Sri Rāma

1. O Brahman, please tell me how does this universe abide in the consciousness-Self (Chidatma)?  This will increase my knowledge.

Sri Vasista

2. O Rāma, this universe abides unmanifest in the chidatma like waves in water.

3. Subtlety is everywhere, all over in the ether/sky.  Yet one cannot see it.  In the same way the indivisible conscious nature is everywhere.  It is not however visible (separated).

4. Well situated or ill situated, a diamond contains reflections within it.  In the same way lies the creation within self.

5. Clouds in sky derive support from it.  However sky is not touched by clouds.  Similarly consciousness supports the creations inside it.  But is never touched by them.

6. Sunbeams which enter the waters of ocean are revealed as reflections.  Similarly consciousness appears as Puryastaka in a body.

7. Consciousness-Self is without any determinations or resolutions.  It has no identifications or symbols represent it.  In such an indestructible Self, all objects are caused.

8. This Self is hundred times purer and subtler than sky/space.  It is stainless.  However it manifests as the world which is ugly.

9. The waters of an ocean are full of waves.  Yet none of them are in any way distinct or different in essence from the waters.

10. (Similarly) the consciousness – ocean is full of you and I.  But nothing is in any capable of shining in distinction or opposition to consciousness.

11. Consciousness perceives and ponders over objects within itself.  And so they abide in the Self.  But ignorant people think otherwise and regard this world existing as a separate design/fabrication.

12. In the understanding of ignorant people, consciousness holds this world(s) which is intensely non-existing.  However in the perception of jnanis, this world is a shining reflection of that one consciousness and exists as one with the consciousness.

13. This consciousness shines the sun, moon and such as a natural experiential characteristic of itself (Moreover) it is the essence of all beings and conceives all pleasures of the world.

14. This consciousness never disappears nor it is born.  It never emerges nor stays put.  It never goes nor returns.  It is never here nor there.  It is everywhere.

15. O Rāghava, such is the stainless self.  It abides within itself.  As phenomenon (prapanch) it swells out with the name ‘Jagat’ mutable world.

16. Consciousness-creations are vibrational quiverings in consciousness.  It is like brilliant light being a multitude of light beams.  It is like a tide being full of assembled waters.

17. That which is called consciousness is by nature all pervading.  It radiantly manifests as soul (individual).  When bereft of light (not radiant), the aspectless soul develops aspects.

18. ‘I am’ – with this thought and musing, the Absolute slowly devolves into ignorant state, throwing away its exalted state by adopting and enjoying the pleasures of self – conjecturing.

19. Settling down to division and multiplicity, it becomes mutable and changing.  It arrives at a condition of ‘having and not having’, ‘acceptable and disagreeable’.

20. It shakes out hundreds of ‘puryastakas’ and throws up millions of worlds and universes.

21. Forms emerge out of the ether and this consciousness becomes friendly (will not resist) with formations.  (Among these) The one with the nature of vibration is wind.  The one with fluidity is water.

22. It manifests solidity as earth, effulgence as light and manifests the mutable world.  It fancies time as the restraining and regulating agency.

23. As Flowers develop fragrance and follicles: this consciousness develops immobility as earth and soil.

24. - 29. As trees, it manifests tender leaves, branches and fruits and sap carrying channels.  It stays new all the time like a rainbow.  This is an endless process supporting the world manifestation.  In spring it swells as flowers and tender leaves.  In summer it develops as drying up heat.  In rainy season it pours and fills lakes and tanks.  In autumn, it covers the entire land with fog and snow.  Thus in all the seasons and years it never violates the law of existence, ‘Niyati’.

30. With this ‘Niyati’ followed in stable manner in an unflinching way, earth continues till the doomsday.

31. In all the fourteens worlds with all their multifarious traditions and beliefs, with varied costumes, the fourteen living species are born and annihilated again and again.

32. This world comes and goes with a sense of play.  Beings deluded by the mutable things behave like a mad crowd and return again and again to the world till the day of liberation.