Ramana’s teachings on Self-realization were always meant to be practical. He showed little interest (as did the Buddha) in questions that were merely entertaining to engage. Therefore he took seriously the discussions which revolved around the “reality” of the existence of the world. We have David Godman to thank for gathering together (in Be As You Are) what Ramana said about this aspect of ajata.

Many of these philosophical conversations centered around the nature and origin of the physical world, since Sri Ramana was known to have views which were totally at variance with the common-sense view of the world. As with most other topics, he tailored his statements to conform to the different levels of understanding he encountered in his questioners; but even so, almost all his ideas were radical refutations of the concepts of physical reality that most people cherish.

Ajata, Godman explains, “is an ancient Hindu doctrine which states that the creation of the world never happened at all.”

One of the ways that Ramana used to approach the question of what appears to be a real world: “That time, space, cause and effect, essential components of all creation theories, exist only in the minds” of the unrealized. “…The world which appears to an ajnani [unrealized] is a product of the mind that perceives it, and in the absence of that mind it ceases to exist.”

While Ramana would say that this may not be “the ultimate truth about creation”, it satisfied those for whom the statement “there is no birth and no death” defied their comprehension.

Ramana:

All controversies about creation, the nature of the universe,  evolution, the purpose of God, etc., are useless….Various accounts are given in books. But is there creation?… The aspirant starts with the definition, that which is real exists always. Then he eliminates the world as unreal because it is changing. 

Where then to look for causation?

Find the seer and the creation is comprised in him. Why look outward and go on explaining the phenomena which are endless?... One first creates out of one’s mind and then sees what one’s mind itself has created… Are you in the world or is the world within you? You must admit that the world is not perceived in your sleep although you cannot deny your existence then. The world appears when you wake up. So where is it? Clearly the world is your thought. Thoughts are your projections. The ‘I’ is first created and then the world… That is the significance of the comparison made between the world of the waking state and the dream world. Both are creations of the mind and, so long as the mind is engrossed in either, it finds itself unable to deny their reality. It cannot deny the reality of the dream world while it is dreaming and it cannot deny the reality of the waking world while it is awake.

Q: It is easy to accept tentatively that the world is not ultimately real, but it is hard to have the conviction that it is really unreal.

A: Even so is your dream world real while you are dreaming. So long as the dream lasts, everything you see and feel in it is real… Again, does the world come and ask you “Why do ‘I’ exist? How was ‘I’ created?” It is you who ask the question. The questioner must establish the relationship between the world and himself. He must admit that the world is his own imagination… The riddle of the creation of the world is thus solved if you solve the creation of the ‘I’… The world can either be seen neither in the utter darkness of ignorance, as in deep sleep, nor in the utter light of the Self, as in Self-Realization, or samadhi… Whatever you see happening in the waking state happens only to the knower, and since the knower is unreal, nothing in fact ever happens.