ataa^aj.v-' JC,Af±l<Kl±I.JN UES
be seen and felt, though non-existent to thy present view, by
meditation on that Chid-akasha. That which lies midway
in the passage, ^swift as the wink of the eye5, of Samvit(1),
from one place to another, that is Chid-akasha. If thou canst
fix thyself in the contemplation of that» to the obliteration of
all other ideas, then shall thou attain without a doubt the state
Sarv-atmaka(2), which is the underlying- basis of all. This state
is not realised except with the total non-existence (i.e. non-cons-
ciousness) ofthisJagat(8). Thou shalt realise it by my favour.^
The Goddess disappeared with this, and Lila passed with
ease into the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi(4). As a bird
leaves its cage when the door Is opened, she left behind her
body and antah-karar^6), and, there, in the space enclosed by
that same palace, she saw her husband seated on a throne,
high in the midst of thronging chiefs, receiving embassies
and messages, directing state affairs and wars and expeditions,
listening to Veda-chants and music, honouring Eshis, and
ordering the building of new forts and cities. She saw in
his great court and all about it^ old faces, the faces of those
she used to see in her other body in the capital of the living
Padma. She also saw new faces she had never seen before.
She went into the court and wandered about in it; but none
(1) Consciousness.         (2) 'All-including', *all-ensouling\
(3) World; etymologioally, ^he ever-going', from gam, to go.
Usually, Jagat means a particular world, a solar system, sometimes only
the earth-globe ; while Samsara is the World-Process.
(4) Consciousness whence concrete ideas have vanished. Nirvikalpa
Samadhi ordinarily means a state of consciousness in which there is no \
Kalpana, no particular idea or ideation or object, but only the sense
of being, a massive sentienoy, *mere' consciousness; here the expression
seems to be used in a relative sense; ». e, particular consciousness
ceased so far as the object-world of Lila's 'living^ body was concerned,
but her Jiva woke up on a subtler plane in a subtler body.
(6) Ijower mind, *inner organ'.