60. The wise soul is full of light like the cloudless sky, and is distinguished from others by its brightness; but the same soul which is alike in all, appears as dim as the evening twilight in the ignorant.
61. As a man seated in this place, sees the light of heaven (heavenly bodies), as coming to him from a great distance, and filling the intermediate space; so the light of the Supreme soul fills and reaches to all.
62. The infinite and invisible intellect, which is as wondrous as the clear vacuum of the sky; conceives and displays this wonderful world, within the infinitude of its own vacuity.
63. The world appears to the learned and unerring, and those who have got rid of the error of the world, and rest in their everlasting tranquility, as a consumed and extinguished lamp; while it seems to all common people, to be placed in the air, by the will of God and for the enjoyment of all. (The two opposite views of the world with the learned and ignorant).
CHAPTER XXIII.
Story of a Pious Bráhmana and his Nirvána Extinction.
Argument:—Account of Vasishtha’s meeting a hermit named Manki in a desert land; and their mutual conversation with regard to self-resignation and liberation.
Vasishtha said:—(I have delivered to you my lectures) on dispassionateness, inappetence and resignation of worldly desires; rise therefore and go beyond the material world after the example of one Manki (as related herein—below).
2. There lived once on a time before a Bráhmana named Manki, who was applauded for his devotion and steadfastness to holy vows.
3. It happened at one time, that I was coming down from the vault of heaven, upon an invitation from your grandfather Aja on some particular occasion.
4. As I then came to wander on the surface of the earth, in order to reach at the realm of your grandsire; I happened to meet before me a vast desert, with the burning sunshine over it.