it is transformed into earth, for that is its ultimate destination.  The breath that is in all mobile and immobile objects mingles with space, and the heat that is in them follows that breath.  These three (viz., space, air, and tire), mingle together.  The other two (viz., water and earth), exist together in the form of earth.  There is wind where space is, and there is fire where wind is.  They are formless, it should be known, and become endued with form only in respect of embodied creatures.’

“Bharadwaja said, ’If in the physical frames of all living creatures there are heat, wind, earth, space and water, what, then, are the indications of living agent?  Tell me these, O sinless one!  I desire to know the nature of the life that is in the bodies of living beings,—­bodies made up of the five primal elements, engaged in the five acts, endued with the five senses and possessed of animation.  Upon the dissolution of the body which is a union of flesh and blood, and a mass of fat, sinews and bones, that which is the living agent cannot be seen.  If this body, composed of the five elements, be destitute of what is called life, who or what then is that which feels misery upon the appearance of either bodily or mental pain?  The living agent hears what is said, with the aid of the ears.  It, however, happens again, O great Rishi, that the same agent hears not when the Mind is otherwise engaged.  It seems, therefore, that that which is called the living agent serves no purpose.  The whole scene that the living agent sees with eyes acting in concert with the mind, the eye beholds not, even when lying before it, if the mind be otherwise engaged.  Then again, when it is under the influence of sleep, that agent neither sees nor smells, nor hears, nor speaks, nor experiences the perceptions of touch and taste.  Who or what then is that which feels joy, becomes angry, gives way to sorrow, and experiences tribulation?  What is that which wishes, thinks, feels aversion, and utters words?’

“Bhrigu said, ’The mind also is made of the five elements in common with the body.  For this reason it is of no consequence with respect to the acts mentioned by thee.  Only the one internal Soul sustaineth the body.  It is he that perceives smell, taste, sound, touch and form and other properties (that exist in external nature).  That Soul, pervading all the limbs, is the witness (of the acts) of the mind endued with five attributes and residing within the body composed of the five elements.  It is he who feels pleasure and pain, and when separated from him the body no longer experiences them.  When there is no longer any perception of form or of touch, when there is no heat in the fire that resides within the body,—­indeed, when that animal heat becomes extinguished,—­the body, in consequence of its abandonment by the Soul, meets with destruction.  The whole universe is composed of water.  Water is the form of all embodied creatures.  In that water is the Soul which is displayed in the