O Lord, how do all these living beings arise from the state of Brahman? What is their true extent and nature? Please explain this to me in detail. How do the various kinds of beings emerge from Brahman, how do they come to destruction, and how do they attain liberation? How do they grow, how do they remain, and how do they become hidden? O mighty-armed one, I implore you—explain all this to me step by step. The Lord replied: Listen, O sinless one, and I will tell you. The pure Brahmanic power of consciousness, by its own will, creates. Being the source of all powers, it is itself the knower and becomes the very nature of creation. When imagination becomes dense, whatever it conceives by itself, that later attains the status of reality within the realm of the mind. By mere intention of the mind, in an instant, this unreal appearance is produced—just as a city of the Gandharvas arises in a dream—abandoning the divine vision. What remains is the essential nature of consciousness: perfectly empty, pure. Whatever appears to exist is, for us, only like space—vast, formless, and intangible. When one forms the intention of the lotus-born, one sees the form of the lotus-born; then, one imagines the world, beginning with one’s own progenitor. In this way, O Rama, this knowledge—accompanied by the humming of the countless fourteenfold classes of beings—has arisen as a creation of the mind. This world is made only of mind, empty, with space alone as its body—a city made of imagination, existing solely as delusion and unreality. Among beings here, some lineages remain in great delusion, some have arisen to knowledge, and some indeed stumble in between. Of all these classes of beings on earth, those human lineages who are awakening are fit to receive instruction. There are many afflictions, full of suffering, for they are tormented by aversion and fear. Among them, I will now explain the one that is of the nature of both rajas and sattva. That which is immortal, Brahman— all-pervading and free from affliction, appearing as consciousness, called the Infinite, beginningless and free from delusion—of that which has the form of stillness, a portion, by the presence of movement, takes on density, O gentle one, just as in the ocean, due to motion, a whirlpool is formed. But who can speak of a part of the infinite essence of the Self? How could there be modification, or any sequence of components, in That? Thus, the statements “this is born from that, and that from this” are made only for the sake of discourse and scriptural convention, O Rama, not in the ultimate sense. Ideas such as modification, composite structure, sequence, and so on, though they appear to arise, do not truly exist in the Supreme. Apart from That, all else is mere imagination; it neither exists nor will exist. Therefore, the meanings of words like “sequence” are only for conventional usage. Whatever conception, object, word, or group of attributes exists here—because it arises from That and is pervaded by That, it is considered to be That alone. That which arises from it is itself, just as fire emerging from fire—the notions of “produced” and “producer” are merely imagined distinctions. This idea that “this has arisen from that”—this maintenance of the world—arises from the predominance of the power of activity; in truth, the produced is nothing but the producer. The confusion of words and meanings—“this is different, that is different”—exists only in speech; in reality, there is no separation, for the divine is undivided. By the very power of that mind alone, the sense of individuality arises; through firm conviction in that, the desired object is attained. When one speaks of a single flame of fire as having a second as its origin, it is merely a peculiarity of expression; in such statements, there is no actual truth. Such statements as “produced” and “producer” do not apply to the Supreme; for that which is one and infinite, how, in what way, could it be produced? This is the nature of speech: that a statement is just a statement, and is only appropriate when referring to distinctions such as number or opposition. Just as a network of waves appears in the ocean, so too what is perceived in the Supreme as forms of words and meanings—wise ones know that to be Brahman alone. Brahman is consciousness; Brahman is also the mind; Brahman is knowledge and what is called non-being; Brahman is the object, the word, the direction, and the elements. This is one, that is another, this is a part—such distinctions between the self and the other are merely imagined in error; what truth can there be in such statements? When a flame arises from fire, the idea that it is a separate flame is a fanciful notion of the mind, born of its restlessness; in reality, such a distinction does not hold. The assertion of distinction is itself untrue, yet it is imagined to be real due to the impairment of perception by delusion, just as the error of seeing two moons arises. From Brahman, which is all, which is everywhere, which is infinite, nothing else arises; whatever is said to be, is only That. Without the reality of Brahman, nothing at all is possible here; indeed, all this is Brahman—this alone is the highest truth. Thus, O wise one, this will be your conclusion; here I shall present the essence of the doctrine in a concise statement. Here, only those states beginning with ignorance exist; other sequences do not. You will know all this fully when ignorance is destroyed. When the unreal is dissolved, the real shines forth as it truly is—just as, when the darkness of night is dispelled, the world appears as it is. All this that is spread out by mistaken perception, O Rama, will, upon the calming of your mind and the arising of pure vision, be seen as it truly is by your unwavering, truthful insight—of this there is no doubt. Hearing these wondrous and profound words, which shine with cool, pure brilliance like the waters of the Milky Ocean, I feel surrounded on all sides. For a moment I fall into darkness, and for a moment I come into light—like a day whose strength is subdued by the cool clouds of the rainy season.