374.  The commentator illustrates this by the action of a virtuous husband seeking congress with his wedded wife in the proper season.  There is religious merit in the performance of the rites known by the name of Garbhadhana; there is pleasure in the act itself; and lastly, wealth or profit in the form of a son is also acquired.

375.  There are three qualities or attributes that characterise human acts, viz., Goodness, Passion, and Darkness.  Vide the latter sections of the Bhagavadgita.  Such Virtue and Wealth and Pleasure, therefore, are not very high objects of pursuit.  Things possessing the, attribute of Goodness only are worthy of pursuit.

376. i.e., one should seek virtue for only compassing purity of soul; Wealth in order that one may spend it in acts undertaken without desire of fruit; and Pleasure for only supporting the body.

377.  Dharmadinkamanaishthikan, i.e., having Dharma for the first and Karna for the last, hence Virtue, Wealth and Pleasure.

378.  Pisitaudanam is food mixed with pounded meat; a kind of Pilau, or, perhaps, Kabab.

379.  Vagagravidyanam is explained by Nilakantha to mean persons whose learning is at the end of their tongues and not buried in books; hence, persons of sharp memory.

380.  The asker wishes to rob Prahlada of his conduct.

381.  This lake is at a great height on the Himalayas.

382.  The spirits of those two immortal sages are supposed to dwell for ever, in that retreat in the enjoyment of true happiness.

383. i.e., Hope is slender; while things unconnected with Hope are the reverse.

384.  The sense is that such persons should always be distrusted.  Yet there are men who hope for good from them.  Such hope, the sage says, is slenderer than his slender body.

385.  The word maya repeated in verses 14 to 18 is explained by Nilakantha as having the sense of mattah.  The meaning, of course, is very plain.  Yet the Burdwan translator has strangely misunderstood it.  K.P.  Singha, of course, gives an accurate version.

386.  For the king’s disregard of the sage in former days.

387.  The distress, which Yudhishthira felt at the thought of the slaughter in battle.

388. i.e., this is not a subject upon which one can or should discourse before miscellaneous audiences.

389. i.e., by ingenious contrivances a king may succeed in filling his treasury, or his best ingenuity and calculations may fail.

390. i.e., with a pure heart.

391. i.e., when the season of distress is over.

392. i.e., under ordinary situations of circumstances.

393. i.e., he should perform expiations and do good to them whom he has injured, so that these may not remain discontented with him.

394.  He should not seek to rescue the merit of other or of himself, i.e., he should not, at such times, refrain from any act that may injure his own merit or that of others; in other words, he may disregard all considerations about the religious merits of others and of himself His Sole concern at such a time should be to save himself, that is, his life.