13. Some having a little understanding, have gone down the depth of holy knowledge, without ever reaching the bottom, or finding its either shore. 14. Some beings that have undergone many births, and have yet to pass through many more, have ever remained abortive and benighted without the light of truth. 15. Some are tossed up and down, like fruits flung from the hand: those flying upward have gone higher still; and those going down have fallen still lower and lower. (None can know the highest pitch or lowest depth of existence?). 16. It is forgetfulness of Supreme felicity, that causes one to rove in various births of weal or woe; but the knowledge of the Supreme, causes the cessation of transmigration; as the remembrance of Garuda, destroys the power of the most destructive poison. CHAPTER XIII. CONSOLATION OF BHRIGU. Argument. Bhrigu being acquainted with the powers of the mind and Death, rose to repair to the spot where the body of Sukra was lying. Yama said:—Among these various species of living creatures, which resemble the waves of the ocean, and are as numerous as the plants and creepers of spring:— 2. There are some persons among the Yakshas, Gandharvas and Kinnaras, who have overcome the errors of their minds, and have well considered every thing before and after them; that have become perfect in their lives, and passing as the living liberated persons in this world. 3. Others there are among the moving and unmoving, that are as unconscious of themselves as wood and stone; and many that are worn out with error, and are incapable of judging for themselves. (Worn out with error, means hardened in their ignorance). 4. But those that are awakened to sense, have the rich mine of the sástras, framed by the enlightened, for the guidance of their souls. (Hence it is for the sensible only to benefit themselves by learning). 5. Those who are awakened to sense, and whose sins are washed off; have their understandings purified by the light of the sástras. (Lit., by investigation into the sástras). 6. The study of good works, destroys the errors of the mind; as the course of the sun in the sky, destroys the darkness of the night. 7. Those who have not succeeded to dispel the errors of their minds, have darkened their understandings by a mist of ignorance; like the frosty sky of winter, and they find the phantoms of their error, dancing as demons before their eyes. 8. All living bodies are subject to pain and pleasure; but it is the mind which constitutes the body, and not the flesh (which is insensible of either). 9. The body that is seen to be composed of flesh and bones and the five elemental parts, is a creation of the imagination of the mind, and has no substantiality in it.