5. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me, O great preacher! how the past could be the same as at present, and how can these again be alike in future also. (Since there can be no cause of the likeness of past ages and their productions with those of the present or future. It is reasonable to believe the recurrence of such other things, but not of the same and very things as of yore). 6. Vasishtha replied:--Such is the irreversible law of destiny and the irreversible course of nature, that the creation of the world must continue in the same manner by the invariable will of the creative Brahmá and others. (_i.e._ The repeated creation of worlds must go on in the same rotation by the inevitable will (Satya Sankalpa) of the creative power; wherefore bygone things are to return and be re-born over and over again). 7. As those which had been plentiful before come to be as plenteous again, so the past appears at present and in future also. Again many things come to being that had not been before, and so many others become extinct in course of time (_e. g._ as past crops return again and again and vegetables grow where there were none, and as a lopped off branch grows no more). 8. Some reappear in their former forms and some in their resemblance also; others are changed in their forms, and many more disappear altogether (see, for example, the different shapes of the waves of the ocean). 9. These and many other things are seen in the course of the world; and therefore the character of the subject of the present narrative will be found to bear exact resemblance to that of the bygone prince of the same name. 10. Hear me tell you, also, that there is yet to be born such another prince, as valiant as the one that had been in the former _dwápara age_ of the past seventh manvantara period. 11. It will be after the four _yugas_ of the fourth creation, past and gone, that he will be born again of the Kuru family in the vicinity of the Vindhyan mountains in the Jambudwípa continent. (This extravagant sloka is omitted in other editions of this work). 12. There lived a prince by name of Sikhidhwaja in the country of Malava, who was handsome in his person, and endowed with firmness and magnanimity in his nature, and the virtues of patience and self control in his character. 13. He was brave but silent, and even inclined to good acts with all his great virtues; he was engaged in the performance of the religious sacrifices, as also in defeating bowyers in archery. 14. He did many acts (of public endowments), and supported the poor people of the land; he was of a graceful appearance and complacent in his countenance, and loved all men with his great learning in the sástras. 15. He was handsome, quiet and fortunate, and equally as valiant as he was virtuous. He was a preacher of morality and bestower of all benefits to his suitors.