5. The sight of the supreme Spirit, destroys the knowledge of our self-existence, which is caused by our ignorance; as the light of the sun, destroys the shadows of things.
6. The sight of the all-pervading God, dispels our ignorance in the same manner, as the light of the twelve zodiacal suns (all shining at once), puts the shadows of night to flight from all sides of the horizon.
7. Our desires are the offspring of our ignorance, and the annihilation of these constitutes what we call our liberation; because the man that is devoid of desires, is reckoned the perfect and consummate Siddha.
8. As the night-shade of desires, is dissipated from the region of the mind; the darkness of ignorance is put to flight, by the rise of the intellectual sun (Vivekodaya).
9. As the dark night flies away before the advance of solar light, so does ignorance disappear, before the advancement of true knowledge—Viveka.
10. The stiffness of our desires, tends to bind the mind fast in its worldly chains; as the advance of night serves to increase the fear of goblins in children.
11. Ráma asked:—The knowledge of the phenomenals as true, makes what we call avidyá or ignorance, and it is said to be dispersed by spiritual knowledge. Now tell me sir, what is the nature of the Spirit.
12. Vasishtha replied:—That which is not the subject of thought, which is all-pervasive, and the thought of which is beyond expression and comprehension is the universal spirit (which we call our Lord and God).
13. That which reaches, to the highest empyrean of God, and stretches over the lowest plots of grass on earth, is the all-pervading spirit at all times, and unknown to the ignorant soul.
14. All this is verily Brahma, eternal and imperishable intelligence. To him no imagination of the mind can reach at any time.