That
should surely be regarded to have met with destruction which has no
longer any action, which furnishes no proof of its existence, and which
no longer occupies any space.'
"Bhrigu said, 'It is true that upon the consumption of fuel fire is no
longer seen. It mingles with space because there is no longer any visible
object in which to inhere, and hence it becomes incapable of perception
by us. Similarly, upon leaving the body, the creature lives in space, and
cannot be seen in consequence of its extreme subtility as is doubtless
the case with fire. It is fire or heat that sustains the breaths called
Prana and the others. Know that that heat (thus existing) is called life
or the living agent. That heat which is the sustainer of the breaths,
becomes extinguished in consequence of the suppression of breath. Upon
that heat in the physical frame being extinguished, the frame itself
loses animation. Falling down, it is transformed into earth, for that is
its ultimate destination. The breath that is in all mobile and immobile
objects mingles with space, and the heat that is in them follows that
breath. These three (viz., space, air, and tire), mingle together. The
other two (viz., water and earth), exist together in the form of earth.
There is wind where space is, and there is fire where wind is. They are
formless, it should be known, and become endued with form only in respect
of embodied creatures.'
"Bharadwaja said, 'If in the physical frames of all living creatures
there are heat, wind, earth, space and water, what, then, are the
indications of living agent? Tell me these, O sinless one! I desire to
know the nature of the life that is in the bodies of living
beings,--bodies made up of the five primal elements, engaged in the five
acts, endued with the five senses and possessed of animation.
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