How many times will I have to be born?

I felt that I was not making spiritual progress, so I once asked Bhagavan, "How many times will I have to be born to get jnana?"

Bhagavan answered, "There are no factors like time and distance. In one hour we dream that many days and years have passed by. Don't you see in a cinema film mere shadows being transformed into great seas, mountains and buildings. The world is not outside you. The small world that is in the mind appears as a big world outside. The annihilation of the mind is jnana."

~ Rangan (from Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi)