5. He reflected repeatedly on this strange occurrence, and its curious concurrence with his adventures in the dream. He made repeated queries relating to other circumstances, and the more he heard and learned of them, the more he found their coincidence with the occurrences of his vision. 6. He sympathised with their woes, and saw them in the same state, as he had seen them before in his dream. And then he gave suitable gifts and presents to relieve their wants and woes. 7. He tarried there a long while, and pondered on the decrees of destiny; when the wheel of fortune brought him back to his house, wherein he entered amidst the loud cheers and low salutations of the citizens. 8. In the morning the King appeared in his court hall, and sitting there amidst his courtiers, asked me saying:—“How is it, O sage, that my dream has come to be verified in my presence to each item and to my great surprise”? 9. “They answered me exactly and to the very point all what I asked of them, and have removed my doubt of their truth from the mind, as the winds disperse the clouds of heaven.” 10. Know thus, O Ráma! it is the illusion of Avidya, that is the cause of a great many errors, by making the untruth appear as truth, and representing the sober reality as unreality. 11. Ráma said: Tell me sir, how the dream came to be verified; it is a mysterious account that cannot find a place in my heart. 12. Vasishtha replied:—All this is possible, O Ráma! to the illusion of ignorance (Avidya); which shows the fallacy of a picture (pata) in a pot (ghata); and represents the actual occurrences of life as dreams, and dreams as realities. 13. Distance appears to be nigh, as a distant mountain seen in the mirror; and a long time seems a short interval, as a night of undisturbed repose. 14. What is untrue seems to be a truth as in dreaming one’s own death in sleep; and that which is impossible appears possible, as in one’s aerial journey in a dream. 15. The stable seems unsteady, as in the erroneous notion of the motion of fixed objects to one passing in a vehicle; and the unmoving seem to be moving to one, as under the influence of his inebriation. 16. The mind infatuated by one’s hobby, sees exposed to its view, all what it thinks upon within itself. It sees things in the same light, as they are painted in his fancy, whether they be in existence or not, or real or unreal. 17. No sooner does the mind contract its ignorance, by its false notions of egoism and tuism, than it is subjected to endless errors, which have no beginning, middle or end and are of incessant occurrence in their course. 18. It is the notion that gives a shape to all things; it makes a kalpa age appear as a moment, and also prolongs a moment of time to a whole Kalpa.