Chapter CIV: Section I: Exposition of Lílá’s Vision

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, in what manner the goddesses broke out of the strongholds of their bodies, and the prison-house of this world (where their souls were pent up), and passed through infinite space, to survey the scenes beyond its confines. (_i.e._ How does the mind and the flight of imagination, reach to regions unknown and unseen before).

2. Vasishtha replied:—Where is the world and where is its support or solidity? They were all situated in the region within the minds of the goddesses.

3. They saw in it the hilly tract, where the Bráhmana Vasishtha had his abode and his desire of royalty (pictured it in their minds).

4. They saw in a corner of it the deserted mansion of the Bráhman, and they saw in it the surface of the earth stretching to the seas (_i.e._ in their mental view).

5. They beheld in that imaginary spot of earth the city of the prince, and the royal palace which he had enjoyed with Arundhati his consort (in his imagination).

6. How she was born under the name of Lílá, and worshipped the goddess of wisdom—Sarasvatí; by whom she was miraculously conveyed to the delightful region of the sky.

7. It was in the mansion situated in that hilly village, that she beheld the world placed within the space of a span of her mind.

8. Having come out of her vision of the world, she found herself seated in her house, as one finds himself lying in his own bed, after his rambling from one dream to another.

9. All that she saw was mere vision and void; there was no world nor earth, nor a house nor the distance thereof.

10. It was the mind which showed them these images, as it presents the objects of our desire to our view; or else there was neither any world nor earth in actuality.

11. The sphere of intelligence is infinite, and without any covering; and being agitated by the powers of one’s intellect, it presents all the objects of nature to his view, as the sky when agitated by heat produces the winds.

12. The sphere of the intellect is uncreated (being a mode of the Divinity itself); it is ever calm everywhere; and is supposed as the world itself by deluded minds.

13. He who understands rightly, views the world to be as unsubstantial as air; but whoso is misled by his wrong judgment takes it to be as a solid mountain.

14. As a house and a city are manifested to us in our dream, so is this unreal world presented as a reality to our understandings.

15. As is the misconception of water in the mirage, and the mistake of gold in a bracelet; so does all this unreality appear as a substantiality to the mistaken mind.

16. Discoursing in this manner between themselves, the two charming ladies, walked out of the house with their graceful steps.