to action,
continue to devise the necessary means for the accomplishment of desired
ends? What then is the truth (in connection with this topic)?'"

"'Bhishma continued, "Beholding the king enveloped in thick darkness,
stupefied by error, and become helpless, the learned Panchasikha
tranquillised him by once more addressing him in the following words, 'In
this (Emancipation) the consummation is not Extinction. Nor is that
consummation any kind of Existence (that one can readily conceive). This
that we see is a union of body, senses, and mind. Existing independently
as also controlling one another, these go on acting. The materials that
constitute the body are water, space, wind, heat, and earth. These exist
together (forming the body) according to their own nature. They disunite
again according to their own nature. Space and wind and heat and water
and earth,--these five objects in a state of union constitute the body.
The body is not one element. Intelligence, stomachic heat, and the vital
breaths, called Prana, etc., that are all wind,--these three are said to
be organs of action. The senses, the objects of the senses (viz., sound,
form, etc.), the power (dwelling in those objects) in consequence of
which they become capable of being perceived, the faculties (dwelling in
the senses) in consequence of which they succeed in perceiving them, the
mind, the vital breaths called Prana, Apana and the rest, and the various
juices and humours that are the results of the digestive organs, flow
from the three organs already named.[814] Hearing, touch, taste, vision,
and scent,--these are the five senses. They have derived their attributes
from the mind which, indeed, is their cause. The mind, existing as an
attribute of Chit has three states, viz., pleasure, pain, and absence of
both pleasure and pain. Sound, touch, form, taste, scent, and the objects
to which they inhere,--these till the moment of one's death are causes
for the production of one's knowledge. Upon the senses rest all acts
(that lead to heaven), as also renunciation (leading to the attainment of
Brahma), and also the ascertainment of truth in respect of all topics of
enquiry. The learned say that ascertainment (of truth) is the highest
object of existence, and that it is the seed or root of Emancipation; and
with respect to Intelligence, they say that leads to Emancipation and
Brahma.[815] That person who regards this union of perishable attributes
(called the bo