Sarga - 3

Sri Rama

1. Sage, I feel that the first Prajapati, at the beginning of creation which occurs after great deluge, is born out of the self of memory of previous existence and this world is born out of that memory.

Sri Vasista

2. O Rāma, True, the first Prajapathi is born at the beginning of Creation following the great deluge from the self of memory (Smriti-atma).

3. This world is the mental determination and conception of that Prajapati.  It is the self of memory (Smriti-atma) of that Prajapati, This world shines like a city of gandharvas in the mental field of that Prajapati.

4. Where is memory in the Supreme self (and so creation is not from this memory).  Where is a great tree in sky?

Sri Rama

5. O sage, why is memory not possible in Brahman?  How does all memory get destroyed by the bewilderment of great deluge?

Sri Vasista

6. O Rāma, all-wise intelligent people existing before deluge attain Nirvana and Brahman state.

7. And so O Rāma of good practices, how can they become owners of all previous action?  They attain liberation when they are free from all memory.

8. When the owner of memory is absent, how can memory occur?  At the time of great deluge all become partners and contenders for liberation.

9. Whatever is that memory, which is experienced or not experienced, which is visible as world is nothing but the effulgence of Consciousness.

10. This opulence of Consciousness is a luminous reflection of that Supreme, the endless and beginningless one.  This is the world which is born of self (by itself) and abides as such.

11. The subtle today of that eternally effulgent Brahman shines as world.

12. This world luminously abides as an atom of Brahman, with all temporal and spatial behaviors and sequences.

13. In that atom, there is another one of similar kind and size, In that abide again many similar things as in the (enclosing) one.

14. Again in that latter atom, there is another similar atom.  In that there are widely scattered things as in the earlier one as if in a widening sequence.  Thus, all these illusory illuminations are not real.

15. Thus O sinless Rāma, there is no end to these sequences.  They are real to an unregenerate mind, while they are unreal and nonexistent for an awakened one.

16. For the enlightened all this world is that peaceful, indestructible Brahman alone.  For the unenlightened all this shines as full of worlds.

17. There are millions and billions off world similar to this universe of ours in each one of the atoms.

18. There are three worlds and their replicas (in each of the atoms) like a doll in a (wooden stone) pillar, in whose hands there is a pillar with a doll and so on (in an interminable sequence).

19. Just like the atoms which form a mountain, there are innumerable atoms in Brahman.

20. - 21 Of one can enumerate the photons in the rays of sunlight, one can also enumerate the three world-atoms that emerge from consciousness-sun.  These atoms flow and fly around in the Consciousness-ether like atoms in light, dust and water.

22. The bhutakasa is all that is experienced as void.  Similarly whatever is experienced as creation is consciousness-ether.

23. If one understands the word ‘sarga’ as creation, that knowledge leads one to lowly worlds (drags him down), while if creation is understood by the word Brahman, then that leads to liberation.

24. Brahma, the one who controls the Universe and the origin of the Universe are Consciousness-ether alone.  This knowledge is one to be known and is the knowledge of self.