50. Ráma rejoined:—Intelligence like light, does not show us all things in the same light; it shows us the difference between a pot and a picture, as light shows the white and black to view. Again as the light of our eye sight shows us the different forms of outward objects, so does our intelligence confirm and attest the reality of our visual perceptions.
51. Vasishtha replied:—All outward objects having no cause of their creation, nor any source of their production, are as incredible as the offspring of a barren woman; and the appearance of their reality which is presented to our sight, is as false as that of silver in a conchshell or in the glittering sands, and not otherwise. (The phenomenal is a mirage, and deception of sight).
52. Ráma rejoined:—The sight of the miserable world, whether it be true or false, is like the startling apparition in a dream, and attended with pain only for the time; tell me therefore the best means, how to avoid and get rid of this error.
53. Vasishtha replied:—The world being never the better than a dream, it is the reflection of the idea of its reality, that is the best method of getting rid of the snare of its tempting joys and sorrows.
54. Ráma rejoined:—But how to effect this object, which may redound to our bliss and rest; say how to put an end to the sight of the world, which shows the sights of falsities as realities, in the continuous train of its deluding dreams.
55. Vasishtha replied:—It is the due consideration of the antecedent and subsequent states of things, which must remove the erroneous impression of their reality; just as the conception of the substantiality of sights seen in our dreams, is eliminated upon reflection of their subsequent disappearance (and bearing no trace of former forms behind).
56. Ráma rejoined:—But how do the rising apparitions of the world, disappear in the depth of our minds, and what do we then come to perceive, after the vestiges of our gross remembrances have faded away? (The mind is never vacant of its thoughts of visible objects).
57. Vasishtha responded:—After the false appearance of the world, has vanished like the faded sight of a city from view; the unconcerned mind of the unconcerned soul, looks upon it as a painting, wholly washed out by the rain (i.e. as a clear blank or vacuity).
58. Ráma asked:—What then becomes of the man, after subsidence of the worldly sights and desires from his mind; like the gross looking objects of a dream; and after the mind rests in its state of listless indifference.
59. Vasishtha replied:—Then the world recedes from his sight, and then this predilection of it, and his desire for its enjoyment depart and die away along with it.