d if it
is that fire which assists at digestion by dissolving the food we take,
then life is worth little. When an animal dies, that which is called its
life is never seen leaving it. Only the breath leaves it, and the
internal heat becomes extinguished. If life were nothing else than wind,
or if life depended only on the wind, then it could have been seen like
the external sea of air, and when passing out it would have mingled with
that air. If life dependest upon air, and if it ended with the escape of
that air from the body, it would then mingle with another portion of air
(that exists externally) like a portion of water escaping into the great
ocean and thereby only changing the place of its residence. If a quantity
of water be thrown into a well, or if the flame of a lamp be thrown into
a blazing fire, either of them, entering a homogeneous element, loses its
independent or separate existence. If life were air, it also, when the
animal died, would mingle with the great ocean of air outside. How can we
say that there is life in this animal body which is made up of the five
(primal) elements? If one of those elements disappear, the union of the
other four becomes dissolved. The element of water drieth up if food be
not taken. The element of air disappears if the breath be restrained. The
element of space disappears if the excretions cease. So also the element
of fire becomes extinguished if food does not go in. The element of earth
breaks in pieces in consequence of diseases, wounds, and other
sufferings. If only one of the five becomes afflicted, the union, being
dissolved, the five go away into five different directions. When the body
which is a union of the elements, becomes separated into five
ingredients, whither doth life go? What doth it then know? What doth it
then hear? What doth it then say? This cow (that is given away to a holy
Brahmana), it is said, will rescue me in the other world. The animal,
however, that is given away, itself dies. Whom then will this cow rescue?
The taker of the cow (in gift) and the giver are both equal (in being
both subject to death). Both of them meet with extinction in this world.
How then will they meet again? How will the person that has been eaten up
by birds, or that has been broken in pieces by a fall from a mountain
summit, or that has been consumed by fire, regain life? The root of a
tree that has been cut down does not grow up again. Only the seeds put
forth sprouts. Whe