29. And why is it that the goddess knowing the desire of my heart for liberation, left me only to desire it without attempting to seek after the same? (_i.e._ Why does the goddess give us the knowledge of what is good, without enabling us to exist and persist after its attainment)? 30. To this the minister will reply saying:--The propensity of doing evil (or slaughter), being inherent in your nature (from your past profession of huntsmanship), you neglected to stoop down to the goddess, and pray unto her for your liberation. 31. It is well known since the creation of the world, that the intrinsic gist forms the nature of man; and this truth being evident to all from their boyhood to age, there is no body to ignore or repudiate it at any time. 32. The purity or impurity of the inner heart, to which one is habituated by his long practice or custom, continues to predominate over all his qualities and actions to the very last, and there is no power to contravene it in any manner. CHAPTER CLVII. THE ULTIMATE EXTINCTION OR NIRVANA OF SINDHU. Argument:--Description of the nature of Sindhu, his resignation of the kingdom, his discrimination and final liberation. Then Sindhu will say:--Tell me sir, what kind of a vile-person and how ignorant I had been before whereby I still retain the evil propensities of my past life, and am doomed to be reborn in this earth (the vale of misery). 2. The minister will say in his reply:--“Hear me attentively, O king, for a while; and I will tell you this secret, which you require me to relate, and will surely remove your ignorance.” 3. There is a self existent and undecaying Being from all eternity, which is without its beginning or end, which is designated the great Brahma, and passes herein under the little of I and thou, and of this and that &c. 4. I am that self same Brahma, by the consciousness of my self cogitation (_ego cogito ergo sum_). This becomes the living principal with the power of intellection (_vivo qui intellego_ I live because I think). This power does not forsake its personality; (but retains its _persona_ of I am that I am). 5. Know this Intellect to be a spiritual or supernatural substance, having a form rarer and more transparent than that of the subtile ether; it is this which is the only being in existence, nor is there anything which is of a material substance. (This passage maintains the immateriality of the world). 6. This formless takes the form of the mind, by its being combined, with volition and its views of this and the next world, (_i.e._ its worldly enjoyments and future bliss), in its state of life and death, and of waking and sleep. (That is the mind is sensible of these passing and alternate phenomena). 7. The mind, though formless, stretches itself into the form of the phenomenal world; just as the formless air dilates itself, in the form of force or oscillation in all material bodies.