2. Vasishtha replied:—As boys build their fancied castles in empty air, so is this world the creation of the imagination of the mind of Brahmá, and no more than this.
3. As the dimsighted man sees the shadow of the moon, and other false sights before his eyes, so the creative Power—Brahmá sees in the beginning, the phantoms of the phenomenal world in the vacuity of its Intellect (like a shadow of the prototype in the Divine mind).
4. As an imaginary city is situated in the mind, and is invisible to the eye; so the notion of the world is posited in the intellect, and not exhibited in actuality.
5. Whenever there is the reflexion of anything whatever in the mind, and arising spontaneously of its own nature (from previous reminiscence); the same presents itself even then and in that state before the sight (as in a dream).
6. As the dimsighted eye, sees false sights in the sky; so the deluded mind, sees the earth and the orbs of heaven (i.e. the heavenly bodies).
7. As the current water flows on the surface of rivers, and there resides the latent fire underneath; so the notions of things presenting themselves as dreams of the mind, are manifested as real ones before the sight.
8. Hence as thoughts and notions of things, occur and subside continually in the mind; so the earth and heavenly bodies, appear incessantly to revolve in their spheres (and the stars to rise and set in endless succession).
9. The world is entirely inexistent, to dull and inanimate beings; it is visible to those that have the visual organs but utterly invisible to the blind, and altogether unknown to them that are born as such. It is imperceptible to the insensible, and perceptible only in the same manner as it is presented in the mind. So it is in the power of the mind alone, to represent it in some form or other to one’s self.
10. It is thus according to the mental conception (of some astronomers), that the bodies of stars, are considered to be as large as the earth; and the unreal world (of spiritualist), is believed as a real entity (by the materialist).
11. The world has both light and darkness, owing to the presence or absence of the sun; beyond which there is the great abyss of vacuity, which is a vast expanse of darkness, except where there is a glimpse of Zodiacal light.