Argument. The old Nurse’s tale of the three Princes or Powers of the Soul, in elucidation of the Fabrications of Imagination.
Ráma said:—Relate to me, O chief of sages! the tale of the boy, in illustration of the Mind (and the other principles of our intellectual nature).
2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me Ráma, tell you the tale of a silly and jolt-headed boy, who once asked his nurse, to recite to him some pretty story for his amusement.
3. The Nurse then began to relate her fine wrought story for the pleasure of the boy, with a gladsome countenance, and in accents sweet as honey.
4. There were once on a time, some three highminded and fortunate young princes; in a desolate country, who were noted for their virtues and valour. (The three princes were the three hypostases of the holy trinity, dwelling in the land of inexistence or vacuity, asat-pure. i.e. These triple powers were in being in empty space, which is co-eternal with them).
5. They shone in that vast desolate land resembling the spacious sky, like stars in the expanse of the waters below. Two of them were unbegotten and increate, and third was not born of the mother’s womb. (These three uncreated princes, were the principles of the soul and the mind, and the living soul—jíva, which is not procreated in the womb with the body).
6. It happened once on a time, that these three, started together from their dreary abode (of vacuum), for the purpose of finding a better habitation somewhere else. They had no other companion with them, and were sorrowful in their minds, and melancholy in their countenances; as if they were transported from their native country. (This means the emigration of these principles, from the eternal and inane sphere of Brahma, to the mundane world of mortality, which was very painful to them).
7. Having come out of that desert land, they set forth with their faces looking forward; and proceeded onward like the three planets Mercury, Venus and Jupiter in their conjunction.
8. Their bodies which were as delicate as Sirísha flowers, were scorched by the powerful sun shining on their backs; and they were dried like leaves of trees by the heat of the summer day on their way. (i.e. Their tender spiritual bodies melted under the heat of the solar world).
9. Their lotus like feet were singed by the burning sands of their desert path, and they cried aloud like some tender fawns, going astray from their herd saying:—“O Father save us”. (The alienated soul and mind, which are doomed to rove about in this world are subjected to endless pains, causing them to cry out like the tormented spirit of our Lord:—Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani;—Lord, Lord, hast thou forsaken me?).