A
Great question — and it’s really important to get this right, because it’s easy to slide from what Ramana is pointing to into “everyone else is imaginary” (solipsism). Ramana is not teaching solipsism in the crude sense.
But he is saying something that, at first glance, sounds similar.
1) “The universe is an object of the mind” ≠ “other people are fake”
When Ramana says the world is an object in the mind, he’s not saying:
“This person named you is imagining the universe, and everyone else is a puppet in your private head.”
That would make the individual ego (the “person concerned”) the creator of reality.
Ramana’s entire teaching is basically the opposite:
the ego is not the ultimate reality, and it doesn’t have that kind of power or status.
So he’s not upgrading the ego into God.
He’s dissolving the ego by showing that:
the world appears with the “I”-thought
and disappears when the “I”-thought is absent (sleep)
therefore the “I”-thought is the root assumption that makes “world” appear as a separate thing
2) The dream analogy is meant to undermine realism, not to endorse solipsism
Your dream example is exactly why this is tricky.
In a dream:
there is one field of experience
the mountain, the friend, your body, the sky are all appearances within that field
and the dream “you” is not the one generating it intentionally
That last part matters.
Even in a dream, the dream-ego doesn’t author the dream.
The dream happens to the dream-ego.
Ramana’s move is:
The waking world is also like that: an appearance in consciousness, not something “outside” consciousness.
But he’s not concluding:
therefore other people are fake NPCs.
He’s concluding:
therefore the division “inner mind vs outer world” is a conceptual overlay.
3) So what are other people, then?
In Ramana’s framework, “other people” are not denied. They are not zombies.
What is denied is the assumption that:
there are many separate consciousnesses inside many separate bodies
located in an objectively external universe
Instead, he points to:
one Consciousness (Self)
in which mind, body, and world appear
So “other people” are appearances too — but not fake in a dismissive way.
A good way to say it:
They are real as appearances, but not ultimately real as separate entities.
That’s pretty much the Advaita line.
4) Why deep sleep matters so much to Ramana
This is one of his sharpest arguments:
In waking: “I” + world appear together.
In dream: “I” + dream world appear together.
In deep sleep: no “I”-thought, no world.
Yet you later say:
“I slept well.”
So there was being, peace, continuity — without the world.
Ramana takes that to mean:
the world depends on the mind
the mind depends on the “I”-thought
the “I”-thought depends on the deeper Self
therefore the Self is primary, not the world
5) The biggest mistake people make: mixing levels
If you try to apply the “dream” logic at the level of daily ethics, you can end up with something cold like:
“You’re not real so your suffering doesn’t matter.”
Ramana would call that spiritual ignorance dressed up as philosophy.
In practice, he was known for being extremely compassionate and ordinary in his treatment of people and animals.
Advaita does this two-level thing:
Relative level (vyavahāra): people exist, karma exists, compassion matters.
Absolute level (paramārtha): only the Self is real; separation is ignorance.
Both are “true” in their own domain.
6) So is the waking world literally your dream?
Ramana’s point is not “this is a dream inside your skull.”
It’s:
The world is known only as experience.
Experience requires consciousness.
Therefore consciousness is not a product inside the world; the world is a product inside consciousness.
That is very different from:
“My personal mind is imagining everything.”
In Ramana, the “personal mind” itself is part of the appearance.
7) A clean summary (without the traps)
Does Ramana mean other people are fictitious characters?
No.
Does he mean the world has no existence independent of consciousness?
Yes.
Does he mean your ego is the creator of reality?
No — the ego is itself part of the projection.
Does he mean there is only one consciousness appearing as many?
Yes — that’s basically the Advaita view he’s pointing toward.
If you want, I can also translate this into Ramana’s typical “Who am I?” language, because he’d often dodge metaphysics and go straight for the root: find the “I” that claims to be the dreamer.
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