All is Brahma-some writings from Vasishta's Yoga

Her is a selection from the Yoga Vasishta. It is a wonderful text which was originally put together by the great sage Valmiki. This particular version was done by Swami Venkatesananda. In this section Vasistha is teaching Rama about the nature of reality.

VASISTHA:

Rama, I shall now tell you how the jiva (living soul) came to dwell in this body.

The jiva thought "I am atomic in nature and stature" and so became atomic in nature. Yet, it only apparently became so, on account of its imagination which was false. Even as one may dream that he is dead and that he has another body, this jiva which in truth had an extremely subtle body of pure consciousness, now begins to identify itself with grossness and so becomes gross.

Even as a mountain is reflected in a mirror and is seen as if it were in the mirror, the jiva reflects the external objects and activities, and soon begins to think that they are all within itself and that he is the doer of the actions and the experiencer of the experiences.

When the jiva wishes to see, eyes are formed in the gross body. Even so the skin (tactile sense), ears, tongue, nose and the organs of action are formed as a result of the appropriate desire arrising in the jiva. Thus abides in the body, the jiva which has the extremely subtle body of consciousness, imagining various external physical experiences and various internal psychological experiences. Thus, resting in the unreal which however appears to be real, Brahman, now appearing to be jiva, becomes confused.

This same Brahman which has come to regard itself as a finite jiva and endowed with a physical body, apprehends the external world which on account of the veil of ignorance appears to be composed of matter. Someone thinks he is Brahma, someone else thinks he is something else- in this manner the jiva imagines it is this or that, and so binds itself to the illusion of world appearance.

But all this is mere imagination or thought. Even now nothing has ever been created; the pure infinite space alone exists. Brahma the creator could not create the world as it was before the cosmic dissolution, for Brahma attained final liberation then. Cosmic consciousness alone exists now and ever; in it are no worlds, no created beings. That consciousness reflected in itself appears to be creation. Even as an unreal nightmare produces real results, this world seems to give rise to a sense of reality in a state of ignorance. When true wisdom arises, this unreality vanishes.