1426. The four Sacrificial fires are Treta, Avasathya, Dakshina, and Sahya.
1427. Silpika is one who is not well-skilled, or is ill-skilled, in the arts. It implies a common artisan.
1428. Dhatri is adikartri or Vishnu. Vidhatri is the four-headed. Brahman Sandhatri is he who joins all things into one; the second Vidhatri means the designer of destinies.
1429. The identity of Maheswara with Narayana or Krishna is here preached. In his incarnation of Krishna, Vishnu sported with the children of the cowherds of Vrinda and sportively lowed as a cow. He also protected the kine of Vrinda from floods, poison, etc. Govrisheswara is Nandi, the attendant of Mahadeva.
1430. The word Go in Gomargah is used to signify the senses.
1431. Durvaranah is explained by the commentator as ‘irresistible when coming as Death.’ Durvishah is ‘destroyer of all kinds of poison in thy form of Amrita.’ Durdharshah is incapable of being frightened. Durvishah is incapable of being measured.
1432. Vishagnipah is drinker of poison and fire. Siva is represented as the acceptor of all things that are rejected by others. In this consists his true divinity, for to the Deity nothing in the universe can be unacceptable or worthy of being cast off. The ashes of the funeral pyre are his, the poison produced by the churning of the ocean was his. He saved the universe by swallowing the poison on that occasion.
1433. Tushitadyapah is the correct reading. Thou protectest him who is the adya of the tushita, i.e., thou protectest Brahman himself.
1434. The commentator explains that what is meant by Mahadeva’s staying ‘alone’ is that he is the knower, the known, and knowledge. ‘On the other side of the ocean’ means ‘on the other side of desire and attachment, etc.’ ‘Overwhelming many thousands of persons’ means overwhelming all creatures,’ i.e., transcending them by his energy and knowledge.
1435. Of course, Yogins are spoken of.
1436. The eclipses of both the Moon and the Sun are caused, according to the Pauranic mythology, by Rahu devouring the Moon and the Sun at certain well-known intervals. Rahu is an Asura whose head only is still alive. Vide Adi Parva, On Churning of the Ocean.
1437. Garbhah means embryos or infants in the womb. The deities ere referred to by this word, for they are embryos that have been born in Mahadeva, Patitah has twattah understood after it. Anu means ‘after’ i.e., ‘after Brahman’s creation.’
1438. These Beings are Rudras or portions of the great Rudra.
1439. Tasmaih paramgatah,–param is utkrishtam i.e., Renunciation and other superior practices. Tasmai is ‘for the sake of That,’ i.e., for Iswarah.
1440. Hence in this, the present Kalpa too, I am obliged to do the same, for all Kalpas must be similar in respect of the events that transpire in them.
1441. Matri-pakshe seems to be a misreading for bhartripakshe.
1442. By gunah which I have rendered ‘virtues,’ is, of course, intended all that constitute the body, including mind and understanding, all, in fact, that become the accompaniments of the Soul.
1443. Karma-buddhi is to be taken as one. It means the consciousness or apprehension of functions. Each sense or organ instinctively knows what its object is and apprehends that object immediately. This apprehension of its own functions, which every sense possesses, is here designated as Karma-buddhi. Mana-shashththani here simply means ‘mind completing the tale of six.’ It has no reference to the five senses having the mind for the sixth, for the senses have already, been named in the previous verses.
1444. Acts here means the acts of past lives, or the desire dwelling in an incipient form, due to the acts of past lives. The commentator explains that the cha in the second line means the five attributes indicated in the first line.
1445. The word Buddhya in the first line is taken by the commentator as an instrumental and not as a genitive. Hence he takes it that Kalpitani is understood after it.
1446. i.e., occupies them one after another.
1447. Murti is a misreading for apurti or discontentedness. The Burdwan translator retains murti in his Bengali version. It is not clear which reading K.P. Singha adopts. The Bengali substitute he gives is murchccha or stupefaction.
1448. i.e., there are no materials of which it is constituted. Hence Sattwa or Buddhi has no asrayah or upadana.
1449. What the speaker inculcates in verses 41 and 42 is this: some are of opinion that with the apparent destruction of the body, the attributes that make up the body do not cease to exist. It is true that they cease to become apprehensible by the senses; but then, though removed from the ken of the senses, their existence may be affirmed by inference. The argument is that, if destroyed, their reappearance would be impossible. The reappearance, however, is certain. (For rebirth is a doctrine that is believed to be a solemn truth requiring no argument to prove it). Hence, the attributes, when apparently destroyed, do continue to exist. They are regarded as then inhering in the linga or subtile body. The counter opinion is that, when destroyed, they are destroyed for ever. The latter opinion is condemned by the speaker.
1450. In the second line the word is Gadhamavidwansah, i.e., ‘ignorant of its bottom or depth.’ K.P. Singha gives the meaning correctly, without translating the verse literally, The Burdwan translator makes nonsense of it. Both however, wrongly take agadha as the final word in yathagadha, forgetting that agadham is a masculine adjective incapable of qualifying nadim which is feminine. Ayam is Jiva. The last clause is to be taken as buddhiyogam anuprachyuta ayam tatha.
1451. This is not a difficult verse, yet both the vernacular translators have misunderstood it. What is said in the first line is this: yat vahudosham karoti, yat (cha) purakritam, ekatah cha dushyati. Both the finite verbs have jnanin (the man of knowledge) for their nominative understood. Dushyati means nasyati or destroys. The meaning then is that the man of Knowledge destroys his sinful acts of both this and past lives. The commentator cites the well-known simile of the lotus leaf not being drenched or soaked with water even when dipped in water. Now, this is that unseen fruit of Knowledge. In the second line, the visible fruits are indicated. The man of Knowledge refrains from censuring the wicked acts of others and from perpetrating any wicked act himself. Yat cha dushyati means yat parakritam anishtam dushyati or nindati, yat karoti means yat swayam ragadi-doshat karoti; tadubhayam apriyam (sa) na karoti, the reason being dwaitadarsana-bhavah. Such a man truly regards the universe as identifiable with himself.
1452. i.e., in even thy direst distress thou dependest on thyself. To cross the fearful river of life without a raft and with the aid of only one’s bare arms implies great self-dependence.
1453. That which did not exist and will not exist, exists not at the present moment. Everything, therefore, which is of the nature of asat is non-existent. Our sorrows are connected with the asat. Knowing this, I have cast off all sorrows.
1454. I have understood that acts are for sorrow; that the fruits also of acts are for sorrow in spite of the apparent character of some; and that the fruits of acts are varied, sometimes other fruits appearing than those expected. Hence, I do not indulge in sorrow, for I avoid acts and do not grieve for not obtaining the fruits of acts or for the accession of fruits other than those apparently agreeable.
