success and are highly blessed.  In ancient times they became entirely devoted to me.  They have been freed from the attributes of Rajas and Tamas.  Without doubt, they are competent to enter me and become merged into my Self.—­He that cannot be seen with the eye, touched with the sense of touch, smelt with the sense of scent, and that is beyond the ken of the sense of taste.  He whom the three attributes of Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas do not touch, who pervades all things and is the one Witness of the universe, and who is described as the Soul of the entire universe; He who is not destroyed upon the destruction of the bodies of all created things, who is unborn and unchangeable and eternal, who is freed from all attributes, who is indivisible and entire; He who transcends the twice twelve topics of enquiry and is regarded the Twenty-fifth, who is called by the name of Purusha, who is inactive, and who is said to be apprehended by Knowledge alone, He into whom the foremost of the regenerate persons enter and become emancipate.  He who is the eternal Supreme Soul and is known by the name of Vasudeva.  Behold, O Narada, the greatness and puissance of God.  He is never touched by acts good or bad.  Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, are said to be the three (original) attributes.  These dwell and act in the bodies of all creatures.  The Jiva-soul, called Kshetrajna, enjoys and endorse the action of these three attributes.  He, however, transcends them and they cannot touch Him.  Freed from these attributes, He is again their enjoyer and endorser.  Having created them Himself, He is above them all.  O celestial Rishi, the Earth, which is the refuge of the universe, disappears[1830] (when the hour for universal dissolution comes) into water, Water disappears into Light, and Light into Wind, Wind disappears into Space, and Space into Mind.  Mind is a great creature, and it disappears into Unmanifest Prakriti.  Unmanifest Prakriti, O Brahmana, disappears into inactive Purusha.  There is nothing higher than Purusha which is Eternal.  There is nothing among mobile and immobile things in the universe that is immutable, except Vasudeva, the eternal Purusha.  Endued with great puissance, Vasudeva is the Soul of all creatures.  Earth, Wind, Space, Water, and Light forming the fifth, the primal elements of great puissance.  Mingling together they form what is called the body.  Possessed of subtile prowess and invisible to all eyes, O Brahmana, the puissant Vasudeva then enter that combination of the five primal elements, called body.  Such entrance is called his birth, and taking birth.  He causes the body to move about and act.  Without a combination of the five primal elements, no body can ever be formed.  Without, again, the entrance of Jiva into the body, the mind dwelling within it cannot cause it to move and act.  He that enters the body is possessed of great puissance and is called Jiva.  He is known also by other names, viz., Sesha and Sankarshana.  He that takes his rise, from that Sankarshana, by