तद्वर्णयते सुद्रष्टंतैर्गृह्यते च तदुच्यते ||
yadapurvamadrstam va na 'nubhutam na va srutam
tadvarnyate sudrstantairgrhyate ca taduhyate
While expounding whatever has not been experienced before, nor seen nor even heard of before, the teacher resorts to appropriate illustrations with the aid of which the truth is grasped and inferred.
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RAMA asked:
So when it is the infinite consciousness that is all this and the world is but a dream, how does this consciousness appear to be embodied in the wakeful dream state?
VASISTHA said:
Whatever is seen, either in a dream or in the waking state, has space alone as support. It is born of space and it is of the nature of space (void). This space is not other than the supreme, infinite consciousness. Nothing, not even this body, has ever been created; hence nothing exists. The infinite consciousness experiences the existence of all this as if in a dream. This experience exists in consciousness as if it is the solid creation. The diversity that arises in consciousness, on account of the limitlessness of its potentiality, appears to give rise to diversity of creatures.
RAMA asked:
You described that there were countless creations. You said that they were inhabited by diverse beings with very different natures and functions. Pray tell me how, among all of them, this creation exists.
VASISTHA replied:
While expounding whatever has not been experienced before, nor seen nor even heard of before, the teacher resorts to appropriate illustrations with the aid of which the truth is grasped and inferred. However, you know the nature of this universe.
The one infinite Brahman alone exists, without beginning and end, without form and without change. In the infinite space which is permeated by Brahman, this universe exists non-different from Brahman. The universe too, is beginningless and endless. This universe is what the infinite consciousness considers it to be within itself, whatever it experiences within itself: and the infinite consciousness itself considers that experience to be the universe; hence it is illusory, like the dream-object of one who is dreaming.
The mountains are not hard nor are waters fluid. Whatever the infinite consciousness considers itself to be, and wherever, that appears to be so there. A mountain arises in a dream and exists in nothing and as nothing: even so is this universe, for it is the dream of the infinite consciousness. Brahman alone exists as Brahman at all times; nothing is created nor is anything destroyed. There is no diversity in Brahman, nor is there non-diversity in it. All concepts like unity, diversity, truth, falsehood, etc. are irrelevant to it.
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