November 15, 2026
evaṁ cettanmahābāho jñaptireva jagattrayaṁ
viśuddhajñānadehasya kuto maraṇajanmanī (21)
RĀMA asked: This world was, is and will be and it is experienced every day. How can it be said that it was never created?
VASIṢṬHA replied: This world-appearance is unreal even as the following are unreal, though they appear to be real: the dream-objects, water in the mirage, the second moon when one is suffering from diplopia and castles in the air.
RĀMA asked: How can it be said that “I”, “you”, etc., did not arise at all even in the very beginning of creation?
VASIṢṬHA replied: An effect arises from a cause, not otherwise. During the state of cosmic dissolution preceding the assumed creation, there is supreme peace in which there is no cause for the creation of a universe.
RĀMA said: Even during the state of cosmic dissolution, surely the unborn and eternal being remains. Why can it not be regarded as the cause for this creation?
VASIṢṬHA replied: Whatever is in the cause that alone is found in the effect. Something which is unreal does not arise in the real. A piece of cloth is not produced with the help of a pot.
RĀMA said: Perhaps this whole creation exists in a subtle state in Brahman the infinite consciousness during the cosmic dissolution and perhaps that alone manifests itself during the next creation.
VASIṢṬHA replied: Who has experienced the truth of that assumption and so why repose faith in such a speculation?
RĀMA said: Surely the knowers of the truth have experienced in that state that there is pure and infinite consciousness. Of course space was non-existent then. The “real” and material world can obviously not spring from void.
VASIṢṬHA said: If that is so, then surely the three worlds are nothing but pure consciousness. To one whose body is of pure consciousness there is neither birth nor death.
RĀMA asked: Then, pray, tell me how has this world-illusion arisen at all?
VASIṢṬHA replied: In the absence of cause and effect, there is neither being nor non-being. How does this “object of perception” arise then? It does not: the self itself thinks of itself and experiences itself as the object of perception. All this is but consciousness and naught else.