63. But this reliance is as vain as the vanity of our desires, and the falsity of our aerial castle building; all which are as false as the marks of waves, left on the sea sands; or as the marking of anything with a charcoal, which is neither lasting nor perceptible to any body.
64. We see the woodlands, blooming with full blown flowers and blossoms; but these sights are as deluding, as the sparks of fire, presenting the appearance of a flower garden in fire works.
65. These pyrotechnical works, which are prepared with so much labour; burst on a sudden at the slight touch of fire, and then they are blown away as soon, as the prosperity of sharpers (which is transient).
66. Ráma, I beheld the flourish of the world, to be as false and fleeting, as the appearance of light in the particles of dust; all these appearing as so many things of themselves, are in fact no other than the appearances of hills and cities, in the vacuity of the mind in our dreams at sleep.
CHAPTER LXXXXII.
Description of the Current Air, as the
Universal Spirit.
Argument:—Vasishtha’s assuming the form of Air, and his finding its pervasion all over the world as its vital spirit.
Vasishtha continued:—Now in my curiosity to know the world, I thought myself as transformed to the form of the current air; and by degrees extended my essence, all over the infinite extent of the universe.
2. I became a breeze with a desire, to view the beauty of the lovely plants all about me; and to smell the sweetness of the fragrant blossoms of kunda, jessamine as lotuses.
3. I bore about the coolness of the falling rains and snows and dew drops, with a view to restore freshness to the languid limbs of the tired and weary labourer.
4. My spirit in the form of the current winds, bore about the essences of medicinal plants and the fragrance of flowers; and carried away the loads of grass, herbs, creepers and the leaves of plants all around.