VI. 21st SEPTEMBER 46
bijam puspaphalantastham bijantar na ‘nyadatmakam yadrsi bijasatta sa bhavanti yatyathottaram (30)
VASISTHA continued:
There is yet another parable, O Rama, to illustrate this further. | shall now narrate that to you.
There is a great rock which is full of tenderness and affection, which is obvious and ever clearly perceived, which is soft, which is omnipresent and eternal. With- in it countless lotuses blossom. Their petals sometimes touch one another, some- times not; sometimes they are exposed and sometimes they are hidden from view. Some face downwards, some face upwards and some have their roots intertwined. Some have no roots at all. All things exist within it, though they do not.
O Rama, this rock is indeed the cosmic consciousness; it is rock-like in its homogeneity. Yet within it all these diverse creatures of this universe appear to be. Just as one conceives or imagines different forms within the rock, this universe is also ignorantly imagined to exist in this consciousness. Even if a sculptor ‘creates’ different forms in the rock, it is still rock: even so in the case of this cosmic con- sciousness which is a homogeneous mass of consciousness. Even as the solid rock contains potentially diverse figures which can be carved out of it, the diverse names and forms of the creatures of this universe exist potentially in cosmic conscious- ness. Even as rock remains rock, carved or uncarved, consciousness remains con- sciousness whether the world appears or not. The world-appearance is but an empty expression; its substance is naught but consciousness.
In fact, even these manifestations and modifications are but Brahman, the cosmic consciousness — though not in the sense of manifestation or modification. Even this distinction — modification in the sense of modification, or any other sense — is meaningless in Brahman. When such expressions are used in relation to Brahman, the meaning is quite different, like water in the mirage. Since the seed does not contain anything other than the seed, even the flowers and the fruits are of the same nature as the seed: the substance of the seed is the substance of sub- sequent effects, too. Even so, the homogeneous mass of cosmic consciousness does not give rise to anything other than what it is in essence. When this truth is realised, duality ceases. Consciousness never becomes un-consciousness. If there is modification that too is consciousness. Hence, whatever there may be, wherever and in whatever form — all this is Brahman. All these exist forever in their potential state in the mass of homogeneous consciousness.