When the universe is established in Ātman-consciousness, where would the nature of the universe come from?

This rhetorical question points to adhyāropa-nivṛtti: when superimposition ceases, the superimposed object has nowhere to come from. Kuto bhavet: from where would it arise? The implicit answer is: from nowhere, because it was never real. The viśva—the manifold universe—appears as bhāva, as nature, attribute, or state. But when one is established in cid-ātman, when it is seen to be cid-ātma-mātra (consciousness alone), the very nature of “universe” dissolves. It is not that the universe visually vanishes; rather, its bhāva, its ontologized nature, fades away.

The sādhaka who has attained sthiti—stability in the Self—no longer asks, “What is the world?” The question itself dissolves. Like one who has awakened from a dream no longer asks, “What was that world?”; they know it was svapna, and the question about its nature loses all meaning. The viśva-bhāva was bhrānti, a delusion; when the delusion ceases, there is nothing left to ask about it.