is the string that is to be attached to the mast for dragging that boat along difficult waters.  Charity of gift constitutes the wind that urges the sails of that boat.  Endued with swift speed, it is with that boat that one must cross the river of life.  Cast off both virtue and vice, and truth and falsehood.  Having cast off truth and falsehood, do thou cast off that by which these are to be cast off.  By casting off all purpose, do thou cast off virtue; do thou cast off sin also by casting off all desire.  With the aid of the understanding, do thou cast off truth and falsehood; and, at last, do thou cast off the understanding itself by knowledge of the highest topic (viz., the supreme Soul).  Do thou cast off this body having bones for its pillars; sinews for its binding strings and cords; flesh and blood for its outer plaster; the skin for its outer case; full of urine and faeces and, therefore, emitting a foul smell; exposed to the assaults of decrepitude and sorrow; forming the seat of disease and weakened by pain; possessed of the attribute of Rajas in predominance:  not permanent or durable, and which serves as the (temporary) habitation of the indwelling creature.  This entire universe of matter, and that which is called Mahat or Buddhi, are made up of the (five), great elements.  That which is called Mahat is due to the action of the Supreme.  The five senses, the three attributes of Tamas, Sattwa, and Rajas,—­these (together with those which have been mentioned before) constitute a tale of seventeen.  These seventeen, which are known by the name of the Unmanifest, with all those that are called Manifest, viz., the five objects of the five senses, (that is to say, form, taste, sound, touch, and scent), with Consciousness and the Understanding, form the well-known tale of four and twenty.  When endued with these four and twenty possessions, one comes to be called by the name of Jiva (or Puman).  He who knows the aggregate of three (viz., Religion, Wealth, and Pleasure), as also happiness and sorrow and life and death, truly and in all their details, is said to know growth and decay.  Whatever objects exist of knowledge, should be known gradually, one after another.  All objects that are apprehended by the senses are called Manifest.  Whatever objects transcend the senses and are apprehended by means only of their indications are said to be Unmanifest.  By restraining the senses, one wins great gratification, even like a thirsty and parched traveller at a delicious shower of rain.  Having subjugated the senses one beholds one’s soul spread out for embracing all objects, and all objects in one’s soul.  Having its roots in knowledge, the puissance is never lost of the man who (thus) beholds the Supreme in his soul,—­of the man, that is to say, who always beholds all creatures in all conditions (in his own soul).[1760] He who by the aid of knowledge, transcends all kinds of pain born of error and stupefaction, never catches any evil by coming into contact with all creatures.[1761]