yU MXaTlU E^.EKl.Kr^Ey .

KarkatT. Brahma gave assent, and came into the view of
KarkatT, and said : ^Ask, daughter, for the thing" that thou
desirest.'* Reduced to the merest of the subtlest streak of the
Jiva-Consciousness, devoid of organs, she could make no answer,
and only thought within herself: "What do I want, I, who feel
the fulness of the Self? I want no boons. I know all there
is to be known ; my doubts are fled ; I stand in perfect peace;.
likes and dislikes have disappeared; All is as One to me."
Rejoicing at her mood, the Lord of Creatures said : <( 'Tis well
that All is the Limit-less One to thee, my daughter ! Thou
desirest neither to accept nor to reject. Then let the laws of
Limit-ful Nature take tt?eir course. The Tapas-Karma thou hast
done requires a consequence. So live some further time upon
the earth, in thine old great frame, developing it anew from this
thy present tininess, as forest-giants grow from subtle seeds.,
But having seen the Truth, thou couldst not take to evil
ways again, and cause the innocent to suffer. So I ordain
that for thy sustenance thou shalt feed only on the sinful and
impure. When thou hast thus exhausted all thy karma, and
lived, a Jlvan"mukta(1), through thy life, then shall thou go to.
the Abode of Bliss."

With this He disappeared ; and in a moment Knrkati
passed back from the size of a sunbeam-mote, to seed, span,
cubit, human stature, towering tree, and finally to that of a
giant mountain-peak again.

CHAPTER X
The Question of the RaJcshasi

A touch of pleasure passed into her illumined mind at the-
regaining of her former frame ; but in a moment she threw
off the insidiously-reviving pride of Rakshasa-hood, and passed^

(1) Free while still-living tn the body. See p. 46 supra.