11. Vasishtha replied:—Such is the nature of the vacuous and volitional city of divine intellect; that it comes to being and not being in succession, in the states of repeated waking dreams of creation, and in the sleeping oblivion of its desolation.
12. Like the mud built house of playful boys, and the air drawn castles of fanciful men, do the appearances of creation, appear both as real and unreal in the divine intellect as well as to our minds.
13. As you build and break your imaginary city in the air, and make and unmake a fabric of your will elsewhere; whether it be of your own or choice or for any other reason, so it is with the Divine will, to construct and protract or retract or annul any of its works ad libitum.
14. Thus are all beings, continually rising and falling, in this vacuous city of the divine will; which is ever shining in its nature, with the pure light of the divine mind. (God throws his own light on the work of his will).
15. The whole plenum of the world is a vacuum, and full with the dense intelligence of omniscience; therefore it is this omniscient intelligence, which doth still whatever it thinks upon and wills. (This passage shows that the Vedánta Brahma, is not inactive or Nishkriya as many believe; but the living God, and sole agent of all things and director of all accidents in this world).
16. Therefore it is not the hidden but self manifest God, that does all things even at the distance of Millions of miles, and myriads of ages, as if they lay before him at the present time.
17. So there is nothing in any country or in any world, which is not known nor thought of by the sole and unhidden soul of all. (The gloss applies it to every individual soul, which is conscious of its merits and demerits everywhere).
18. As a brilliant gem reflects its light and shade within itself, so doth the gem of the intellect reflect by its own light the various vicissitudes of the world in itself. (i.e. The human mind is sensible of its deserts).
19. Laws and prohibitions, which are necessary for the preservation of people, are implanted in the human soul. (As they are the eternal varieties of the divine mind), and accompany it every where with their just rewards.
20. The soul never sets nor rises (i.e. It neither dies nor revives, but supposes itself as such by its error only); It is Brahma himself and his reflexion in others, and emanating always from the divine soul its source and origin.