n they
shall destroy men when their hours come. When the end comes of living
creatures, thou shalt despatch Desire and Wrath together against them.
Immeasurable merit shall be thine. Thou shalt not incur iniquity, being
thyself perfectly equal in thy behaviour.[1115] By doing this thou wilt
only observe righteousness instead of sinking thyself into iniquity. Do
thou, therefore, set thy heart upon the task at hand, and addressing
Desire and Wrath begin to slay all living creatures." Thus addressed,
that lady, called by the name of Death, became afraid of Brahman's curse
and answered him, saying, "Yes!" From that time she began to despatch
Desire and Wrath as the last hours of living creatures and through their
agency to put a stop to their life-breaths. Those tears that Death had
shed are the diseases by which the bodies of men become afflicted. At the
destruction, therefore, of living creatures, one should not,
understanding, with the aid of the intelligence (to what cause such
destruction is due), give way to grief. As the senses of all creatures
disappear when the latter become plunged into dreamless sleep and return
once more when they awake, after the same manner all human beings, upon
the dissolution of their bodies, have to go into the other world and
return thence to this, O lion among kings! The element called wind, that
is endued with terrible energy and mighty prowess and deafening roars,
operates as the life in all living creatures. That wind, when the bodies
of living creatures are destroyed, escaping from the old becomes engaged
in diverse functions in diverse new bodies. For this reason, the wind is
called the lord of the senses and is distinguished above the other
elements constituting the gross body. The gods, without exception, (when
their merits cease), have to take birth as mortal creatures on earth.
Similarly, all mortal creatures also (when they acquire sufficient
merit), succeed in attaining to the status of gods. Therefore, O lion
among kings, do not grieve for thy son. Thy son has attained to heaven
and is enjoying great happiness there! It was thus, O monarch, that Death
was created by the Self-born and it is in this way that she cuts off duly
all living creatures when their hours come. The tears she had shed become
diseases, which, when their last hours come, snatch away all beings
endued with life.'"'"

SECTION CCLIX

"'Yudhishthira said, "All men that inhabit this earth are filled with