e time. The fifth creation, O
monarch, is that which has arisen from combination of the primal elements
(named above). This comprises the ear, the skin, the eyes, the tongue,
and the nose forming the fifth, and speech, and the two hands, and the
two legs, and the lower duct, and the organs of generation. The first
five of these constitute the organs of knowledge, and the last five the
organs of action. All these, with mind, arose simultaneously O king.
These constitute the four and twenty topics that exist in the forms of
all living creatures. By understanding these properly, Brahmanas
possessed of insight into the truth have never to yield to sorrow. In the
three worlds a combination of these, called body, is possessed by all
embodied creatures. Indeed, O king a combination of those is known as
such in deities and men and Danavas, and Yakshas and spirits and
Gandharvas and Kinnaras and great snakes, and Charanas and Pisachas, in
celestial Rishis and Rakshasas, in biting flies, and worms, and gnats,
and vermin born of filth and rats, and dogs and Swapakas and Chaineyas
and Chandalas and Pukkasas in elephants and steeds and asses and tigers,
and trees and kine. Whatever other creatures exist in water or space or
on earth, for there is no other place in which creatures exist as we have
heard, have this combination. All these, O sire, included within the
class called Manifest, are seen to be destroyed day after day. Hence, all
creatures produced by union of these four and twenty are said to be
destructible.

"'"This then is the Indestructible. And since the universe, which is made
up of Manifest and Unmanifest, meets with destruction, therefore, it is
said to be Destructible. The very Being called Mahan who is the
eldest-born is always spoken of as an instance of the Destructible. I
have now told thee, O monarch, all that thou hadst asked me. Transcending
the four and twenty topics already adverted to is the twenty-fifth called
Vishnu. That Vishnu in consequence of the absence of all attributes, is
not a topic (of knowledge) though as then which pervades all the topics,
he has been called so by the wise. Since that which is destructible has
caused all this that is Manifest, therefore, all this is endued with
form. The twenty-fourth, which is Prakriti, is said to preside over all
this (which has sprung from her modifications). The twenty-fifth, which
is Vishnu, is formless and, therefore, cannot be said to preside over the