JL.C1.C- VV ^/X^.A-rfJL-'-J.A.

Rama: ^Where does the phantasm of Samsara go during*
these Pralayas ?"

Vasishtha : ^Do thou tell me whence arise and where
retire the castles of imagination that thou buildest."

Rama : ^Still these castles of imagination have a
temporary being. They arise and disappear. That should be
explained. Allowing even that Samsara has no true existence,
still it has a false existence; not absolutely Asat(1) is it,
though not all Sat(2); at most it shows both aspects, Sat as
well as Asafc. It is Sad-Asat. This leaves behind the ever
recurring questions : Whence does it arise, whereinto disappear ;

why does it arise, why end; why should the Param-atma,
Being beyond wants, Being Self-complete, Eternal Fullness
which should be beyond the need for change, ever be casting"
forth and reabsorbing from and into Itself this hopeless tangle
of joys and miseries.'^

^Brahman is all, Brahman is everywhere, thou sayest.
All Jivas should be Brahman were it so. Yet every Jiva is
different from every other. One sorrows here, and one rejoices
there, a third looks on indifferent. All Jivas act not uniformly,
are not moved by the same motives at the same time. And
even were it so, how could those be one which we behold as
two, as many, standing side by side and all apart from one
another, or, indeed, moving different ways ?"

Vasishtha : "Well sayest thou, 0 Prince !, such is indeed
the ever recurring question. This is the one main point, round
•which all the doubts and the^difficulties of the searcher cluster*
While it remains unsolved nothing is solved. To tread the
path of Truth without an answer to that question is more
difficult than to tread one's way without a lamp through a
dense forest on a cloudy night. Doubts laid to rest by means

(1) Not-Being, non-existent. (2) Being, axistent.