Those who conclude that any defect does not exist in creation without a defect in perception are those who have known the truth.

–Ramana Maharshi as cited in Sri Sadhu Om, The Path of Sri Ramana, p. 167.

The world, many declaim, is fallen and must be saved. Is this true?

On this point, the teaching of Advaita Vedanta is very subtle. It does not say that one, looking from the point of view of the finite mind, does not perceive defects. It accepts, however provisionally, that such a one does indeed see defects.

However, the remedy that Advaita Vedanta offers is not to change the world, given this particular–and particularly unexamined–stand as the finite mind, but rather to change one’s stand and then to see whether the defect imagined from the prior lower stand still appears.

The proposal, in fact, is this: If you stand as pure consciousness, then “all this” will appear to be nothing but consciousness. Therefore, there will be no perception or view of defects, not the least because there will be no perceiver, no perceiving, and no perceived. To consciousness, for consciousness, there is only consciousness.

And what sadhana can confirm this? It is, quite simply, to find out what the nature of the one who sees defects is. The emphasis, here, falls on discovering the nature of this one. This is termed self-inquiry or self-investigation (atma vichara). If this one doesn’t ultimately exist, then what does? Only consciousness.

In this way, self-inquiry vindicates, through direct experience, the proposal that “all is consciousness.” And it doesn’t just resolve one problem; it resolves–permanently–all problems, for none, in truth, have ever actually appeared. The ultimate truth is ajata: no-thing has ever come into being, let alone any defects.