Talk 641.
Explaining the opening stanza of the Sad Vidya, Sri Bhagavan observed: The world is always apparent to everyone. All must know “T and this world exist”. On enquiry “do these always exist?” and “if indeed real, they must remain even unrelated to time, space and differentiation; are they so?” It is evident that only in the waking and dream states these are perceived but not in deep sleep. Therefore ‘I’ and the world appear sometimes and disappear also. They are created, have their being and later vanish. Whence do they arise? Wherein do they remain? Where do they go on vanishing from view? Can such phenomena be admitted to be real?
Furthermore, I and the world, objects of creation, sustenance and destruction, are perceived in the waking and dream states only and not in deep sleep. How does deep sleep differ from the other two states? In sleep there are no thoughts whereas in the other two states there are. There the thoughts must be the origin of the ‘I’ and the world.
Now what about thoughts? They cannot be natural; otherwise they cannot appear at one moment and disappear at another. Wherefrom do they arise? Their source, ever-present and not subject to variations, must be admitted to be. It must be the eternal state as said in the upadesa mantra - That from which all beings come forth, that in which they remain and that into which they resolve.
This stanza is not in praise or adoration but only an expression of the Reality.