SECTION CCXXXIX

“Bhishma said, ’Thus addressed (by his sire), Suka, highly applauding these instructions of the great Rishi, set himself about asking the following, question relating to the import of duties that lead to Emancipation.’

“Suka said, ’By what means doth one possessed of wisdom, conversant with the Vedas, observant of sacrifices, endued with wisdom, and free from malice, succeed in attaining to Brahma which is incapable of being apprehended by either direct evidence or inference, and unsusceptible of being indicated by the Vedas?  Asked by me, tell me by what means is Brahma to be apprehended?  Is it by penance, by Brahmacharya, by renunciation of everything, by intelligence, by the aid of the Sankhya philosophy, or by Yoga?  By what means may what kind of singleness of purpose be attained by men, with respect to both, viz., the mind and the senses?  It behoveth thee to expound all this to me.’[949]

“Vyasa said, ’No man ever attains to success by means other than the acquisition of knowledge, the practice of penances, the subjugation of the senses, and renunciation of everything.[950] The great entities (five in number) represent the first (or initial) creation of the Self-born.  They have been very largely placed in embodied creatures included in the world of life.[951] The bodies of all embodied creatures are derived from earth.  The humours are from water.  Their eyes are said to be derived from light.  Prana, Apana (and the three other vital breaths) have the wind for their refuge.  And, lastly, all unoccupied apertures within them (such as the nostrils, the cavities of the ear, etc.) are of Space.  In the feet (of living creatures) is Vishnu.  In their arms is Indra.  Within the stomach is Agni desirous of eating.  In the ears are the points of the horizon (or the compass) representing the sense of hearing.  In the tongue is speech which is Saraswati.[952] The ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose forming the fifth, are said to be the sense of knowledge.  These exist for the purposes of apprehension of their respective objects.  Sound, touch, form, taste and scent forming the fifth, are the objects of the (five) senses.  These should always be regarded as separate from (or independent of) the senses.  Like the charioteer setting his well-broken steeds along the paths he pleases, the mind sets the senses (along directions it pleases).  The mind, in its turn, is employed by the knowledge sitting in the heart.[953] The mind is the lord of all these senses in respect of employing them in their functions and guiding or restraining them.  Similarly, the knowledge is the lord of the mind (in employing, and guiding or restraining it).[954] The senses, the objects of the senses, the attributes of those objects represented by the word nature, knowledge, mind, the vital breaths, and Jiva dwell in the bodies of all embodied creatures.[955] The body within which the