Chapter 18 opens with Janaka, and its theme is the dissolution of objections through the direct recognition of reality. This opening statement frames the entire chapter: where there is desire, there the world arises; where there is no desire, there the world is absent. The “world” here is not the physical cosmos but the projected field of attachment and aversion. By tracing the world to desire, Janaka shows that the removal of bondage is entirely an inner matter.