Hunter Explains the Five Great Elements

The brahmana had listened carefully. Now he asked another question — one that pleased the hunter, for it showed a mind reaching toward the foundations of knowledge. "O supreme among those who uphold dharma," the brahmana said, "it is said that there are five great elements. Please tell me about their exact qualities." The hunter answered. "The earth, the air, the fire, the water and the sky have separate qualities," he said, "and I will tell you everything about them." He began with earth. Earth has five qualities: sound, touch, form, taste and smell. Of all the elements, earth has the most — it can be heard, felt, seen, tasted and smelled. Water has four: sound, touch, form and taste — everything except smell. Fire has three: sound, touch and form — everything except taste and smell. Air has two: sound and touch — it can be heard and felt, but not seen, tasted or smelled. Sky has only one: sound. It can be heard, but not touched, seen, tasted or smelled. "Together," the hunter said, "these fifteen qualities exist in the five elements, and they are in all the beings on whom the worlds are established." He explained that these qualities do not stand in opposition to one another. They exist as a combination, woven together in every living thing. But when mobile and immobile objects become unbalanced — when the proportions shift — then, over time, the soul moves from one body to another. In due order, the elements are destroyed. They are created again, in sequence. "The five elements can be seen in everything, mobile and immobile," the hunter said. "This entire universe is encompassed by them." Then he drew a distinction. Whatever is created by the senses — whatever can be seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled — is known as the manifest. Whatever cannot be grasped by the senses bears the mark of the unmanifest. Sound and the other sense-objects grasp an embodied body and make it subjugate to the senses. But if a person can transcend this — if he can see the world extended in his soul and his soul extended in the world — then he is capable of seeing the higher and the lower. Though still attached to a body, he can see all beings. He always sees all the elements in all their states. He is united with the brahman (the ultimate reality) and is never attached to that which is unholy. "Delusion that is enveloped in difficulties is overcome," the hunter said, "and the root of this is knowledge of the soul. The world is illuminated with intelligence, and the road of knowledge can be seen." He spoke of the illustrious one — without beginning, without end, self-created, undecaying, without compare, without manifestation. "Everything that you have asked me," the hunter concluded, "has its base in austerities."