It's unclear. It's proceeded by a discussion that the question may have been garbled. So we're left with two possibilities: 1) The ultimate question was 6 * 9

It's unclear. It's proceeded by a discussion that the question may have been garbled. So we're left with two possibilities: 1) The ultimate question was 6 * 9 = ? and the universe makes no sense at all. 2) The ultimate question was 6 * 7 = ? and the universe has no deeper meaning. Both are possible, and the ambiguity suggests he wanted to say both.