23. Ráma asked:—Say sir, what does the mind do now in its subjection under the vital breath, which was the cause of its operations in the waking state? The mind has no form also beside the breath, how then does it subsist without the same.
24. Vasishtha replied:—Even so, there is neither the body beside its being the notion of one’s self; it is the imagination of the mind alone that makes the body, just as the dream causes the appearance of a mountain and other things. (There is no existence of the mind independent of the vital air of breathing. Gloss).
25. So there is not the mind also in absence of its idea or thought of something; as there is no production of the visible world, for want of its causes at the beginning of creation. (Therefore the phenomenal world is only the effect of our previous reminiscence. Gloss).
26. Therefore all these are forms of Brahma, as he is the soul of all; and the world itself is not otherwise than the image of God. (Hypothesis of theological Pantheism, that all things are manifestations of God).
27. The mind and body are both Brahma, to them that know the truth; though they are otherwise to our knowledge of them, than what they are in theirs. (The common knowledge of them, is that of Soulism).
28. The manner in which the triple world is Brahma, and how he is the soul of all these varieties; is as you, O intelligent prince, shall now hear me to relate unto you.
29. There exists for ever the only pure Intellect (or Intelligence), which is of the form of infinite vacuum; and it is that alone which shows itself always in all forms, without being either the world itself or its visible appearance. (The formless God exhibits all forms).
30. The Lord being omniscient, took upon him the form of hypostasis of the mind, without forsaking his nature of pure intelligence, and exemption from disease and decay (which the material body is subject to).
31. Then as the Lord thought upon the movement of his mind, he assumed the substantivity of the vital breath upon himself; and know, O Ráma, that best knowest the knowable, that these are but modalities of the selfsame being of God.
32. Now as this inflation of the air, appears to be a model form of the Divine essence; so the sensations and bodily perceptions, and the entities of space and time, are but various modifications of the same being.