15. They are however liable to vanish away quite out of our sight at last, as our dreams disappear upon our waking, and as our waking scenes are lost and hid under the veil of our sleep.
16. As we know nothing where the city of our dreaming, vanishes away at last upon our waking; so we are quite ignorant about that chaotic void, wherein the universe submerges upon its exit.
17. The Pupil rejoined:—If the world is a nullity as you say, then sir, be pleased to tell what is it that thus appears to and disappears from us by turns; and what is that vacuous intellect which presents this extensive view before us; as also how does the void present its reflexion of the plenum and to what purpose.
18. The Preceptor replied:—It is the vacuous sphere of the intellect, my boy, that thus shines with its transparency; and it is this reflexion of it which is called the world, which is no other than this.
19. It is the reflexion of the widely extended substance of the great void of the intellect; and this apparently solid figure of it, is no other than the same transpicuous form of that intellect. (So says the sruti, Brahmá reflects his twofold forms to us, the one opaque and seen with our naked eye, and the other translucent and viewed by our mental sight).
20. The incorporeal Brahmá like all corporeal bodies, presents both a fair as well as a dark complexion (the one being his clear or intellectual form seen by the clear sighted, and the other his hazy figure viewed by gross understandings). He also discloses himself some times and closes at another, which cause the creation and annihilation of the world. (Manu calls it the waking and sleeping of God, and others the evolution and involution of the divine spirit).
21. The clearness of the divine spirit, ever remains the same and unaltered, both before and after the creation and its dissolution; as a fountain of limpid waters is always clear, whether it reflects the shadows of its bordering arbours or not. (No change in nature can affect the spirit of God).
22. As a man remains unchanged in his sleep, whether he be dreaming or enjoying his sound rest; so the spirit continues alike in its intellect, whether it is in the act of creation or annihilation.
23. As the ideal world appears to be calm and quiet, both in the dream of the dreamer, as well as in the sound sleep of the sleeper; so this visible world of ours is ever viewed in its calmness, in the tranquil spirit of the Lord and of the contemplative saint.
24. Hence I do not recognize the existence of a vacuum or sky, anywhere and independent of our soul; nor can we expect the same sphere appearing in the souls of others, as it does in ours according to our view of it.