The surest sign of a man of the highest wisdom is that he is unattracted by the pleasures of the world, for in him even the subtle tendencies have ceased. When these tendencies are strong, there is bondage; when they have ceased, there is liberation.
He is truly a liberated sage who by nature is not swayed by sense pleasure, without the motivation of fame or other incentives
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O Rama*, countless have been the universes that have come into being and that have been dissolved. In fact, even the countless universes that exist at this moment are
impossible to conceive of. All this can immediately be realised in one's own heart, for these universes are the creation of the desires that arise in the heart, like castles built in the air. The living being conjures up this world in his heart and while he is alive he strengthens this illusion; when he passes away he conjures up the world beyond and experiences it —
thus there arise worlds within worlds just as there are layers within layers in a plantain stem. Neither the world of matter nor the modes of creation are truly real; yet the living and the dead think and feel they are real. Ignorance of this truth keeps up the appearance.
O Rama *, in this cosmic ocean of existence, beings arise here and there who are equal to others, and others who are different from yet others.
This Vedavyasa* is the twenty- third in this stream of creation.
He and other sages will attain embodiment and disembodiment again and again. In some they will be equal to others and in others unequal. In this embodiment Vedavyasa* is indeed a liberated sage. Such liberated sages also are embodied countless times and they assume relations with others — and sometimes they are equal to others and sometimes unequal in their learning, behaviour, etc.