more of him for seven days. Thereafter he permitted him to
come into the courtyard of the palace. There, too, Shuka
stayed for seven days awaiting". Then Janaka commanded
that he should be led into the inner halls ; but he himself
would still not see him. So for a further space of seven days
Shuka waited., tended by lovely maidens and served with
dainty foods and drinks. But Shuka lost not, any time, his
calm of Jnind, nor at the pains and humbling, nor at the
honoring and the pleasures, and ever sat silent, and happy,
like {a moon full and unwaning. Then the king saw him and

luted him and spoke : 'What wishest thou, ascetic youth ?
Thou hast gained all that there is to be gained, and hast done
all that there is to be done p Shuka replied with his one
question : 'Tell me, 0 teacher !, how this glamour of the
world comes into and goes out of being.' And Janaka told
him what his father had already said to him.

^Tben Sbuka: ^So I found myself, with laboured
thinkino", and so too did my iFather tell me when I questioned
him. You now say the same, and the same is the final
finding of the Shastras, viz., that this world arises merely out
of the Vikalpa (Imagination) of the Self, and ceases with it;

there is no deeper substance or substratum in it Tell me the
truth again, 0 king ! Is it even so ? Is it no more than
this ? Shall I put faith in thee, and take my peace of heart

from thee ?9

^Janaka said : *Yea, it is even so. There is no deeper
truth than this. There is no other finding. The nearest is the
dearest ; the deepest is the simplest. The man is Breakless
Consciousness alone- And by its own imaginations does that
Consciousness place itself in bonds and free itself again
therefrom. Thy intelligence, 0 steadfast youth !, has ceased
o take Joy in the things of sense, and therefore, turning back,
has seen the Truth. - Thy father with all his stores of self-
2 i