[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Epic, Poetry, Drama & Narrative](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit) › [The Mahābhārata and its versions](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata) › [The Great Epic of the Bhārata dynasty](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) › 12.187.4 # The Great Epic of the Bhārata dynasty 12.187.4 Mahābhārata 12.187.4 - **Language:** Sanskrit ### [12.187.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.12.187.4) pṛthivī vāyurākāśamāpo jyotiśca pañcamam | mahābhūtāni bhūtānāṃ sarveṣāṃ prabhavāpyayau || 4 || > "Bhishma said 'This, Adhyatma, O son of Pritha, that thou askest me about, I will presently discourse upon. It is highly agreeable and productive of great felicity. Great teachers have (before this) show the truths about Creation and the Destruction (of the universe). Knowing those truths, a person may obtain, even in this world, great satisfaction and felicity. Such knowledge may lead also to the acquisition of great fruits, and it is highly beneficial to all creatures. Earth, air, space, water, and light numbered as the fifth, are regarded as Great Creatures. These constitute both the origin and the destruction of all created objects. Unto him from whom these great primal elements take their origin, they return repeatedly, severing themselves from all creatures (into whose compositions they enter), even like the waves of the ocean (subsiding into that from which they seem to take their rise). As the tortoise stretches its limbs and withdraws them again, even so the Supreme Soul creates all objects and again withdraws into Himself. The Creator places the five primal elements in all created objects in different proportions. The living creature, however, does not see it (through ignorance). Sound, the organs of hearing, and all holes,--these three,--spring from Space as their progenitor. Touch, action, and skin are the triple attributes of the Wind. Form, eye, and digestion are the triple attributes of Fire or Energy. > — Kisari Mohan Ganguli 1883, The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa - [Previous: 12.187.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.12.187.3) - [Next: 12.187.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.12.187.5) - [Up: 12.187](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.12.187) ## Translations (1) - [The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa~en-ganguli.12.194.2.1) — Kisari Mohan Ganguli 1883, English ## Commentaries (1) - [Bhāratabhāvadīpa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa!nilakantha.12.194.5) — Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara 1650, Sanskrit ## Other recensions (2) - [Southern recension](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa*southern.12.192.7) — Sanskrit - [Vulgate (Nīlakaṇṭha's text)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa*vulgate.12.194.5) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.12.187.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.12.187.4) · Pramāṇa