Llla : 'Tell me how that formless world(1) of my hus-
band was born out of this."

Sarasvati : ^There is a world-system somewhere in the
measureless expanse of Chid-akasha. In some far corner of
that system lies a town nestling" midst woods and streams and
hills, aod in that town there dwelt a brahmana with his wife.
The pair were named Vasishtha and ArundhatT, though diffe-
rent from the Rshi and his wife. Once that brahmana sat on
the top of one of the neighbouring" hills, and saw the kingf
of the country pass below with a great and gorgeous train on
a hunting- excursion. He saw all that magnificence, and
forthwith rose the thought within his mind : *Happy is the
sovereign. All joys attend on him. How may I attain those
joys ?^ Cherishing" this wish within his mind, but still not
deviating from the path of rig-hteousness, the brahmana passed
into old age and thence to death.

"His wife, too, like thee, had sought in vain for immorta-
lity for her husband, and failing' there, had prayed to me and
g-ained boons like the ones I gave to thee. And thus the
brahmana after death became a glorious king-, with broad'
domains, yet all confined within the walls of that small house
• in the nameless town. His wife, too, bearing not that
separation from her husband of her lifetime, cast off her body,
and, in an 5ti-vahika(2) body, went to him as loving rivers go
unto the ocean.

"Eig^ht days it is now since their death, and the house
and the town are all existing. And yet thou art that wife, 0

(1) Formless to her now that she had returned to the astral
consciousness.

(2) "Ati-vahika" means composed of those elements which *carry
onwards" (vahanti) the JTva after the death of the body. But it seems
to be used in the text in different places to mean different bodies, oorreofc