it personally.

It is hardly surprising that to these body/mind instruments, with their limited perspective and from this small corner of the universe, some events may not seem very attractive. In fact given the programming and conditioning and overall situation, many aspects of what we call life here can seem extremely unpleasant, horrific, and frankly unacceptable.

The perspective of awakening is not that these do not exist, but that somehow in a way not comprehensible to human minds they are part of the overall balance and perfect unfolding, and are accepted as such. This is the ‘acceptance of what is’ spoken of by the sages. It is not that on awakening the horrible and painful things that happen in life are found to be any less horrible or painful. In fact this awareness is often even more acute. But the whole is seen from a different perspective which renders the issue moot. The idea that there is something wrong, that something needs to be fixed, that “somebody needs to do something about this,” is an integral part of the ‘divine hypnosis’ of samsara.

As Adyashanti so succinctly puts it,“The idea that there is a problem… that’s the wild hair in the ass of humanity.” As with so many issues and problems; on awakening the problems and questions are not solved, they simply dissolve.

"With the belief in the individual entity/doer, problems never cease. When the illusory nature of the individual is seen, problems never arise." (Ramesh)