24. Though the creation and destruction of the world, be indifferent to me; yet its continuation in the primordial order, is of much concern to others, if not to my insusceptible self.
25. Whatever is alike in its existence and inexistence, is the same also in both its gain and loss (to the indifferent soul). Any effort for having any thing is mere foolishness; since addition and subtraction presuppose one another. (Gain is the supplying of want, and want is the privation of gain).
26. I shall therefore hasten to the infernal region, and awaken the Daitya prince to the sense of his duty; and then will I resume my calmness, and not play about on the stage of the world like the ignorant. (The sapient God is silent; but foolish souls are turbulent).
27. I will proceed to the city of the Asuras amidst their tumultuous violence, and rouse the Daitya prince as the sunshine raises the drooping lotus; and I shall bring the people to order and union, as the rainy season collects the fleeting clouds on the summits of mountains.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
ADMONITIONS OF HARI TO PRAHLÁDA.
Argument. Hari enters into the Daitya city, blows his conch-shell, and directs Prahláda to reign and rule over his realm.
Vasishtha continued:—Thinking thus within himself, Hari started from his abode in the Milky Ocean with his companions, and moved like the immovable Mandara mountain with all its accompaniments.
2. He entered the city of Prahláda resembling the metropolis of Indra, by a subterranean passage lying under the waters of the deep. (This passage, says the gloss, leads to the sweta dwípa or white island of Albion—Britain; but literally it means the underground passage of waters).
3. He found here the prince of the Asuras, sitting under a golden dome in his hypnotic trance, like Brahmá sitting in his meditative mood in a cavern of the Sumeru mountain. (This shows Brahmá the progenitor of mankind or of the Aryan Brahmanic race, to have been a mountaineer of the Altai or N. polar ranges, called Sumeru contra Kumeru—the S. pole).
4. There the Daityas being tinged in their bodies, by the bright rays of Vishnu’s person, fled far away from him, like a flock of owls from the bright beams of the rising sun. (The Daityas are night rovers or nisa charas, and cannot maintain their ground at sun rise).