"Then Bhisma of great energy and fame and of immeasurable splendour, and sprung from the component parts of the Vasus, was born in the womb of Ganga by king Shantanu. And there was a Rishi of the name of Animandavya of great fame. And he was conversant with the interpretation of the Vedas, was the possessor of the six attributes, gifted with great energy, and of great reputation. And accused of theft though innocent, the old Rishi was impaled. And he thereupon summoned Dharma and told him these words:—'In my childhood I had pierced a little fly in a blade of grass. O Dharma, I do recellect that one sin; but I cannot call to mind any other. I have, however, since practiced penances a thousand-fold. Hath not that one sin been conquered by this my asceticism? And because the killing of a Brahmana is more heinous than that of any other living thing, therefore, hast thou, O Dharma, been sinful. Thou shalt, therefore, be born on Earth in the Sudra caste!' And for that curse was Dharma born a Sudra in the form of the learned Vidura of pure body and perfectly sinless. And Suta Sanjaya, like a Muni, was born of Gavalgana. And Karna of great strength was born of Kunti in her maidenhood by Surya (the Sun). And he came out of his mother's womb with a natural armour and face brightened by ear-rings. And Vishnu himself, of world-wide fame, and worshipped of the worlds, was born of Devaki by Vasudeva, for the benefit of the three worlds. He is without birth and death, displayed in splendour, the creator of the universe and the lord of all! Indeed, he who is called the invisible cause of all, who knoweth no deterioration, who is the all-pervading soul, the centre round which every thing moveth, the substance unto which the three attributes of Satwa, raja, and tama co-inhere, the universal soul, the immutable, the material out of which hath been created this universe, the creator himself, the controlling lord, the invisible dweller in every object, whose work is this universe of five elements, who is united with the six high attributes, is the Pranava or Om of the Vedas, in Infinite, incapable of being moved by any force save his own will, displayed in splendour, the embodiment of the mode of life called Sannyasa, who floated
