The young Rama asks Sage Vasishtha about true knowledge or non-dual cognition. This gives the sage the opportunity to narrate the story of Muni Vitahavya and is interior dialogue with his mind. It is a tour-de-force instruction of the mind (chitta, consciousness) that it has no basis, no reality and the only reality that is, is that of the Atma. Thereafter, one has non-dual cognition, samyak-jnana, samyak-drishti.
Atmic awareness
Question 185-6: What are Bondage and Liberation?
The world, the Earth, the Universe – are all creations of the modifications of consciousness – which we bring with us when we are born. No one is born with a blank slate, tabula rasa as the philosophers claim. The world is experienced because of forgetfulness of Atma.
Question 97: Death and the Experience thereafter
Nearly every human has curiosity and questions about what happens after death. As far as we know, and what Sage Vaishtha illustrates in this Question-and-Answer, is that the experience is different for everyone, for the mind is different for everyone – for each and every mind is unique in its tendencies, desires and thoughts generated by same.