from this world, and Vyasa's grief at that occurrence. He
speaks of the fact as one that had been related to him bygone times by
both Narada and Vyasa himself. It is evident from this that the Suka who
recited the Srimad Bhagavat to Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna, could
not possibly be the Suka who was Vyasa's son.

1790. What Bhishma says here is that without faith this subject is
incapable of being understood.

1791. This is a triplet. The last word of the third line, viz.,
Swayambhuvah refers to Krishnah, but it has no special meaning. It is an
adjective used more for the sake of measure than for anything else.

1792. The golden cars referred to here are the fleshly bodies of the two
deities. The body is called the car because like the car, it is propelled
by some force other than the Soul which owns it for a time, the Soul
being inactive. It is regarded as golden because every one becomes
attached to it as something very valuable. The eight wheels are Avidya
and the rest.

1793. i.e., the hands, the feet, the stomach, and the organ of pleasure.
The hands are said to be protected when they are restrained from the
commission of all improper acts; the feet are said to be duly protected
when they are restrained from touching all improper places. The stomach
is said to be protected when one never takes any kind of improper food,
and when one abstains from all evil acts for appeasing one's hunger. And
lastly, one is said to restrain the organ of pleasure when one abstains
from all acts of improper congress.

1794. The word Mushka as ordinarily understood, implies the scrotum or
testes. The commentator Nilakantha supposes that it may stand for the
shoulder-knot. He believes that the phrase implies that the people of
this island had each four arms.

1795. The Sattwata ritual is explained by the Commentator to mean the
Pancharatra ritual. Tachecheshena implies with what remained after
Vishnu's worship was over.

1796. i.e., dedicated his possessions to the service of Narayana, and
held them as the great God's custodian. In other words, he never regarded
his wealth as his own, but was always ready to devote it to all good and
pious purposes.

1797. i.e., the treatise those Rishis composed was the foremost of its
kind in respect of choice and harmony of vocables, of import or sense and
of reasons with which every assertion was fortified.

1798. There are two religions, viz., that of Pravritti, implying act and
ob