5. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how can we have the sights of the celestial, and of the Siddha and Sádhya spirits, of Yama, Brahmá and of the heavenly Vidyádharas and choristers; and tell me also sir, how the people of the other spheres can be visible to us.
6. Vasishtha replied:—The celestial siddhas, Sádhyas, the gods Yama and Brahmá, and the Vidyádhara demigods; these together with all other beings of great souls and wondrous might;—
7. Are all visible to you both by day and night, and above, below, behind and ever before you, if you will but look at them with the eyes of your mind; but if you shut your mental eye against spirituality, you can never have the sight of spirit presented before your view. (This passage is illustrated in the story of Chudaloka. Gloss).
8. These beings being habituated to be viewed in our minds, are never afar from us, and as they are represented to be volitive or self willed beings, they are said to be ever roving everywhere. (The spirits are of two kinds; some stationary in their particular lokas or spheres; and others to be wandering about. Gloss).
9. These volitional beings are as fickle as the living creatures of this earth of ours; and as the volatile winds, which are blowing at random in every direction.
10. These resemble the airy creatures of your imagination and dream, which hover and gather about you by day and night; while the others are devoid of their volition and motion, and are settled stationary in their respective spheres.
11. If you can in the calm quietness of your mind and soul, secure the reflexion of any of these spirits in your silent and steadfast meditation; you can without fail, have the visitation of the same in the inmost recess of your soul (and hold your secret communion with it also. Gloss).
12. In this manner do men see the gods as they see the siddhas, arrayed with all their majesty and glory, as they are feigned to be in their intense meditations. (Dhyánenaivapara-devah).
13. Now as men of steady minds, find themselves to be soaring to heaven, in the company of the siddhas and clad in all their glory; those of fickle and unsubdued minds, have to take great pains, in order to confine the fleeting object of their contemplation under their control. (It is often dangerous to the unadept novice in meditation, to let slip the object of his contemplation from his grasp).
14. The world is altogether an unsubstantial and imperceptible thing; and is ever as silent and a serene void, as the vacuum of the intellect (or the Divine mind). It appears however as a solid and compact mass, according as the notion we have of it in our consciousness. (i.e. This nothing is thought of <as> something, according to our mistaken notion or conception of it).