29. Thus I saw thousands of worlds, and the repeated rising and fallings, like the leaves of plantain trees (or rather the barks of those trees, which grow upon and envelop one another). 30. Thus did this material world, appear to me in its immaterial form; as a creation of the Intellect, and presenting a pure and vacuous aspect. 31. The phenomenal is nothing, and it is its mental perception only that we have all of this world; and this also vanishes into nothing, when we know this all to be a mere void. CHAPTER LXXXXI. DESCRIPTION OF IGNEOUS, LUMINOUS AND BRILLIANT OBJECTS IN NATURE. Argument:—Vasishtha’s Identity of his soul with light, and his observation of it in all lightsome substances. Vasishtha related:—I then believed myself as identical with light, and beheld its various aspects in the luminous bodies of the sun and moon, in the planets and stars, and in fire and all shining objects. 2. This light has by its own excellence, and it becomes the light of the universe; it is as brilliant as the mighty monarch, before whose all surveying sight, the thievish darkness of night flies at a distance. 3. This light like a good prince, takes upon it the likeness of lamps, and reigns in the hearts of families and houses in a thousand shapes (of chandeliers &c.), to drive off the thievish night, and restore the properties of all before their sight. 4. Being glad to lighten all peoples (worlds), it enkindles the orbs of the sun, moon and stars; who with their rays and beams, dispel afar the shade of night from the face of the skies. 5. It impoverishes the darkness, that bereaves all beings from their view of the beauties of nature, and dispenses the useful light, which brings all to the sight of the visibles. 6. It employs the axe at the root of the nigrescent arbour of night, and adds a purity and price to all things; it is this that gives value to all metals minerals, and makes them so dear to mankind. 7. It shows to view all sorts of colours, as white, red, black and others. It is light that is the cause of colours as the parent is the cause of the progeny. 8. This light is in great favour, with every one upon this earth; wherefore it is protected with great fondness in all houses, as they foster their children in them, by means of earthen walls (in order to preserve them from inclement winds). 9. I beheld a slight light, even in the darkness of the infernal region (_i.e._ the dismal hell fire); and I saw it partly in the particles of dust, which compose all bodies on the surface of the earth. 10. I saw light, which is the first and best of the works of God, to be eternally present in the abodes of the celestial; and observed it as the lamp of the mansion of this world, which was the great deep of waters and darkness before. (“And darkness reigned over the face of the deep”).