is place.

436. Mahaprasthana is literally an unreturning departure. When a person
leaves home for wandering through the world till death puts a stop to his
wanderings, he is said to go on Mahaprasthana.

437. The theory is that all distresses arise originally from mental error
which clouds the understanding. Vide Bhagavadgita.

438. Making gifts, etc.

439. Here amum (the accusative of adas) evidently means 'that' and not
'this.' I think the reference, therefore, is to heaven and not to this
world.

440. These are Mleccha tribes of impure behaviour.

441. i.e., for my instructions.

442. So great was the repugnance felt for the slayer of a Brahmana that
to even talk with him was regarded a sin. To instruct such a man in the
truths of the Vedas and of morality was to desecrate religion itself.

443. The version of 5 is offered tentatively. That a person possessed of
affluence should become charitable is not wonderful. An ascetic, again,
is very unwilling to exercise his power. (Witness Agastya's unwillingness
to create wealth for gratifying his spouse.) What is meant by these two
persons not living at a distance from each other is that the same cause
which makes an affluent person charitable operates to make an ascetic
careful of the kind of wealth he has.

444. That which is asamikshitam is samagram karpanyam.

445. Nilakantha explains that vala here means patience (strength to bear)
and ojas (energy) means restraints of the senses.

446. Both the vernacular translators have rendered the second line of
verse 25 wrongly. They seem to think that a person by setting out for any
of the sacred waters from a distance of a hundred yojanas becomes
cleansed. If this meaning be accepted then no man who lives within a
hundred yojanas of any of them has any chance of being cleansed. The
sense, of course, is that such is the efficacy of these tirthas that a
man becomes cleansed by approaching even to a spot within a hundred
yojanas of their several sites.

447. These mantras form a part of the morning, noon and evening prayer of
every Brahmana. Aghamarshana was a Vedic Rishi of great sanctity.

448. In the first line of 26 the correct reading is Kutah not Kritah as
adopted by the Burdwan translators.

449. i.e., beasts and birds. The vernacular translators wrongly render
it--'Behold the affection that is cherished by those that are good
towards even the beasts and birds!'

450. The correct reading is Murtina (as i