Uddālaka explained that all proceeds from (as illustrated by deep sleep).
(1) The body takes food. Food requires water. Water requires heat to digest the food. (Tejo mulamanvichchha.) It is sat parasyām devatāyām (merged in the Be-ing). If we are sat sampannāh (merged in the Be-ing), how is it that we do not realise it?
(2) M.: Just as the honey gathered from different flowers forms the bulk in a honeycomb, and each drop does not indicate wherefrom it has been collected, so also sat sampannāh in deep sleep, death, etc., people do not recognise their individualities. They slip into that state unawares. But when they wake up they regain their original individual characteristics.
(3) D.: Honey, though collected from different flowers, becomes the bulk and does not possess individual characteristics. But the individual parts do not also exist in the drops and they do not return to their sources. Whereas the individuals after going to deep sleep wake up individuals as formerly. How is it?
M.: Just as the rivers discharged into the ocean lose their individualities, still the waters evaporate and return as rain on the hills and through rivers to the ocean, so also the individuals going to sleep lose their individualities and yet return as individuals according to their previous unawares. Thus, even in death, is not lost.
(4) D.: How can that be?
M.: See how a tree, whose branches are cut, grows again. So long as the life-source is not affected it will grow. Similarly the (anamneses) sink into the heart in death; they do not perish. They will in right time sprout forth from the heart. That is how the are reborn.
(5) D.: How does the wide universe sprout forth from such subtle remaining sunk in the heart?
M.: Just as a big banyan tree sprouts from a tiny seed, so the wide universe with names and forms sprouts forth from the heart.
(6) D.: If the origin is why is it not felt?
M.: The salt in the lump is visible; it is invisible in solution. Still its existence is known by taste. Similarly , though not recognised by the intellect, can still be realised in a different way, i.e. transcendentally.
(7) D.: How?
M.: Just as a man blindfolded and left by robbers in a jungle enquires his way home and returns there, so also the ignorant one (blinded by ignorance) enquires of those not so blinded and seeks his own source and returns to it.
Then, Gurupadeśa—“Vāng manasi sampadyate, manah prāne, pranastejasi, tejah parasyām devatā yām iti.”
D.: If so, a or an dies in the same manner. Why is an ajnāni reborn, whereas a jnāni is not?
M.: Just as an innocent man satyābhisandha is not affected by the test of touching red hot iron but a thief is affected, so also the sadbrahma satyābhisandha i.e. a , enters into consciously and merges, whereas the other enters unawares and is thrown out unawares also.