CHAPTER LVI. Story of the Great Stone, and Vasishtha’s Meditation.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. My life or living soul, is now awakened to its intuitive knowledge (of truth); as a tree left withered by the dewy season, becomes revivified by the moisture of the renovating spring.
41. The hundred years which I passed in my meditation here, glided away as quickly as a single moment before me; because a long period of time appears a very short space, to one who is intensively intent upon a single object. (Whereas the succession of thoughts be an unchanging duration of the same moment to him who is fixed in his mind).
42. Now my outward senses had their expansion, from their contracted state (in my meditative mind); just as the withered arbors expand themselves into flowers and foliage, by the enlivening influence of the vernal season.
43. Then the vital airs filled the organs of my body, and restored my consciousness of their sensations; soon after I was seized upon by the demon of my egoism, accompanied by its consort of desire; and these began to move to and fro, just as the strong winds shake the sturdy oaks.