41. I bow down to that great soul, which has passed beyond the states of light, darkness and fancy, (_i.e._ the state of waking or life, sleep or death, and dreaming or transmigration, and which is situated in a state of brightness and tranquility in supreme felicity or heavenly bliss). 42. I bow down to that Siva, of transcendental understanding; whose faculties are wholly engrossed in the meditation of that eternal Being, who presides over the creation, destruction and preservation of the universe, and who is manifest in all the various wondrous and beauteous grandeurs of nature. CHAPTER XXIII. MEDITATION OF THE WONDERS IN THE REALM OF THE BODY. Argument. The dominion of the enlightened man over the realm of his Body, and the pleasure of the government of the mind. Vasishtha continued:—The man that is liberated in this life, and is settled in the Supreme state of felicity, is not tarnished by his reigning over the realm of his body, and turning about like a wheel. 2. The body of the wise man is as a princedom to him, and calculated for his benefit and no disadvantage. It is comparable with the bower of a holy hermit, for the consummation of his fruition and liberation. 3. Ráma said:—How do you call, O great sage! the body to be the dominion of a man, and how the Yogi can enjoy his princely felicity in it? 4. Vasishtha replied:—Beautiful is this city of the body, and fraught with every good to mankind, and being enlightened by the light of the mind, it is productive of endless blessings in both worlds. 5. The eyes are the windows of this city, letting out the light for the sight of distant worlds, the two arms are as the two valves of this city-gate, with the hands like latches reaching to the knees. 6. The hairs on the body are as the moss and grass on the walls, and the porous skin resembles the netted covering of the palace; the thighs and legs are as the columns of the edifice, and the feet with the ancles and toes, are as pedestals of the pillars. 7. The lines marked under the soles of the feet, are as inscriptions marked on the foundation stone, and upon those at the base of the pedestals of the pillars; and the outer skin which covers the flesh, marrow, veins and arteries, and the joints of the body, is as the beautiful plaster of the building, hiding the mortar and bricks inside. 8. The middle part of the body above the two thick thighs, contains the aqueducts, beset by the hairy bushes about them, and likening to rivers running amidst a city, between rows of trees on both sides of the banks. 9. The face is as the royal garden beautified by the eye-brows, forehead and the lips; the glancing of the eyes, are as the blooming lotuses; and the cheeks are as flat planes in it. 10. The broad bosom is as a lake with the nipples like buds of lotuses; the streaks of hairs on the breast, are as its herbage, and the shoulders are as the projecting rocks (ghats) upon it.