Ikshvaku's Question on Reality - What Truly Exists?

Rama: "(asking the fundamental question) O Sage, amidst all these teachings of illusion and dream, tell me plainly—what truly exists? What is ultimately real? My mind swings between understanding and confusion."

Vasishtha: "(nodding solemnly) This question has echoed through time, Rama. Your own ancestor, the great King Ikshvaku, first of the solar dynasty, asked this very question to Lord Brahma at the dawn of creation. Let me share that conversation."

Rama: "Ikshvaku spoke with Brahma himself?"

Vasishtha: "Indeed. After creating the world, Brahma came to Ikshvaku and offered him a boon. Instead of asking for power or wealth, Ikshvaku asked: 'Lord, what is the truth of all this? What truly exists beneath the play of appearances?'"

Rama: "(leaning forward) And what did Brahma answer?"

Vasishtha: "Brahma was pleased. He said: 'Ikshvaku, that which truly exists has three marks: it is eternal, it is conscious, and it is bliss itself. Everything else—every form you see, every thought you think, every world that appears—is a temporary modification of this one reality. Just as all waves are modifications of ocean, all appearances are modifications of Brahman.'"

Rama: "(observing) But the waves seem so different from the ocean."

Vasishtha: "Ikshvaku raised this same objection. Brahma responded: 'The wave considers itself separate because it focuses on its form—its height, its motion, its beginning and end. But if the wave asked, What am I really made of?, it would find only water. It would realize it was never other than ocean. It only appeared different due to temporary form.'"

Rama: "Then is Rama also just a wave? A temporary form that will dissolve?"

Vasishtha: "(smiling) This is where Brahma's teaching becomes most subtle. He told Ikshvaku: 'You are not the wave. You are not even the ocean. You are that in which both ocean and wave appear—pure consciousness itself, without form, without limit, without beginning or end. The ocean is already a concept; Brahman is prior to all concepts.'"

Rama: "How can anything be prior to concepts? Even the word Brahman is a concept."

Vasishtha: "Exactly! Brahma acknowledged this to Ikshvaku: 'The moment I speak of Brahman, I have already reduced it to a concept. The truth cannot be spoken; it can only be pointed to. All my words are fingers pointing at the moon—do not mistake the finger for the moon itself.'"

Rama: "(struggling) Then how can we know it?"

Vasishtha: "(voice becoming soft) Brahma said to Ikshvaku: 'You cannot know Brahman as an object, for you are Brahman. The eye cannot see itself directly. But just as you know with certainty that you exist, that you are aware, that you are—this knowing itself is Brahman knowing itself through you. There is no knower separate from the known. In the recognition that you are, the ultimate truth stands revealed.'"

Rama: "Is it so simple?"

Vasishtha: "Brahma laughed at Ikshvaku's surprise. He said: 'Simple, yes. Easy, no. The mind wants complexity, wants something to grasp, something to achieve. But Brahman is not an achievement; it is what remains when all achieving stops. It is not found by seeking; it is what is doing the seeking. Every search for truth is truth searching for itself.'"

Rama: "(contemplating) Then what Ikshvaku sought was never lost?"

Vasishtha: "That is the great paradox. Brahma told him: 'You cannot find Brahman because you have never lost it. You cannot become Brahman because you have never been anything else. All spiritual practice is simply removing the illusion that you are something limited. When that illusion dissolves, what remains is what always was—pure, infinite, conscious existence.'"

Rama: "And did Ikshvaku attain liberation through this teaching?"

Vasishtha: "(concluding) In that very moment, Ikshvaku recognized himself. He saw that he had always been free, that his life as a king was a role played upon the stage of infinity, that nothing had ever truly bound him. He continued to rule wisely for many years, but inwardly he was established in truth. He became a jivanmukta—one liberated while living."

Rama: "(sitting quietly, absorbing the teaching) So when I ask 'What truly exists?', I am what truly exists, asking about itself."

Vasishtha: "(beaming) Now you understand why Brahma was pleased with Ikshvaku's question. The question itself was Brahman playing at seeking Brahman. And the recognition of this is all that liberation means."