again, are possessed of souls that are equal in respect of their nature.  When dissolution comes, all else dissolve away.  What remains is the inceptive will to achieve Righteousness.  That, indeed, reappears (in next life) of itself.[631] When such is the result (that is, when the enjoyments and endurance of this life are due to the acts of a past life), the inequality of lot discernible among human beings cannot be regarded in any way anomalous.  So also, it is seen that those creatures that belong to the intermediate orders of existence are equally subject, in the matter of their acts, to the influence of example.’”

SECTION CLXV

“Vaisampayana said, ’That perpetuator of Kuru’s race, viz., Yudhishthira the son of Pandu, desirous of obtaining such good as is destructive of sins, questioned Bhishma who was lying on a bed of arrows, (in the following words).’

“Yudhishthira said, ’What, indeed, is beneficial for a person in this world?  What is that by doing which one may earn happiness?  By what may one be cleansed of all one’s sins?  Indeed, what is that which is destructive of sins?’

“Vaisampayana continued, ’In this connection, the royal son of Santanu, O foremost of men, duly recited the names of the deities unto Yudhishthira who was desirous of hearing.’

“Bhishma said, ’O son, the following names of the deities with those of the Rishis, if duly recited morning, noon, and evening, become efficacious cleansers of all sins.  Acting with the aid of one’s senses (or knowledge and action), whatever sins one may commit by day or by night or by the two twilights, consciously, or unconsciously one is sure to be cleansed therefrom and become thoroughly pure by reciting these names.  One that takes those names has never to become blind or deaf; indeed, by taking those names, one always succeeds in attaining to what is beneficial.  Such a man never takes birth in the intermediate order of beings, never goes to hell, and never becomes a human being of any of the mixed castes.  He has never to fear the accession of any calamity.  When death comes, he never becomes stupefied.  The master of all the deities and Asuras, resplendent with effulgence, worshipped by all creatures, inconceivable, indescribable, the life of all living beings, and unborn, is the Grandsire Brahma, the Lord of the universe.  His chaste spouse is Savitri.  Then comes that origin of the Vedas, the creator Vishnu, otherwise called Narayana of immeasurable puissance.  Then comes the three-eyed Lord of Lima; then Skanda the generalissimo of the celestial forces; then Visakha; then Agni the eater of sacrificial libations; then Vayu the god of wind; then Chandramas; then Aditya the god of the sun, endued with effulgence; then the illustrious Sakra the lord of Sachi; and Yama with his spouse Dhumorna; and Varuna with Gauri; Kuvera the lord of treasures, with his spouse Riddhi; the amiable and