101. It rises as if unrisen, and expands in its own knowledge; it is selfsame with the supreme soul, and as the totality of all selves, it spreads through the whole vacuum as air. 102. As a tree springs from the ground according to its seed, so the world appears to sight in the form, as it is contained in the seed of the intellect. 103. The plant does not quickly quit its seed, lest it would be dried up and die away for want of its sap; so the man that sticks to the soul and seed of his being, is free from disease and death. 104. The mount Meru is like the filament of a flower, in respect to the vastness of that atom; all visibles have their place in that invisible atom. (In answer to the question, in respect to whom is the great Meru but a filament?) 105. The Meru is verily a filament of the atomic flower of the divine soul; and myriads of Merus resemble the cloudy spots, rising in the sphere of the intellect. 106. It is that one great atom that fills the world, after having made it out of itself; and given it a visible, extended and material form in its own hollow sphere. (Answer to “By whom is the world created, extended &c.”). 107. As long as the knowledge of duality is not driven out of the mind, so long does it find the charming form of the world, as in its dream upon waking. But the knowledge of unity, liberates the soul from its stay in and return to the world, which it beholds as a mass of the divine essence. CHAPTER LXXXII. FRIENDSHIP OF THE RÁKSHASÍ. Argument. The Rákshasí’s account of herself, and her reconciliation with the Prince. Vasishtha continued:—The apish Karkatí of the forest, having heard the speech of the prince, pondered well in herself the sense of the words, and forsook her levity and malice. 2. She found the coolness and tranquility of her heart after its fervour was over; in the manner of the peacock at the setting in of the rains, and the lotus bed at the rising of moonbeams. 3. The words of the prince delighted her heart in the same manner, as the cries of cranes flying in the sky, gladden the passing clouds in the air. 4. The Rákshasí said:—O how brightly shines the pure light of your understanding, it glows as serenely by its inward effulgence, as it is illuminated by the sun of intelligence. 5. Hearing the grains (words) of your reasoning, my heart is as gladdened, as when the earth is cooled by the serene beams of the humid moon-light. 6. Reasonable men like yourself are honoured and venerated in the world, and I am as delighted in your company, as a lake of lotuses with her full blown buds under the moon-beams. 7. The society of the virtuous, scatters its blessings, as a flower garden spreads its fragrance all around; and as the brightness of sun-beams, brings the lotus buds to bloom. 8. Society with the good and great, dispels all our woes; as a lamp in the hand, disperses the surrounding darkness.