52. Whatever one thinks inwardly in himself, he is verily transformed to its likeness, as in the instance of the Aindava Bráhmans, and of Indra and Ahalya cited before.
53. Whatever is represented in the mirror of the mind, the same appears in the figure of the body also. But as neither this body nor the egoism of any one, is lasting for ever, it is right to forsake our desires.
54. It is natural for every body to think himself as an embodied being, and to be subject to death (while in reality it is the soul that makes the man, who is immortal owing to the immortality of the soul). It is as a boy thinks himself to be possessed of a demon of his own imagination, until he gets rid of his false apprehension by the aid of reasoning.
CHAPTER LXXXXII.
On the Powers of Mind.
Argument. Force of the Faculties of the Mind and Energy of Men.
Vasishtha added:—Now hear, O support of Raghu’s race! what I next proposed to the lotus-born lord Brahmá, after we had finished the preceding conversation.
2. I asked him saying:—Lord! you have spoken before of the irrevocable power of curses and imprecations, how is it then that their power is said to be frustrated again by men.
3. We have witnessed the efficacy of imprecations, pronounced with potent Mantra—anathemas, to overpower the understanding and senses of living animals, and paralyze every member of the body. (This speaks of the incantations and charms of the Atharva Veda).
4. Hence we see the mind and body are as intimately connected with each other, as motion with the air and fluidity with the sesamum seed (because the derangement of the one is attended by the disorganization of the other: i.e. of the body and mind).
5. Or that there is no body except it but be a creation of the mind, like the fancied chimeras of visions and dreams, and as the false sight of water in the mirage, or the appearance of two moons in the sky.