11. The ascetic properties are Anima, Laghima, etc.
12. The bow of Vishnu, as that of Siva is called Pinaka.
13. The words of the text are Adhana, Pashubandha, Ishti Mantra, Yajana and Tapa-kriya.
14. Dhritarashtra being blind is described as Pragnachakshu, i.e. having knowledge for his eye. It may also mean. “Of the prophetic eye.”
15. The great preceptor of the Asuras, viz., Sukra, possessing the highest intelligence as evidenced by his various works on all manner of subjects particularly, the Sukra-niti.
16. Also called Vadarika, a hermitage on the Himalaya near the sources of the Ganges.
17. Nilakantha explains kshetra as including Mahabhuta, consciousness, intellect, the unmanifest (primordial elements), the ten senses, the five objects of the senses, viz., earth, water, &c., desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the combinations of elements, and chaitanya.
18. Hari here means the developed seed that is to expand into the vast whole of the universe.
19. This wheel is the wheel of Time–i.e., measured according to the solar, lunar and astral revolutions. The importance of Ashtavakra’s reply is this: May the meritorious deeds performed at proper times, during the revolution of this wheel of Time protect thee.
20. Thunder and lightning or misery and death.
21. Cloud or the mind.
22. The male being that is ever conscious.
23. The mundane egg.
24. The soul that has renounced connection with the body.
25. The heart of a Yogi.
26. Ashtavakra comes to Janaka’s sacrifice with the object of proving the unity of the Supreme Being. Vandin avails himself of various system of Philosophy to combat his opponent. He begins with the Buddhistic system. The form of the dialogue is unique in literature being that of enigmas and the latent meaning is in a queer way hid under the appearance of puerile and heterogeneous combinations of things.
Vandin opens the controversy by saying that as the number of each of these is one, so one only intellect is the lord, leader and guide of the senses.
27. There is a Vedic revelation that two birds live together on a tree as friends–one of these eats the fruits and the other looks at the former. From this it is manifest that two are the lords, leaders, and guides of the senses. That there is a second faculty besides the intellect is also proved by the fact that in sleep when the intellect is inactive that faculty continues in action, for if it were not so we could not remember having slept, nor connect the state after awaking with that preceding sleep. Accordingly by citing the number two Ashtavakra assets that besides intellect there is another faculty–consciousness that these two are jointly the lords, leaders and guides of the senses and that they act together as Indra and Agni, etc.
28. By citing the number three Vandin means to say that as it is Acts that produce the three kinds of born beings, etc., so Acts are supreme and that everything else be it intellect alone, or intellect and consciousness together is subservient to Acts.
29. Ashtavakra here advances the thesis that even if Acts be supreme still when the (fourth) or Supreme Being becomes manifest to the soul, it stands in no further needs to Acts.
30. By bringing in the quinquennial series, Vandin wishes to assert that the five senses are competent to cognise their respective objects and that besides these senses and their objects there is neither any other sense to perceive nor any other object of perception. He also cites the authority of the Veda according to which the Apsaras (or consciousness) have five “locks” on their hands–i.e., five objects of perception.
31. Besides the five senses Ashtavakra contends for an additional sense namely the Mind and accordingly cites the number six.
32. Vandin admits the existence of the six senses but says that the soul experiences happiness and misery through those as well as through the intellect.
33. Ashtavakra advances an eighth element, namely, the knowledge of the ego.
34. Each of the three qualities (existence, foulness and ignorance) of prakriti (the passive or material cause of the world) mixing with each of the three corresponding qualities of pradhana (the active or spiritual cause of the world) in various proportions produces the mundane order of things. Thus is proved the eternity of prakriti or nature and is also established the doctrine of duality.
35. Prakriti does not really create. It is the Supreme Being who through the medium of illusion in contract with the ten organs (viz., the five locomotive organs and the five organs of sense) makes manifest the system of things. Prakriti therefore has no real existence–her existence is only apparent in the real existence of the soul.
