2. Know Ráma, this world to be a continuous illusion, and to be upheld by men of _rájasa_ and _támasa_ natures, consisting of the properties of action and passions or ignorance, that support this illusory fabric, as the pillars bear up a building. 3. Men born with the _sátwika_ nature of goodness like yourself, easily lay aside this inveterate illusion, as a snake casts off its time-worn skin (slough). 4. But wise men of good dispositions (or sátwika natures), and those of the mixed natures of goodness and action (rájasa-sátwika), always think about the structure of the world, and its prior and posterior states (without being deluded by it). 5. The understandings of the sinless and which have been enlightened by the light of the sástras, or improved in the society of men or by good conduct, become as far sighted as the glaring light of a torch. 6. It is by one’s own ratiocination, that he should try to know the soul in himself; and he is no way intelligent, who knows not the knowable soul in himself. 7. The intelligent polite, wise and noble men, are said to have the nature of rájasa-sátwika (or the mixed nature of goodness and action) in them; and the best instance of such a nature is found, O Ráma! in thy admirable disposition. 8. Let the intelligent look into the phenomena of the work themselves, and by observing what is true and untrue in it, attach themselves to the truth only. 9. That which was not before, nor will be in being at the end, is no reality at all but what continues in being both at first and last, is the true existence and naught besides. 10. He whose mind is attached to aught, which is unreal both at first and at last, is either an infatuated fool or a brute animal, that can never be brought to reason. 11. It is the mind that makes the world and stretches it as in its imagination; but upon a comprehensive view (or closer investigation) of it, the mind is in its nothingness. 12. Ráma said:—I am fully persuaded to believe, sir, that the mind is the active agent in this world, and is subject to decay and death (like the other organs of sensation). 13. But tell me sir, what are the surest means of guarding the mind from illusion, because you only are the sun to remove the darkness of Raghu’s race. 14. Vasishtha replied:—The best way to guard the mind from delusion, is first of all the knowledge of the sástras, and next the exercise of dispassionateness, and then the society of the good, which lead the mind towards its purity. 15. The mind which is fraught with humility and holiness, should have recourse to preceptors who are learned in philosophy. 16. The instruction of such preceptors, makes a man to practice his rituals at first, and then it leads the mind gradually to the abstract devotion of the Most-Holy. 17. When the mind comes to perceive by its own cogitation, the presence of the supreme spirit in itself; it sees the universe spread before it as the cooling moonbeams.