xists except as it exists in the
Understanding, then, of course, with the extinction of the Understanding,
all things would come to an end.

606. Brown and other followers of Reid, whether they understood Reid or
not, regarded all the perceptions as only particular modifications of the
mind. They denied the objective existence of the world.

607. The commentator explains this verse thus, although as regards the
second line he stretches it a little. If Nilakantha be right, K.P. Singha
must be wrong. Generally, however, it is the known incapacity of the
ocean to transgress its continents that supplies poets with
illustrations. Here, however, possibly, the rarity of the phenomenon,
viz., the ocean's transgressing its continents, is used to illustrate the
rare fact of the intelligence, succeeding by yoga power, in transcending
the attributes of Rajas, Tamas and Sattwa.

608. on the other hand, directing one's thoughts boldly to it, one should
ascertain its cause and dispel that cause, which, as stated here, is
Passion.

609. The first two words of the second line are those of verse 5. See
I, Manu.

610. Kathanchit is explained by Nilakantha as 'due to great ill-luck.'

611. I do not follow Nilakantha in rendering this verse.

612. The soul is said to be only a witness or spectator and not an actor.
The Rishis understood by the soul the being to whom the mind, the senses,
etc., all belong. Could the idea of the inactive and unsinning Soul have
arisen from observation of the moral principle of Conscience which
discriminates between right and wrong, and acts, therefore, as an
impartial judge, or watches everything like an uninterested spectator?
European moralists generally attribute two other functions to the
Conscience, viz., impelling us to do the right and avoid the wrong, and
approving when right is done and wrong avoided. But these functions may
easily be attributed to some other principle. At any rate, when the
question is one of nomenclature only, the last two functions may be taken
away and the word Soul applied to indicate the Conscience as the faculty
of discrimination only.

613. The qualities here referred to are those of Sattwa (goodness), Rajas
(passion), and Tamas (darkness). What is meant by this verse is that such
a person transcends the qualities instead of the qualities transcending
him and his acts.

614. Nilakantha takes the third line as elliptical and is for supplying
te labhante.

615. I f