14. Being fond of Brahmahood and reverential to Bráhmans in his mind, he became the wished for person in his own body; because the reality and unreality have the power of mutually displacing one another, according to the greater influence of either. (The weaker yields and makes room to the stronger, like the survival of the fittest).
15. The Bráhman next obtained the chieftainship, from his strong predilection for the same; just as the tree becomes fruitful by its continuous suction of the moisture of earth. (The common mother of all).
16. Being desirous of dispensing justice, and discharging all legal affairs, the general wished for royalty, and had his wishes fulfilled by this becoming a prince; but as the prince was over fond of his courtesans, he was transformed to a heavenly nymph that he prized above all in his heart.
17. But as the celestial dame prized the tremulous eye sight of the timorous deer, above her heavenly form and station; she was soon metamorphosed to an antelope in the woods, and destined to graze as a miserable beast for her foolish choice.
18. The fawn that was very fond of browzing the tender blades and leaves, became at last the very creeping plant, that had crept into the crevice of her lickerish mind.
19. The creeper being long accustomed to dote on the bee, that used to be in its company; found in its consciousness to be that insect, after the destruction of its vegetable form.
20. Though well aware of its being crushed under the elephant, together with the lotus flower in which it dwelt, yet it was foolish to take the form of the bee, for its pleasure of roving about the world. (So the living soul enters into various births and bodies only to perish with them).
21. Being thus led into a hundred different forms, said he, I am at last become the self-same Rudra; and it is because of the capriciousness of my erratic mind in this changeful world.
22. Thus have I wandered through the variegated paths of life, in this wilderness of the world; and I have roamed in many aerial regions, as if I trod on solid and substantial ground.
23. In some one of my several births under the name of Jiváta, and in another I became a great and respectable Bráhman, I became quite another person again, and then found myself as a ruler and lord of the earth. (So every man thinks and acts himself, now as one person and in the stage of his life. Shakespeare).