jnani

Q: Is a jnani capable of or likely to commit sins? 

A: An ajnani sees someone as a jnani and identifies him with the  body. Because he does not know the Self and mistakes his body for  the Self, he extends the same mistake to the state of the jnani. The 

jnani is therefore considered to be the physical frame. 

Again since the ajnani, though he is not the doer, imagines himself  to be the doer and considers the actions of the body his own, he  thinks the jnani to be similarly acting when the body is active. But  the jnani himself knows the truth and is not confounded. The state of a jnani cannot be determined by the ajnani and therefore the question troubles only the ajnani and never arises for the jnani. If he is a doer he must determine the nature of the actions. The Self cannot be the doer. Find out who is the doer and the Self is revealed. 

 Q: So it amounts to this. To see a jnani is not to understand him. You see the jnani's body and not his jnana. One must therefore be a jnani to know a jnani. 

 

A: The jnani sees no one as an ajnani. All are only jnanis in his sight. In the ignorant state one superimposes one's ignorance on a  jnani and mistakes him for a doer. In the state of jnana, the jnani sees nothing separate from the Self. The Self is all shining and only pure jnana. So there is no ajnana in his sight. There is an illustration 

for this kind of illusion or superimposition. 

Two friends went to sleep side by side. One of them dreamt that both of them had gone 

on a long journey and that they had had strange experiences. On waking up he recapitulated them and asked his friend if it was not so. 

The other one simply ridiculed him saying that it was only his dream and could not affect the other. 

So it is with the ajnani who superimposes his illusory ideas on 

others.

~ Be as  you are.  The  Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharishi edited by David Godman.