59. They are the reflexions of the supreme soul, as the day light is that of the sun; they all proceed from and melt away into the vacuous air as the gusts of winds. 60. The egoistic understanding, is the tree bearing the foliage of our thoughts. 61. The rituals and their rewards, which are prescribed in the vedas and puránas, are as the fanciful dreams occurring in light sleep; but they are buried into oblivion by them and are led up in the sound sleep like the dead. 62. The Intellect like a Gandharva architect, is in the act of building many fairy cities in the forest of intellectuality, and lighted with the light of its reason, blazing as the bright sun-beams. 63. In this manner, O Ráma, I beheld in my meditative revelry, many worlds to be created and scattered without any cause, as a blind man sees many false sights in the open air. CHAPTER LX. THE NETWORK OF WORLDS (CONTINUED). Argument:—Vasishtha sees the siren songstresses in his Reveries and then turns to his meditation of the world. Vasishtha continued:—Then I went on forward to find out the spot of the etherial sounds, and continued journeying onward in the vacuous region of my excogitation, without any interruption from any side. 2. I heard far beyond me the sound that came to my ears, resembling the jingling thrill of the Indian lute; it became more distinct as I appeared nearer to it, till I heard the metrical cadence of Arya measure in it. 3. As I glanced in my meditation at the site of the sound, I beheld a damsel on one side as fair as liquid gold, and brightening that part of the sky (by the blaze of her beauteous body). 4. She had necklaces pendant on her loose garments, and her eyelashes were tinged with lac-dye, and with loosened traces and fluttering locks of her hair, she appeared as the goddess of prosperity (sitting in the air). 5. Her limbs were as calm and handsome, as they were made of pure gold; and sitting on the way side with the near-blown bloom of her youth, she was as odorous as the goddess Flora, and handsome in every part of her body. 6. Her face was like the full moon, and was smiling as a cluster of flowers; her countenance was flushed with her youth, and her eyelids betokened her good fortune. 7. She was seated under the vault of heaven, with the brightness of her beauty blooming as the beams of the full moon; and decorated with ornaments of pearls, she walked gracefully towards me. 8. She recited with her sweet voice, the verses in the Arya metre by my side; and smiled as she recited them in a high tone of her voice, saying:— 9. I salute thee, O sage, she said, whose mind is freed from the evil propensities of those, that are deluded to fall into the currents of this world; and to whom you are a support, as a tree standing on its border.