Reading section 39

[176] Malice.

[177] Unrighteousness.

[178] Falsehood

[179] Wickedness.

[180] Fear.

[181] Hell.

[182] Illusion.

[183] Pain.

[184] Death.

[185] Tapa—lit. heat—here means the three kinds of pain,—natural, supernatural and that coming from spirits. The word tapa for pain refers to the physical phenomenon accompanying all pain—namely, heat in the part affected. And physical pain in any part of the body is invariably found to be accompanied with heat at that locality.—T

[186] Misery.

[187] Disease.

[188] Decrepitude.

[189] Grief.

[190] Thirst.

[191] Anger.

[192] The reader will readily perceive that all this is allegorical, although the allegory is by no means on all fours. The entire fabric, it may truly be said, of Hinduism is upreared upon an allegorical foundation; but the allegory having been missed, it has degenerated itself into a system of degrading superstition.—T.

[193] Clarified butter as offered in oblations to fire with cakes of ground barley meal that have been well steeped in it.—T.

[194] The room opposite to that which contains the materials for an oblation and in which the family and friends of the sacrifice assemble.—T.

[195] An oblong with quadrangular sides.

[196] A sacrificial stake.

[197] The hymns of the Sama Veda.

[198] A division of time.

[199] Wife of Yama.

[200] Time taken up by the twinkling of an eye.

[201] A kind of celestial tree.

[202] Ten thousand.

[203] A designation of Om, for which see before.

[204] Lit.—celestial saints—an order of saints.

[205] The preceptor of the deities.

[206] Lit three-eyed—a name of Siva.

[207] Suns keeping company with the Sun proper, who presides over them.

[208] The bow, or the Trident of Siva.

[209] The Wind-god.

[210] Himansu—name of the Moon.

[211] The Esculapius of the Hindus.

[212] A vessel so named.

[213] A hymn of the Rig Veda.

[214] A scimitar—a sacrificial knife.

[215] Lit.—the performer of an hundred sacrifices. It is a name of Indra.

[216] Another name of Vishnu.

[217] The genius of ill-luck,

[218] According to the commentator this distinction is derived from the Vedas. The first class or Agnishwattas consists of those householders who when alive, did not offer burnt sacrifices; the second of those who presented oblations with fire.

[219] The other wife of the king.

[220] Contact with the universe—meaning who is not restricted by its boundaries.

[221] The material universe.

[222] Brahmā the creator.

[223] Manu.

[224] Receiving oblations Indra pours rains by which harvest grows and upon which the world lives.—T.

[225] Another text reads Vivardhita, meaning—And they were thenceforth piled upon one another.

[226] A class of deities to whom daily offerings are to be made.

[227] Are the personifications of Vedic rites and prayers.

[228] The milky way.

[229] The three kinds of affliction referred to in the Sankhya Philosophy, internal, bodily or mental affliction. External, such as injuries received from men or animals. Superhuman—such as miseries inflicted by gods, or through some supernatural agency.

[230] There is another reading which has been translated by Wilson. "The mighty-armed and Valiant Taraka".

[231] i.e. Those who obtain this highest knowledge regarding the condition of Brahma are freed from future births i.e. they are not required any more to go through the cycle of births.

[232] This lake is still to be seen near Ajmere.

[233] Markandeya and Vayu Puranas have Kamya as the name of the daughter of Kardama. Wilson has adopted this name.

[234] He is the great serpent upon which Vishnu rests during the intervals of divine creations. And the world is supported on his thousand heads.

[235] There is another reading Vastu Vastatmakan kuta: which when translated stands as "Whence they can be considered as essentially the same with the either".