The young Rama is asking questions about different centres of creation of Brahma, such as lotus, akash, egg and water. He wants to know how this differentiation occurs and why. He is told, “The universe is created at times by Sada Shiva, or by Brahma or Vishnu.”
Question 170: How does Brahman attain the state as Brahma?
The young Rama is asking questions about ideations (thoughts that manifest as illusion, maya) The young Rama wants to know how that which is the Brahman state can manifest as Brahma, the Creator.
Question 169: How bodies get flesh and bones?
Since everything is Atma, how is it that bodies are flesh and bones? The young Rama sits at the feet of the Sage and listens.
Question 167: How does ignorance affect people?
The young Rama asks about ignorance and the effects thereof. The Sage tells that ignorance causes suffering and the cycle of death and rebirth. The only activity that halts ignorance is seeking – and experiencing – the Atma.
Question 166: How does imagination arise in the non-dual Atma?
The young Rama continues with his questions. If the Atma is non-dual, and everything is created in Atma, how is it that the imagination arises in the seer?
Question 164: How does the Atma contain objects and fragmentation?
The young Rama asks “How do forms, states and individuals emerge out of Brahman? How is it that fragmentation of objects has occurred? The Sage explains ideations from Atma.
Question 163: How does the Atma contain impurities and suffering?
Those who are born experience karma, sufferings of one kind or another, and wonder, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Why is there suffering and evil in the world? This is a question that many – in all religious disciplines – raise. The mystery of suffering and evil, impurity in a world created by the Source of All That Is, and how is it that there is suffering? The youthful Rama – yet to undergo 14 years of wandering in the forest – asks, “How is it that the world is filled with sorrows”?
Question 161-162: Are Ignorance and Impurity in Atma?
The young Ramachandra asks about non-existent ignorance of this very strange world. How can there be ignorance if everything is Atma? How can there be impurity in our world if the Atma itself is purity?
Question 160: How is a Universe created in Atma?
If everything is an aspect of the unmanifest Atma, how then does a Universe arise in Atma? This is the question posed to the sage by the young Rama, sitting worshipfully at the feet of Vasishtha .
Question 159: What is Mind?
The young Rama has questions about the nature of the mind and asks for an explanation in detail. The sage calmly replies about those who view the world as real and the suffering this brings about. No one is born tabula rasa – with a blank slate. We are all born with impressions and illusions. Keep in mind that the mind accompanies the soul to the new body.