CHAPTER XV.
Story of the Temple and its Prince.
Vasishtha said:—The world is a void and as null as the pearls in the sky (seen by optical delusion). It is as unreal as the soul in the vacuity of the intellect.
2. All its objects appear, as unengraven images on the column of the mind, which is without any engraving or engraver of it.
3. As the intermotion of the waters in the sea, causes the waves to rise of themselves, so the visibles as they appear to us, are as waves in the calm spirit of the Supreme. (The variety of the waves, with the pearls, shells and froth they pour out, resemble the multiformity of worldly productions).
4. As sun-beams seen under the water, and as water appearing in the sands of the desert (mirage); so it is the fancy, that paints the world as true to us; and its bulk is like that of an atom, appearing as a hill (when seen through the microscope).
5. The fancied world is no more than a facsimile of the mind of its Maker, just as the sun beams under the water, are but reflexions of the light above; and no other than a negative notion (a false idea).
6. The ideal world is but an aerial castle, and this earth (with its contents), is as unreal as a dream, and as false as the objects of our desire.
7. The earth appearing as solid, is in the light of philosophy, no better than the liquid water of a river, in the mirage of a sandy desert, and is never in existence.
8. The illusive forms of the visibles, in this supposed substantial form of the world, resemble at least, but aerial castles and rivers in the mirage.
9. The visionary scenes of the world being taken to the scales, will be found when weighed, to be light as air and as hollow as vacuum.