16. The belief in the materiality of any body, as composed of the earth and other elements, is as false as it is to believe the hares to have horns on their heads.
17. Whoso thinks himself to have become a stag in his dream, has no need of seeking another stag for comparing himself with it. (i.e. Men are actuated by their own opinion of themselves).
18. An untruth appears as truth at one time, and disappears at another; as the error of a snake in a rope, vanishes upon the knowledge of its falsehood.
19. So the knowledge of the reality of all things, in the minds of the un-enlightened; is dispersed upon conviction of their un-reality in the minds of the enlightened.
20. But the ignorant, that have a belief in the reality of this world of dreams, believe also in the transmigration of the animal soul, like the revolution of the globe on its own axis.
21. Ráma asked:—If the bodies of Yogis be of a spiritual nature, how is it that they are seen to walk about in the sights of men?
22. Vasishtha replied:—The Yogi may take upon himself various forms, without the destruction of his former body; as the human soul may deem itself transformed to a stag or any other being in a dream, without undergoing any change in its spiritual essence. (The identity of the self is not lost under any form of the body. Locke).
23. His spiritual body is invisible to all, though it may appear as visible to their sight. It is like the particles of frost seen in sun-beams, and as the appearance of a white spot in autumnal sky (when there is no frost nor cloud in it).
24. No body can easily discern the features of a Yogi’s body, nor are they discernible by other Yogis. They are as imperceptible as the features of a bird flying in the air.
25. It is from the error of judgment, that men think some Yogis to be dead and others to be living; but their spiritual bodies are never subject to death or common sight.