28. So it is the property of some drugs, gems and mantras, to destroy the destructive power of poison; and of wine to intoxicate the wine-bibber; and so of emetics to cause vomiting. 29. Thus all things have naturally the power of producing some effect, according to its proper application and the mode and manner of it. 30. Hence no one that is unacquainted with these things, is able to effect his flight in the air; and he that is fraught with his spiritual knowledge, has no need of these practices. 31. All knowledge relating to the properties of things, and their application in proper mode and manner for the bringing on of certain ends, is of no good to the spiritualist for his attaining to spirituality. 32. He who wishes to have supernatural powers, may gain them by his long practice; but what need has the theosophist of these practices or powers for himself? 33. It is after his freedom from the net of his desires, that the spiritualist attains to his spiritual state; how then can he entertain any desire which is opposed to it? 34. Every one endeavours to present in the course, to which he is led by the desires rising in his heart; and whether he is learned or not, he reaps the reward of his endeavours in due time. 35. Vítahavya never endeavoured to acquire any supernatural power; all his endeavours aspired to the gaining of spiritual perfection, which he obtained by his devotion in the forest. 36. It is not impossible or hard, to effect the acquisition of supernatural powers; should one persist in the course of practicing and applying the proper means to those ends. 37. The success which attends on any body in the consummation of his object, is entirely owing to his personal exertion, and may be called the fruit of the tree of his own labour. 38. But these successes and consummations, are of no use to those great minded men, who have known the Knowable One in himself: and who have made an end of their worldly desires. 39. Ráma said: Sir I have yet another question for your explanation and it is this, why did not the ravenous beasts of the desert, devour the deadlike body of the devoted sage, and why did it not moulder under the earth, by which it was covered? 40. And again how the bodiless and liberated soul of the sage, which was absorbed in the sunlight, return to resume its dilapidated body, which was buried in the mountain cave. 41. Vasishtha replied:—The conscious soul that believes itself to be embodied with its mortal body, and beset by the coils of its desires and the bonds of its affections, is here subjected both to the feeling of pleasure and the pangs of pain. 42. But the intelligent soul which relies on its pure consciousness, and is freed from the net of its desires, remains only with its subtile spiritual body (which no beast or bird can devour, nor any dust or rust can destroy). So says the Gítá:—It is indivisible and unconsumable, and neither does it moulder nor dry up at any time.