Q.: Why is man born, only to die? Why does God create, only to destroy? Is it not absurd? If one is going to die one day, why is he born? If everything is going to be destroyed one day, why create anything?

B.: All creation is mental hallucination or delusion. In Reality there is no creator and no creation.

Q.: I desire to know the reason for the existence of the world I see around me.

B.: The apparent perceiver is the reason for the apparent perceptions.

Q.: I do not understand.

B.: Perceiver perceived and perception are all completely fictitious.

Q.: For Bhagavan it might be so. I see a solid world around me. I desire an explanation for it.

B.: What of your own apparent existence in the form of this perishable body?

Do you desire no explanation for that?

Q.: Yes, that too.

B.: Any number of theoritical explanations may be given to satisfy the craving of the intellect for the time being; but there will be no permanency in your satisfaction. Soon new doubts will arise and your old intellectual standpoint or belief will collapse. Then you will set about searching for a new explanation.

This goes on happening until the mind becomes disgusted with temporal life as a whole; then, it plunges into the Heart and loses itself there – that is the final dawn of wisdom.

Q.: So, the world is something that appears to exist only because I am engaged or involved in perceiving?

B.: Quite so.

Q.: So, now, if I close my eyes for two minutes, during those two minutes do Bhagavan, the sofa he is sitting on, this Hall and Tiruvannamalai, all totally disappear or vanish into thin air? [closes his eyes seriously for sometime] There, now, was Bhagavan not there in this Hall, were the other people in this Hall not present, even whilst my eyes remained closed? If I ask anyone, ‘Excuse me, did you exist whilst my eyes were closed, or not?’ will they not think I have gone mad?

What is the explanation?

B.: You are confusing implicit existence with implied existence. No doubt corroboration is available from the ‘others’ seated in this Hall including Bhagavan, but naturally in a dream everything is in spontaneous synchronisation. It is [your] one mind that has become all this. So, naturally confirmation is available. What is the surprise in it? You think you are taking corroboration from others, and therefore asking this question. The one whom you are asking is [also] your own mind only. Of course he would corroborate.

The idea that things exist, and then you perceive them, is implied exixstence.

It derives its strength from the principle of intellection, which in turn from the buddhi [faculty of reasoning], which in turn from the mind. Implicit existence is swayam-pratyaksham. It shines by its own light, not by any borrowed light.

Therefore it is the one thing Real.

Q.: Will sriramanamasmaranam [Tom: repetition of the Holy Lord’s name ‘Sri Rama’] help me Realise?

B.: If and only if it be accompanied by intense devotion. The devotion must be so intense that even the thought ‘I am engaging in sriramanamasmaranam’ must not find it possible to arise

The above excerpt is taken from Aham Sphurana, 20th July 1936, see here for more information on this text.