19. Vasishtha replied:—We spiritual beings view all things by means of our inner knowledge of them; as other people behold the things they are desirous to see, and naught what they had not any desire for. (This desire is said to be _satya-sankalpa_, or a firm prepossession of any idea in the mind). 20. All men though possest of pure souls, do yet forget their spiritual nature, by their being too deeply engaged in worldly affairs and unspiritual matters. 21. As I had then wished that this person the Siddha, could have a sight of me; so it was according to the wish of mine, that I was observed by him; because every man obtains what he earnestly desires. 22. Men being slack in their purposes, become unsuccessful in their desires; but this person being staunch to his purpose, and never swerving from his pursuit, succeeded in gaining his desired object. 23. But when two persons are engaged in the same pursuit, or one of them is opposed to the views of the other; the attempt of the more arduous is crowned with success, and that of the weaker meets with its failure. 24. Then I travelled through aerial regions of the Lokapála regents of the sky, and passing by the celestial city of the Siddhas in my spiritual body; I beheld these people with manners quite different from my former habits. 25. I then began to observe their strange manners in the etherial space, and being unseen myself by any one there, I saw distinctly every body there, and their mode of life and dealings with amazement. 26. I called them aloud, but they neither heard nor gave heed to my voice; and they appeared to me as empty phantoms as the images of our dreams and visions. 27. I tried to lay hold on some of them, but noone could be grasped by my hands; and they evaded my touch, as the ideal images of the human mind. 28. Thus Ráma, I remained as a demoniac pisácha, in the abode of the holy Gods; and thought myself to be transformed to a pisácha spirit in the open air. 29. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, what kind of beings are pisáchas in this world, and what are their natures and forms, and what are their states and occupations also. 30. Vasishtha replied:—I will tell you, Ráma, what sort of beings the pisáchas are in this world; because it is unmannerly on the part of a preacher, not to answer to the interlocutory queries of the audience (though it be a digress from subject). 31. The _Pisáchas_ are a sort of aerial beings, with subtile bodies of theirs (as we see the empty forms of persons in our dreams); they have their hands and feet and other members of the body as thine, and see all things as thou dost. 32. They sometimes assume the form of a shadow to terrify people, and at others enter into their minds in an aerial form, in order to mislead them to error and wicked purposes. (They like devils waylay unwary men, and tempt them to evil).