6. Do not therefore, O Ráma! take so much care for the dull body like the ignorant; but regard only for the welfare of thy soul.
7. Ráma said:—Tell me Sir, the story of Dásúra, which is illustrative of the visionary and air-drawn form of this rotatory universe, which is all hollow within.
8. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me rehearse to you, O Ráma! the narrative of Dásúra, in illustration of the delusive form of the world, which is no more than the air-built utopia of our brains.
9. There is on the surface of this land, the great and opulent province of Magadha, which is full of flower trees of all kinds.
10. There is a forest of wide extending kadamba groves, which was the pleasant resort of charming birds of various sorts and hues.
11. Here the wide fields were full of corns and grains, and the skirts of the land were beset by groves and arbours; and the banks of rivulets were fraught with the lotuses and water lilies in their bloom.
12. The groves and alcoves resounded with the melodious strains of rustic lasses, and the plains were filled with blades of blossoms, bedewed by the nightly frost, and appearing as arrows of the god of love, Káma.
13. Here at the foot of a mountain, decked with karnikara flowers, and beset by rows of plantain plants and kadamba trees, was a secluded spot over-grown with moss and shrubs.
14. It was sprinkled over with the reddish dust of crimson flowers borne by the winds, and was resonant to the warblings of water fowls, singing in unison with the melodious strains of aquatic cranes.
15. On the sacred hill overhanging that spot, there rose a kadamba arbor, crowded by birds of various kinds; and there dwelt on it a holy sage of great austerity.