August 4, 2026
na cā ‘dyāpi mṛtaṁ rāma cinmātraṁ kasyacitkvacit
na ca śūnyā sthitā bhūmistasmāccitpuruṣo ‘kṣayaḥ (16)
VASIṢṬHA continued:
I have narrated the story of the rock which enables you to realise the truth quite clearly. Nothing exists anywhere at any time; Brahman alone exists as a mass of Brahman without any division whatsoever. Brahman is a mass of consciousness. It does not undergo any change. The cosmic being is but a dream-object in that consciousness, whether that being is subtle or gross. Hence, there is neither a Brahmā the creator nor the creation, nothing but the indivisible consciousness. The diversity perceived in a dream does not create a diversity in the dreamer; even so the notion of a creation does not create a division in consciousness. Consciousness alone is, no creation; the dream-mountain is the dreamer not a mountain. The infinite consciousness (cidākāśa) is I, it is the three worlds, it is the puruṣa (cosmic being) and it is you.
Minus this cidākāśa, the body is a corpse. This infinite consciousness cannot be cut nor burnt and hence it never ceases. Therefore, no one ever dies nor is anyone born. Consciousness is the person; if it is said that that person dies and therefore consciousness dies, it is like saying that when a son dies, his father dies too. If consciousness dies, then everything dies and the world becomes empty. O Rāma, this consciousness is not dead till now anywhere in anyone; nor has this creation stood as a void; hence it is clear that the innermost being of everyone which is pure consciousness is unchanging. When this is realised, where is birth and death?
When one realises “I am pure consciousness”, he is unconcerned with life or death, pleasure or pain. Fie on that wretch in whom this realisation has not arisen (or has ceased). One who realises “I am pure experiencing or consciousness” is unaffected by any calamity. He is not affected by mental distress or psychological illness. When one feels “I am the body”, he forfeits strength and wisdom; he who realises “I am pure consciousness” gains them. The latter is not subjected to greed, delusion or vanity. Alas, how foolish are they who wail “We shall die” when thinking of the death of the body. When one rests in the knowledge “I am consciousness” he feels a blow from the most powerful weapon as if it were the touch of a flower.
If consciousness can die, then people die all the time. Please tell me how is it that you have not died already? Nothing dies. Consciousness alone entertains the twin notions “I am alive” and “I am dead”. Consciousness sees or becomes aware of saṁsāra (the world-appearance) and consciousness becomes aware of liberation. It becomes aware of pleasure and pain without abandoning its true nature. In a state of self-ignorance it gets involved in delusion; in a state of self-knowledge it frees itself from delusion. But, consciousness itself never rises and it never sets. There is no such thing as the reality and there is nothing called ignorance or falsehood. Whatever is conceived of by one, that exists in that manner.