FOOTNOTES
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Ganguli, Kisari Mohan
1 (return) [ This seems to be the obvious. There is a different reading however. For Drie—cyate-seen, some texts have Sasyate—applauded. Nilakantha imagines that the meaning is “As distribution (of food) amongst the various classes of beings like the gods, the Pitris, &c., is applauded &c., &c”.]
2 (return) [ A form of sacrifice which consists in pouring oblations of clarified butter with prayers into a blazing fire. It is obligatory on Brahmanas and Kshatriyas, except those that accept certain vows of great austerity.]
3 (return) [ The Viswedeva sacrifice is the offer of food to all creatures of the earth (by scattering a portion).]
4 (return) [ A gift. It may be of various kinds. The fees paid to Brahmanas assisting at sacrifices and religious rites, such as offering oblations to the dead, are Dakshinas, as also gifts to Brahmanas on other occasions particularly when they are fed, it bring to this day the custom never to feed a Brahmana without paying him a pecuniary fee. There can be no sacrifice, no religious rite, without Dakshina.]
5 (return) [ Reference to self, i.e. without the motive of bettering one’s own self, or without any motive at all. (This contains the germ of the doctrine preached more elaborately in the Bhagavad gita).]
6 (return) [ This Yoga consists, in their case, of a combination of attributes by negation of the contrary ones, i.e. by renunciation of motives in all they do.]
7 (return) [ A form of Yoga that is said to consist in the mingling of some of the air supposed to exist in every animal body. These airs are five: Prana, Apana, Samana, Udana, and Vyana.]
8 (return) [ The 8 Vasus, the 11 Rudras, the 12 Adityas, Prajapati, and Vashatkara.]
9 (return) [ An order of celestials.]
10 (return) [ Celestial flowers of much fragrance.]
11 (return) [ The ascetic properties are Anima, Laghima, etc.]
12 (return) [ The bow of Vishnu, as that of Siva is called Pinaka.]
13 (return) [ The words of the text are Adhana, Pashubandha, Ishti Mantra, Yajana and Tapa-kriya.]
14 (return) [ Dhritarashtra being blind is described as Pragnachakshu, i.e. having knowledge for his eye. It may also mean. “Of the prophetic eye.”]
15 (return) [ 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 (return) [ Also called Vadarika, a hermitage on the Himalaya near the sources of the Ganges.]
17 (return) [ 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 (return) [ Hari here means the developed seed that is to expand into the vast whole of the universe.]
19 (return) [ 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 (return) [ Thunder and lightning or misery and death.]
21 (return) [ Cloud or the mind.]
22 (return) [ The male being that is ever conscious.]
23 (return) [ The mundane egg.]
24 (return) [ The soul that has renounced connection with the body.]
25 (return) [ The heart of a Yogi.]
26 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ Besides the five senses Ashtavakra contends for an additional sense namely the Mind and accordingly cites the number six.]
32 (return) [ 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 (return) [ Ashtavakra advances an eighth element, namely, the knowledge of the ego.]
34 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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.]
36 (return) [ Yupas (stakes) mean here, feelings, etc, which keep men bound to the world. Rudras are those who makes others cry. Vandin means to say that the soul is not essential free from the fetters of happiness and misery arising from the eleven objects of perception. In this world all men are subject to happiness and misery. We also hear that there are Rudras in heaven.]
37 (return) [ The supreme soul unaffected by happiness and misery really exists—but His existence is not susceptible of being proved—nor can the ignorant ever perceive Him. Men attain that condition through these twelve, viz., virtue, true, self-restraint, penances, good-will, modesty, forgiveness, exemption from envy, sacrifice, charity, concentration and control over the senses.]
38 (return) [ According to some, endeavours to attain emancipation can be successful not in this world but in the world of Brahma. Others say that to that end a special yoga is necessary. By bringing forward the objects numbering thirteen. Vandin advances the opinion that, virtue, etc., are not sufficient for purposes of emancipation but that suitable time and place are also essential.]
39 (return) [ Ashtavakra concludes by citing the same number thirteen. The soul which is essentially unaffected, becomes subject to happiness and misery through, the thirteen, viz., the ten organs of locomotion and sense, and intellect mind and egoism. But Atichhanadas, i.e., those that have surmounted ignorance, namely, the twelve, virtue, etc. destroy those thirteen and that is emancipation.]
40 (return) [ Su means excellent, and uta, sacrifice. The compound accordingly means,—performer of excellent sacrifice.]