90. The world appearing so extensive and thickly peopled, is but a fancied unreality like the erroneous appearance of two moons in the sky. It is made of unreality though appearing as real, and is not worth reliance by our ignorance of its nature. CHAPTER XLVIII. STORY OF DÁSÚRA. Argument. Description of the vanity of worldly enjoyments, illustrated in the tale of Dásúra. Vasishtha continued:—All worldly men that are engaged in a variety of business, and are perverted in their understandings with a desire of opulence and enjoyments; can never learn the truth, until they get rid of their worldliness. 2. He only who has cultivated his understanding, and subdued his sensual organs, can perceive the errors of the world, as one knows a _bel_ fruit held in his hand (_i.e._ as one knows the places on earth in a small globe). 3. Any rational being, who scans well the errors of the world, forsakes his delusion of egoism, as a snake casts off his slough. 4. Being thus paralysed (unconscious) of his selfishness, he has no more to be born; as a fried grain can never germinate, though it is sown in the field, and lies for ever in it. 5. How pitiable is it that ignorant men take so much pains for the preservation of their bodies, which are ever subject to diseases and dangers; and liable to perish to-day or to-morrow at the expense of their souls. 6. Do not therefore, O Ráma! take so much care for the dull body like the ignorant; but regard only for the welfare of thy soul. 7. Ráma said:—Tell me Sir, the story of Dásúra, which is illustrative of the visionary and air-drawn form of this rotatory universe, which is all hollow within. 8. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me rehearse to you, O Ráma! the narrative of Dásúra, in illustration of the delusive form of the world, which is no more than the air-built utopia of our brains. 9. There is on the surface of this land, the great and opulent province of Magadha, which is full of flower trees of all kinds. 10. There is a forest of wide extending kadamba groves, which was the pleasant resort of charming birds of various sorts and hues. 11. Here the wide fields were full of corns and grains, and the skirts of the land were beset by groves and arbours; and the banks of rivulets were fraught with the lotuses and water lilies in their bloom. 12. The groves and alcoves resounded with the melodious strains of rustic lasses, and the plains were filled with blades of blossoms, bedewed by the nightly frost, and appearing as arrows of the god of love, _Káma_. 13. Here at the foot of a mountain, decked with _karnikara_ flowers, and beset by rows of plantain plants and kadamba trees, was a secluded spot over-grown with moss and shrubs. 14. It was sprinkled over with the reddish dust of crimson flowers borne by the winds, and was resonant to the warblings of water fowls, singing in unison with the melodious strains of aquatic cranes.