18. I have acquired the power of locomotion amidst the air, by means of this amulet of mine; and it is by virtue of this power, that I am enabled to associate with the siddha spirits, and to converse with you. 19. Having girt myself with this charm, I have acquired such potency, that though remaining in my dwelling house on earth, which is the basis and centre of all the worlds, I can see all its past and future events (by means of my intuition and yoga meditation). 20. Having then beheld within my mind, all and everything relating to this world; I have come out to survey the outward world, and seen as far as the gigantic polar mountain (which has perpetual light and darkness on either side of it). 21. Before this, O sage, neither I nor my husband, had ever any desire of seeing anything beyond our own habitation. (_i.e._ Or the internal world contained within the world). 22. My husband being solely employed in meditating on the meanings (doctrines) of the vedas; has no desire whatever, to know anything relating the past or unpassed (_i.e._ the present and future) time. 23. It is for this reason (of unacquaintance with the world), that my lord has not been able to succeed to any station in life; and it is today only, that both of us are desirous to be blest with the best state of humanity (the knowledge of the Deity). 24. We therefore beseech you, O venerable sir, to grant our request, as it is never in the nature of noble persons to refuse the prayer of their suppliants. 25. I who have been wandering in the etherial regions, among hosts of the perfected spirits of siddhas; do not find any one except yourself, O honourable sir, who may put fire to the thick gloom of ignorance as a conflagration. 26. And as it is the nature of good people to do good to others, even without the knowledge of any cause of pity in their suppliants; so should you, O venerable sir, do to your suppliant one without refusing her suit. CHAPTER LXVI. DESCRIPTION OF THE INSIDE OF THE STONY MANSION OF THE WORLD. Argument:—The nymph’s Relation of the manner of her habitation in the womb of the solid stone. Vasishtha said:—I then seated as I was, in my imaginary seat in the sky, asked the lady who was also sitting like myself in the visionary air: saying:— 2. Tell me, O gentle lady, how could an embodied being as yourself, abide in the inside of a block of stone; how could you move about within that imporous substance, and what was the cause of your abode therein. 3. The Nymph replied:—Wonder not, O sage, at this kind of our habitation, which is as habitable to us, and inhabited by other creatures, as the open and spacious world which you inhabit.