CHAPTER XXV. REFLECTIONS OF BALI. Argument. Rise of intellectual light in Bali’s mind, and his Reference to Sukra for Advice. Bali said:—In this manner did my sapient father advise me before on this subject, which I fortunately remember at the present moment for the enlightenment of my understanding. 2. It is now that I feel my aversion to the enjoyments of life, and come to perceive by my good luck the bliss of tranquility, to liken the clear and cooling ambrosial drink of heavenly bliss. 3. I am tired of all my possessions, and am weary of my continued accumulation of wealth, for the satisfaction of my endless desires. The live-long care of the family also has grown tiresome to me. 4. But how charming is this peace and tranquility of my soul, which is quite even and all cool within itself. Here are all our pleasures and pains brought to meet upon the same level of equality and indifference. 5. I am quite unconcerned with any thing and am highly delighted with my indifference to all things; I am gladdened within myself as by the beams of the full-moon, and feel the orb of the full moon rising within myself. 6. O! the trouble of acquiring riches, which is attended by the loud bustle of the world and agitation in the mind, and the heart burn and fatigue of the body; and is accompanied with incessant anxiety and affliction of the heart. 7. The limbs and flesh of the body, are smashed by labour; and all bodily exercises that pleased me once, now appear to be the long and lost labours of my former ignorance. 8. I have seen the sights of whatever was worth seeing, and enjoyed the enjoyments which knew no bounds; I have overcome all beings; but what is the good (that I have derived from all this)? 9. There is only a reiteration of the very same things, that I had there, here and elsewhere; and I found nowhere now any thing new, that I had not seen or known before. 10. I am now sitting here in full possession of myself, by resigning every thing and its thought from my mind; and thereby I find that nothing whatever nor even its thought forms any component-part of myself. 11. The best things in the heaven above, earth and in this infernal region, are reckoned to be their damsels, gems and jewels; but all these are destroyed and wasted sooner or later by the cruel hand of time. 12. I have acted foolishly all this time, by waging a continuous struggle with the gods, for the sake of the trifle of worldly possessions. (The wars of the earth-born demons and the foreign deities are well known in the early history of the world). 13. What is this phantom of the world, but a creation of the brain; what then is the harm of forsaking it forever in which great souls take no delight whatever? 14. Alas! that I have spent such a large portion of my life-time, in pursuing after trifles in the ignorant giddiness of my mind.