The question is not rhetorical — it cuts to the heart of the teaching. Videhamukta means liberation without a body — the state of one who is free even beyond the appearance of embodiment, is indeed the absolute itself. But if your very perception is distorted — if it is rooted in the sense of ‘I’, ‘you’, and ‘the world’ — then it is already bent by ignorance. And this ignorance rests on something that has never actually been created. So where do you even begin? This is what Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha is asking: how can we say that Brahman has become all these worlds?
Look at an ornament — what do you actually see? Gold. The shape, the name, the form — these are appearances. The gold alone is real. Look at a wave — what is it but water taking a momentary shape? The wave has no existence apart from the water. In the same way, when I look at this world — at all that appears as ‘I’, ‘you’, and ‘the world’ — I see only Brahman. Not because I am dismissing what appears, but because I see through it. The forms are there, but they do not distract me from what they are made of. This is not philosophy — this is direct seeing. And this is what Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha is pointing you to.
The perception of the world as something separate and real — is beginningless ignorance. There was never a moment when you first fell into it. It has no traceable origin. And yet — it will vanish. Not through suppression, not through renunciation alone, but through enquiry into truth. Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha says: only that ceases to be which has come into being. This world — as a separate reality — has never actually come into being. It only appears to. And what only appears to exist cannot truly cease either. You are not destroying the world through enquiry — you are seeing that it was never what you took it to be.
When the previous cosmic dissolution took place, everything that had appeared — simply disappeared. And what remained? Not emptiness, not form. Not something you could point to, nor something you could deny. You could not say it was, nor that it was not. It was beyond both. And yet — this is what Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha wants you to see — that infinite alone is. It has no ears, no eyes, no tongue, and yet it hears, sees, and tastes. It is uncaused, uncreated — and yet it is the cause of everything, as water is the cause of waves. This infinite and eternal light is not somewhere else. It is the heart of all. And in its light, the three worlds shine — as a mirage shines in the heat. Apparently real, apparently there — but not what they seem.
When the infinite vibrates, worlds appear to emerge. When it does not vibrate, worlds appear to submerge. Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha gives you a simple image: take a firebrand and whirl it fast — you see a circle of fire. Hold it still — the circle vanishes. The circle was never there. Only the firebrand was. In the same way, the worlds are not separate from the infinite — they are its movement, its vibration appearing as form. And whether it vibrates or not, the infinite remains the same — everywhere, at all times. The appearance changes. The reality does not. Not realising this, you are caught — subject to delusion, to craving, to anxiety. But when it is realised — seen directly — all of that falls away.
From it is time. From it is the perception of every perceivable object. Everything you experience — action, form, taste, smell, sound, touch, thinking — all of it is it alone. And here is what Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha wants you to sit with: It is in the seer, in the sight, and in the seen — as the very seeing itself. When you know it, you realise your Self.