about. And wonder of wonders, these people were actually suffering from famine and in a miserable plight. The King and his courtiers saw an old woman bewailing the loss of her children, who had died during the famine. As they listened to her lament, they discovered with much surprise that the old woman was weeping for the girl whom the King had married in his dream, by whom he had two sons, and who had died while on the way to a land of plenty. Greatly moved by the incident, the King pacified the old woman, giving she and her tribesmen food and clothing, and conducting them to his kingdom. He then sought an explanation of the mystery, at the feet of the learned. After due discipline, meditation, and study he attained the Bliss of Nirvana. It is thus, O Ram, O Ram, that illusion works and gives the unreal, the appearance of the real."

Ram asked: "How was it, O Master, that what the King saw in his dream actually came to pass?"

Muni Vashisht replied: "You will better understand this incident by the story of Gandhi, which I will narrate for your benefit later on. What happened in this case was not really true,

only a conjurer's trick played by Indra's messenger on the consciousness of the King and those aborigines on the Vindhya Mountains. The King experienced in his unconscious state, and the tribesmen saw in their conscious state, that was all. But that is how illusion works, tricking us into believing as real that which is not, piercing the veil of illusion, O Ram, by the shining shaft of Jnan (Wisdom of the self). May you attain that state of bliss, my son, in which the human soul becomes one with the Divine--the state of complete Nirvana. May you realize the Divinity within you, and know it to be the same that brought the world into being and pervades and sustains it. Conquer, O Ram, by ceaseless meditation, the ignorance of illusion, and attain the One Omnipotent and Omniscient God, from whom the world evolved, and in whom it resolves itself."

QUEEN CHUNDALAI, THE GREAT YOGIN

"O may thou rest thyself in Thy all peaceful Atma [**] like the King Sikhithwaya who controlled the restless bird called Mind," said Rishi Vashisht to Ram.

Whereupon Ram asked him this, "Tell me, O Guru, who was the King Sikhithwaya, possessor of the peaceful Bliss? Let me learn that Jnana (Wisdom), which is the basis of everything, that it, may arise in me to its .fullest power."

The Rishi Vashisht replied: "King Sikhithwaya was born in the Dwapara Yuga [***]. Over his people he ruled wisely and well. His justice had no bond by-ways. He had but one purpose--to do good and perform the works of virtue. Master over body and mind, his great joy lay in the happiness of his Subjects.

"Chundalai, his Queenly Consort, born through Tapas (Meditation), to the Queen of