26. Upon hearing this from the mouth of the great god, they both entered in their turn into the heart of one another, in order to sound their understandings, and descry their respective parts.
27. They then having searched into the eternal essentialities of one another, and having known their respective characters; came out in presence of the God, and besought him by turns.
28. The curse said:—I am overcome, O Lord of creatures, by this my adversary, in my having no internal merit in myself, and finding the curses of my foe, to be as sound and solid as the hard stony rock and the strong thunderbolt.
29. But both ourselves and the blessings, being always but intellectual beings, we have no material body whatever to boast of at any time.
30. The Blessing replied:—The intellectual blessing, which its giver (the god in the sun), has given to its askers the Bráhmans, is here present before you; and this is entrusted to my charge (to be delivered unto them).
31. The body of every one is the evolution of one’s intelligence, and it is this body which enjoys the consequence of the curse or blessing that is passed on one according to his knowledge of it; whether it is in his eating or drinking or in his feeling of the same, in all his wandering at all times and places. (i.e. The consciousness of one’s merits and demerits, accompanies him every where, and makes him enjoy or suffer their results accordingly).
32. The blessing received from its donor, is strengthened in the mind of the donee in time; and this acting forcibly within one’s self, overcomes at last the power or effect of the curse. (i.e. Firm good will, turns away the evil ones).
33. The donor’s bestowal of a blessing, to his supplicants for it; becomes strong and effectual only, when it is deeply rooted and duly fostered in one’s self. (i.e. A good given us by others, is of no good, unless we cultivate it well ourselves).
34. It is by means of the continued culture of our conscious goodness, and by the constant habit of thinking of our desert, that these become perfected in one’s self, and convert their possessor to their form. (It is the habitual mode of the mind’s thought, that makes the future man, be it a holy or accursed one).
35. The pure and contrite conscience alone, consummates one’s consciousness in time; but the impure conscience of the evil minded, never finds its peace and tranquility. Hence the Bráhmans’ thoughts of the blessing, had taken the possession of their minds, and not that of the curse: because the earlier one, has the priority over the latter, though it be that of a minute only (as the law of primogeniture, supersedes the claim of youngsters to state); and there is no rule;—