of the mind.  For this reason, one should, in one’s mind, do good to all.[598] One should practise virtue singly.  In the practice of virtue one has no need for the help of others.  If one obtains only the ordinances of the scriptures, what can an associate do?[599] Righteousness is the origin of mankind.  Righteousness is the ambrosia of the gods.  After death, men enjoy, through Righteousness, eternal happiness.’

SECTION CXCIV

“Yudhishthira said, ’Tell me, O grandsire, what and of what nature is that which is called by the name of Adhyatma and which is laid down for every person.[600] O thou that art acquainted with Brahma, whence has this universe consisting of mobile and immobile things, been created?  When universal destruction sets in, to whom does it go?  It behoveth thee to discourse to me upon this topic.’[601]

“Bhishma said ’This, Adhyatma, O son of Pritha, that thou askest me about, I will presently discourse upon.  It is highly agreeable and productive of great felicity.  Great teachers have (before this) show the truths about Creation and the Destruction (of the universe).  Knowing those truths, a person may obtain, even in this world, great satisfaction and felicity.  Such knowledge may lead also to the acquisition of great fruits, and it is highly beneficial to all creatures.  Earth, air, space, water, and light numbered as the fifth, are regarded as Great Creatures.  These constitute both the origin and the destruction of all created objects.  Unto him from whom these great primal elements take their origin, they return repeatedly, severing themselves from all creatures (into whose compositions they enter), even like the waves of the ocean (subsiding into that from which they seem to take their rise).  As the tortoise stretches its limbs and withdraws them again, even so the Supreme Soul creates all objects and again withdraws into Himself.  The Creator places the five primal elements in all created objects in different proportions.  The living creature, however, does not see it (through ignorance).  Sound, the organs of hearing, and all holes,—­these three,—­spring from Space as their progenitor.  Touch, action, and skin are the triple attributes of the Wind.  Form, eye, and digestion are the triple attributes of Fire or Energy.  Taste, all liquid secretions, and the tongue represent the three attributes of Water.  Scents, the nose, and the body are the triple properties of Earth.  The great (primal) elements are five.  The mind is the sixth.  The senses and the mind, O Bharata, are (the sources of all) the perceptions of a living creature.[602] The seventh is called the understanding; and the eighth is the soul.[603] The senses are for perceiving; the mind (unable to deal with those perceptions) produces uncertainty.  The understanding reduces all perceptions to certainty.  The Soul exists as a witness (without acting).  All that is above the two feet, all that is behind,