25. So it is the nature of this imaginary city of God, to exhibit these changes everywhere, as in the cases of animals, vegetables and all things in all the three worlds. 26. But God neither wills nor does everything himself, in this creation of his will, but he acts by general laws and secondary causes, as in the cricket play of boys, and growth of grass from grass, and production of trees and their fruits &c. from seeds. 27. It is the nature of the almighty intellect of God, to bring forth forthwith to being whatever it wills to be and appear. (The almighty thought, will or word, is variously said to be the prime cause of all). 28. All things being originally of intellectual form, appear afterwards in various forms, and with different natures; as the almighty intellect invests them with. 29. Hence everything here, is verily of an intellectual form, by their originating from the divine intellect; and as the intellect includes all things in itself, it is omniform and shows itself in any form it likes. 30. This very intellect is the omniscient and universal soul, without having its beginning, middle or end; it is omnipotent and something which is nothing, and an entity appearing as non-entity; It appears such as it remains anywhere, and shows itself as anything; it is the origin of all things and beings, and the source of all vegetables and grass. CHAPTER CCIX. ON THE CONSCIOUSNESS OR INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE OF EXTRANEOUS EXISTENCES. Argument:--Reconciliation of the opposite results of virtuous and sinful acts, on one and same person at the same time. Vasishtha continued saying:--The life of a person is dear and useful to him, as long as he lives and not afterwards; but hear me tell you the good of a man’s dying in some holy place, with a wish for future reward in his next life. 2. God has ordained certain virtues and merits to certain places, even from the beginning of his imaginary city of this world (as to all other things at their very beginning). 3. Whatever merit is assigned to any place, the same awaits on the soul of the person, after its release from bondage, by his performance of the acts of piety enjoined by the sástras. 4. Hence any great sin that is committed by any body anywhere, is either partly or wholly effaced by the good act of the person, according to comparative merit of the holy place, or the degree of absolution in the mind of the penitent sinner. 5. In any case of the insignificance of the sin, with regard to the greater sacerdotalism of the place; there the sinner is quite absolved from his guilt, and attains the object of his wish (in his future life). 6. But in case of the equality of the merits of penitence, with the holiness of the place; the penitent man receives two bodies in his next life, that is both a physical body and spiritual soul.