9. Tell me, sir, in short, what are these enjoyments good for, and how far they extend; and what am I, thou or these people in reality. (Extent of enjoyments—bhoga, means their limitation and duration). 10. Sukra answered:—I can not tell you in length about it, as I have soon to repair to my place in the sky. Hear me O monarch of demons tell this much briefly to you at present. 11. There is verily but the intellect in reality, and all this existence beside is verily the intellect and full of intellect: The mind is the intellect, and I, thou and these people are collectively the very intellect. (Gloss. These sayings are based on the srutis, namely: All these are but different aspects of the one intellect. Again: All things depend on the _chit_. Also:—This _chit_ am I, thou and this Brahma and Indra and all others. There is no other looker or the subjective; or the hearer or objective beside the _chit_: and so forth). 12. If you are wise, know you derive every thing from this Chit—the universal Intellect; or else all gifts of fortune are as useless to you as the offering of butter on ashes (which cannot consume it, or make a burnt offering of it to the gods). 13. Taking the intellect as something thinkable or object of thought, is the snare of the mind; but the belief of its freeness or incomprehensibility, is what confers liberation to the soul. The incomprehensible intellect is verily the universal soul, which is the sum of all doctrines. (All faiths and doctrines tend to the belief of one unknowable God). 14. Knowing this for certain, look on everything as such; and behold the spirit in thy spirit, in order to arrive to the state of the Infinite spirit. (Or else the adoration of a finite object, must lead to a finite state). 15. I have instantly to repair to the sky, where the seven munis are assembled (the seven planets or the seven stars of the Pleiades—saptarshi?), where I have to continue in the performance of my divine service. 16. I tell you, O king! that you must not of yourself get rid of your duties, as long as you are in this body of yours, even though your mind may be freed from everything. (The embodied being must continue in the discharge of his bodily duty). 17. So saying, Sukra flew as a bee besmeared with the farinaceous gold-dust of the lotus, to the aureate vault of heaven; and passed through the watery path of the waving clouds, to where the revolving planets were ready to receive him. CHAPTER XXVII. HEBETUDE OF BALI. Argument. Bali attains to his state of Ecstacy, by his observance of Sukra’s precepts. Vasishtha said:—After Sukra, the son of Bhrigu and senior in the assembly of gods and demigods, had made his departure, Bali the best among the intelligent, reflected thus in himself.