ay also mean, set to their usual tasks by the
influence of past acts. Nature here means, of course the grand laws to
which human existence is subject, viz., the law of birth, of death, of
disease and decrepitude etc.

1780. Uparyupari implies gradual superiority. If one becomes wealthy, one
desires to be a councillor; if a councillor, one wishes to be prime
minister; and so on. The sense of the verse is that man's desire to rise
is insatiable.

1781. The reading I prefer is asathah and not sathah. If the latter
reading be kept, it would mean of both descriptions are seen to pay court
to the wicked.

1782. Avavandhah is low attachments, implying those that appertain to the
body. In fact, the acquisition of the body itself is such an attachment.
What is said here is that Jiva who has become enlightened becomes freed
from the obligation of rebirth or contact with body once more.

1783. The mass of effulgence constituting the Sun is nothing else than
Brahma. Brahma is pure effulgence. Savitri-mandala-madhyavartir-Narayanah
does not mean a deity with a physical form in the midst of the solar
effulgence but incorporeal and universal Brahma. That effulgence is
adored in the Gayatri.

1784. The commentator takes Shomah to mean Shomagath Jivah. He does not
explain the rest of the verse. The grammatical construction presents no
difficulty. If Shomah be taken in the sense in which the Commentator
explains it, the meaning would be this. He who enters the solar
effulgence has not to undergo any change, unlike Shomah and the deities
who have to undergo changes, for they fall down upon the exhaustion of
their merit and re-ascend when they once more acquire merit. Both the
vernacular translators have made a mess of the verse. The fact is, there
are two paths, archiradi-margah and dhumadi-margah. They who go by the
former, reach Brahma and have never to return. While they who go by the
latter way, enjoy felicity for some time and then come back.

1785. Here, the words Sun and Moon are indicative of the two different
paths mentioned in the note immediately before.

1786. What Suka says here is that he would attain to universal Brahma and
thus identify himself with all things.

1787. Jahasa hasam is an instance in Sanskrit of the cognate government
of neuter verbs.

1788. The Rishis knew that the height of the atmosphere is not
interminable.

1789. In this Section, Bhishma recites to Yudhishthira the fact of Suka's
departure