“Bhishma said, ’Listen, O slayer of foes!  The Sankhyas or followers of Kapila, who are conversant with all paths and endued with wisdom, say that there are five faults, O puissant one, in the human body.  They are Desire and Wrath and Fear and Sleep and Breath.  These faults are seen in the bodies of all embodied creatures.  Those that are endued with wisdom cut the root of wrath with the aid of Forgiveness.  Desire is cut off by casting off all purposes.  By cultivation of the quality of Goodness (Sattwa) sleep is conquered, and Fear is conquered by cultivating Heedfulness.  Breath is conquered by abstemiousness of diet O king.  Truly understanding gunas by the aid of hundreds of gunas, hundreds of faults, and diverse causes by hundreds of causes, ascertaining that the world is like the froth of water, enveloped by hundreds of illusions flowing from Vishnu, like a painted edifice, and as unsubstantial as a reed, beholding it to be (as terrible as) a dark pit, or as unreal as bubbles of water, for the years that compose its age are as shortlived (compared to the duration of eternity) as bubbles, seeing it exposed to immediate destruction, bereft of happiness, having certain ruin for its end and from which it can never escape, sunk in Rajas and Tamas, and utterly helpless like an elephant sunk in mire,—­noting all this—­the Sankhyas, O king, endued with great wisdom, casting off all affections arising from one’s relation towards one’s children, by the aid, O king, of that extensive and all-embracing knowledge which their system advocates and cutting off quickly, with the weapon of knowledge and the bludgeon of penances, O Bharata, all inauspicious scents born of Rajas and all scents of a like nature arising from Tamas and all auspicious scents arising from Sattwa and all pleasures of the touch (and of the other senses) born of the same three qualities and inhering to the body, indeed, O Bharata, aided by the Yoga of knowledge, these Yatis crowned with success,—­cross the Ocean of life.  That Ocean, so terrible has sorrow for its waters.  Anxiety and grief constitute its deep lakes.  Disease and death are its gigantic alligators.  The great fears that strike the heart at every step are its huge snakes.  The deeds inspired by Tamas are its tortoises.  Those inspired by Rajas are its fishes.  Wisdom constitutes the raft for crossing it.  The affections entertained for objects of the senses are its mire.  Decrepitude constitutes its region of grief and trouble.[1586] Knowledge, O chastiser of foes, is its island.  Acts constitute its great depth.  Truth is its shores.  Pious observances constitute the verdant weeds floating on its bosom.[1587] Envy constitutes its rapid and mighty current.  The diverse sentiments of the heart constitute its mines.  The diverse kinds of gratification are its valuable gems.  Grief and fever are its winds.  Misery and thirst are its mighty eddies.  Painful and fatal diseases are its huge elephants.  The assemblage of bones