What is the meaning of Bhagavad Gita verse 2.16?

 

The sloka in question is as follows:

नासतो विद्यते भावो नाभावो विद्यते सतः।

उभयोरपि दृष्टोऽन्तस्त्वनयोस्तत्त्वदर्शिभिः।।2.16।।

Of the unreal there is no being; the real has no nonexistence. But the nature of both these, indeed, has been realized by the seers of Truth.

Sri Ramana Maharshi once explained as follows:

Consider a silver screen on which a feature film/documentary film will be projected for viewing. The viewers will be observing and understanding the content of the film, as if the contents of the film are happening in front of them.

Can they catch hold of the contents of the film? No.

The individual frames were made run through the projector at a particular frequency, so that the continuous flow of frames of the film will give an impression that the contents of the film are happening in front of the viewers.

After the completion of the film, what will remain there? The inert Silver screen, with no images over it.

The contents of the film will be REAL to the viewers, who do not know the mechanism behind the total process. They will laugh/cry/shudder with fear, etc, during the course of running of the film.

To the persons, who know the mechanism, the contents of the film will be transitory (UNREAL) in nature projected on the REAL (Permanent) Silver screen.

Here the ignorant viewers can be compared to the people, who are trying to hold of ever changing World (UNREAL contents of the film), thinking that they are REAL. The REAL unchanging Silver screen, on which the film is being projected, remains the same, though projection of different films change. However, no one cares about unchanging REAL thing,i.e, the God.

In a way, the sloka tells us that we should not cling to the UNREAL things, though we are passing through them and should remain in the REAL.

To the persons, who know the both the REAL and UNREAL are seers, who know the TRUTH.