52. Like strings of pearl appearing to view in the clear firmament, and forms of cities seen in a dream, the self-born (Brahmá) is manifest of himself without relation to external objects.
53. As there is no beholder nor any thing beholden of the solitary Supreme spirit which is the intellect itself; so is the mind manifest of itself (without its looking at or being looked upon by any body).
54. It is the volitive mind which is called Brahmá and volition being a spiritual faculty, has no connection with any material substance.
55. As the mind of the painter is fraught with images of various things, so is the mind of Brahmá full of figures of all created beings.
56. The self-born Brahmá is manifest in his own mind as Brahmá is manifested in the vacuous sphere of his intellect. He is without beginning, middle and end, and appears to have a figure like that of a male being, while in reality he has no body, as the offspring of a barren woman.
CHAPTER III.
Causes of Bondage in the Body.
Ráma said:—It is even so as you have said, that the mind is a pure essence, and has no connection with the earth and other material substances; and that it is verily Brahmá itself.
2. Now tell me, O Bráhman! Why the remembrance of his former states (in the past and previous Kalpas), is not (to be reckoned as) the cause of his birth, as it is in the case of mine and yours and of all other beings.
3. Vasishtha replied:—Whoever had a former body, accompanied with the acts of his prior existence, retains of course its reminiscence, which is the cause of his being (reborn on earth).
4. But when Brahmá is known to have no prior acts, how is it possible for him to have his reminiscence of any thing?