23. Men are carried away as straws, by the waves in the eventful ocean of the world; and their days are passing away as insensibly (rapidly), as the dew drops are falling off from the blades of grass.
24. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me Sir, who are those far seeing persons, who sensing at first this world to be full of weeds and thorns, come at last by their right judgment, to rest in the state of ineffable felicity. (i.e. Who are they that are resigned to God after their troublesome journey in the thorny paths of the world).
25. Vasishtha replied:—It is the wording of the sruti, that there some such persons among all classes of beings, whose presence sheds a lustre, as bright as that of the broad and shining day light. (These are gods, men).
26. Beside them there are others, who are quite ignorant of truth, and are tossed about and whirled up and down like straws, by the whirling waters of the dangerous eddies of ignorance, in the dark and dismal ocean of this world.
27. These are drowned in their enjoyments, and lost to the bliss of their souls; and are ever burning in the flames of worldly cares; such are some among the gods, who are burning on high, like as the mountain trees are inflamed by the wild fire.
28. The proud demigods were vanquished by their inimical gods, and were cast down into the abyss by Náráyana; as big elephants into the pit, with the ichor of their giddiness.
29. The Gandharva songsters (that are skilled in music only), show no sign of right reason in them; but being giddy with the wine of melody, they fall into the hands of death, as the silly stags are caught in the snare (by their fondness for the sweet sound of the hunter’s horn).
30. The Vidyádharas are mad with their knowledge (of arts, of sciences); and do not hold in esteem the esoteric and grand science of divinity for their salvation.
31. The yakshas who are impregnable themselves, are ever apt to injure all others on earth; and they exercise their noxious powers, chiefly upon the helpless infants, old men and weak and infirm persons.
32. There are again the gigantic and elephant like Rákshasas, who have been repeatedly destroyed by Hari, and will be utterly extirpated by you, as a herd of sheep by a powerful lion.