Gayatri

Dhritarashtra asked Sanjaya of soul worthy of praise,--saying,--

'O Sanjaya, these kings, these lords of earth, so brave and taking delight in battle, are for smiting one another with weapons of diverse kinds, being prepared to lay down their very lives for the sake of earth. Incapable of being restrained, they are, indeed, smiting one another for increasing the population of Yama's domain. Desirous of prosperity connected with the possession of earth they are incapable of bearing one another. I, therefore, think that earth must be possessed of many attributes. Tell me all these, O Sanjaya, Many thousands, many millions, many tens of millions, many hundreds of millions, heroic men have come together at Kurujangala. I desire to hear, O Sanjaya, with accurate details, about the situation and dimensions of those countries and cities from which they have come. Through the potency of that regenerate Rishi Vyasa of immeasurable energy, thou art endued with the lamp of celestial perception and the eye of knowledge.

"Sanjaya said,--'O thou of great wisdom, I will recount to thee the merits of earth according to my knowledge. Behold them with thy eye of wisdom. I bow to thee, O bull of Bharata's race.

Creatures in this world are of two kinds, mobile and immobile. Mobile creatures are of three kinds according to their birth, viz., oviparous, viviparous, and those engendered by heat and damp. Of mobile creatures, O king, the foremost are certainly those called viviparous. Of viviparous creatures the foremost are men and animals.

Animals, O king, of diverse forms, are of fourteen species. Seven have their abodes in the woods, and seven of these are domestic.

1. Lions, 
2. tigers, 
3. boars, 
4. buffaloes, and 
5. elephants as also 
6. bears and 
7. apes, 

are, O king, regarded as wild.

1. Kine, 
2. goats, 
3. sheep, 
4. men, 
5. horses, 
6. mules, and 
7. asses,--these seven amongst animals are reckoned as domestic by the learned. 

https://freeglobaluniversity.blogspot.com/search/label/Pet

These fourteen, O king, complete the tale of domestic and wild animals, mentioned, O lord of earth, in the Vedas, and on which the sacrifices rest. Of creatures that are domestic, men are foremost, while lions are the foremost of those that have their abode in the woods. All creatures support their life by living upon one another.

Vegetables are said to be immobile, and they are of four species viz., 

1. trees, 
2. shrubs, 
3. creepers, 
4. creeping plants existing for only a year, and 
5. all stemless plants of the grass species. 

https://freeglobaluniversity.blogspot.com/search/label/Veg

Of mobile and immobile creatures, there are thus one less twenty; and as regards their universal constituents, there are five. "Sanjaya said,--'O great king, all things in the universe, in consequence of the presence (in them) of the five elements, have been said to be equal by the wise. These elements, are 

1. space, 
2. air, 
3. fire, 
4. water, and 
5. earth. 

Their (respective) attributes are sound, touch, vision, taste, and scent. Every one of these elements possesses (in addition to what is especially its own) the attribute or attributes of that or those coming before it. The earth, therefore, is the foremost of them all, possessing as it does the attributes of all the other four, besides what is specially its own, as said by Rishis acquainted with truth. There are four attributes, O king, in water. Scent does not exist in it. Fire has three attributes viz., sound, touch, and vision. Sound and touch belong to air, while space has sound alone. These five attributes, O king, exist (in this way) in the five principal elements depending on which all creatures in the universe exist. They exist separately and independently when there is homogeneity in the universe. 2 When, however, these do not exist in their natural state but with one another, then creatures spring into life, furnished with bodies. This is never otherwise. The elements are destroyed, in the order of the one succeeding, merging into the one that proceeds; and they spring also into existence, one arising from the one before it. All of these are immeasurable, their forms being Brahma itself. In the universe are seen creatures consisting of the five elements.

https://freeglobaluniversity.blogspot.com/search/label/Element

Twenty-four in all, these are described as Gayatri (Brahma) as is well-known to all. He who knows these truly to be the sacred Gayatri possessed of every virtue, is not liable, O best of the Bharatas, to destruction in this world. Everything springeth from the earth and everything, when destroyed, mergeth into the Earth. The Earth is the stay and refuge of all creatures, and the Earth is eternal. He that hath the Earth, hath the entire universe with its mobile and immobile population. It is for this that longing for (the possession of the) Earth, kings slay one another.'"

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06004.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06005.htm