25. These different believers are lost (in their various views), as the light is lost under darkness. They will never come to the knowledge of truth as it is the case with the ignorant. 26. Know Brahma himself as the living soul without any divisibility or distinction. He is without beginning or end. He is omnipotent, and is of the form of the great Intellect which forms his essence. 27. His want of minuteness (_i.e._ his fulness) in all places, precludes his distinctive appellations every where. Whatever attributes are given him (by fiction), are all to be understood to mean Brahma himself. 28. Ráma asked:—How comes it, O Bráhman? that the totality of the living souls in the world, is guided by the will of one universal soul, which governs the whole, and to which all others are subject. 29. Vasishtha replied:—Brahma the great living soul and Omnipotent power, remained from eternity with his volition (_satya sankalpa_—fixed determination) of creation, without partition or alteration of himself. 30. Whatever is wished by that great soul, comes to take place immediately. The wish it formed in its unity at first, became a positive duality at last. Then its wish “to be many” (_Aham bahu syam_), became the separate existences afterwards. 31. All these dualities of his self-divided powers (the different living souls), had their several routines of action allotted to them, as “this is for that”; meaning “this being is for that duty, and such action is for such end”. 32. Thus though there can be no act without exertion (by the general rule as in the case of mortals), yet the predominant will of Brahmá, is always prevailing without its exertion to action, (as in the case of saints whose wills are effective of their ends without the aid of action). 33. Though they that bear the name of living beings, effect their purposes by exertion of their energies, yet they can effect nothing without acting according to the law appointed by the predominant power. 34. If the law of the predominant power, is effective of its end (_i.e._ the law of action for production of acts); then the exertions of the subordinate powers (the living souls), must also be attended with success: (_i.e._ the attainment of the like result of the like action). 35. Thus Brahma alone is the great living soul that exists for ever and without end; and these millions of living beings are no other in the world (than agents of the divine energies). 36. It is with a consciousness of the intellectual soul (_i.e._ the inward knowledge of the divinity within themselves), that all living souls are born in this world; but losing that consciousness (their knowledge of God) afterwards, they became alienated from him. 37. Hence men of inferior souls, should pursue the course of conduct led by the superior souls, for regaining their spiritual life _átmajívatwam_, as the copper becomes transformed into gold (by chemical process).