41. The thoughtless ignorant, whose insatiate ambition grasps the whole universe in his heart, rolls over the surface of the earth and all its boisterous seas with as much glee as upon a bed of flowers. 42. All these cities and towns, which are so tumultuous with the endless of men, appear to the ignorant and moneyless man as a garden of flowers; where he picks up his worthless penny with as much delight as holy men cull the fragrant blossoms to make their offerings to holy shrines. 43. The wide earth with all her cities and towns, and distant districts and countries, which are so full of mutual strife and broil, appear to the soiled soul of the gross-headed and greedy, as if they are reflected in their fair forms in the mirror of their minds; or painted in their bright colours upon the canvas of their hearts. (Worldly men are so infatuated with the world, that they take side of things for fair and bright). CHAPTER IV. ANNIHILATION OF EGOISM. Argument:—Egoism is shown as the root of worldliness and its extirpation by spiritual knowledge. Vasishtha continued:—The abandonment of the world (which is otherwise termed as liberation—moksha), is effected only upon subsidence of one’s egoism and knowledge of the visibles in the conscious soul; in the manner of the extinction of a lamp for want of oil. (The knowledge of the phenomenal is the root of illusion, and it is the removal of this that is called the abandonment of the world, and the cause of liberation). 2. It is not the giving up of actions, but the relinquishment of the knowledge of the objective world, that makes our abandonment of it; and the subjective soul, which is without the reflexion of the visible world, and the objective-self, is immortal and indestructible. 3. After the knowledge of the self and this and that with that of mine and thine, becomes extinct like an extinguished lamp, there remains only the intelligent and subjective-soul by itself alone (and it is this state of the soul that is called its extinction—_nirvána_ and its liberation or _moksha_). 4. But he whose knowledge of himself and others, and of mine and thine and his and theirs, has not yet subsided in his subjectivity, has neither the intelligence nor tranquility nor abandonment nor extinction of himself. (It is opposite of the preceding). 5. After extinction of one’s egoism and meism, there remains the sole and tranquil and intelligent soul, beside which there is nothing else in existence. 6. The egoistic part of the soul being weakened by the power of true knowledge, every thing in the world wastes away and dwindles into insignificance; and though nothing is lost in reality, yet every thing is buried in and with the extinction of the self. (So the Hindi adage:—_Ápduba_ to _jagduba_—the self being lost, all things are lost with it).