568.  The felicity that is obtained in heaven is not everlasting, being limited in point of duration by the degree or measure of merit that is achieved here.

569.  The Pauranic theory of both the solar and the lunar eclipse is that the Sun and the Moon are sought to be devoured by the Daitya, Rahu.

570.  The sense seems to be that Vedas declare those fruits in order that men may strive for them when they lead to happiness.

571.  Nearly the whole of this section is prose.

572.  It is difficult to understand in what senses the word Dharma is used in the three successive questions here.

573.  In the first line the correct reading is Brahmana and not Brahmarshi.  The answer attributed to Bhrigu settles this.

574.  A pupil should never solicit his preceptor for instruction.  He should attend only when the preceptor calls him.  To this day, the rule is rigidly observed in all Tols throughout India.  It should be added to the credit of those engaged in teaching that they very seldom neglect their pupils.  The story is authentic of the grandfather of the great Baneswar Vidyalankar of Nuddea, himself as great a professor as Baneswar, of continuing to teach his pupils in the outer apartments even after receiving intelligence of his son’s death within the inner apartments of the family dwelling.  The fact is, he was utterly absorbed in his work, that when his good lady, moved by his apparent heartlessness, came out to tax him he answered her, in thorough absence of mind, saying, ’Well, do not be disturbed.  If I do not weep for my son, I will do so for that grandchild in your arms.’  The pupils at last recalled him to the realities of the hour.

575. i.e., by picking up fallen grains from the field after the crop has been cut away and removed by the owner.

576.  Upaskara means renunciation.

577.  It is generally said that by procreating offspring, one gratifies the Pitris or pays off the debt one owes to one’s deceased ancestors.  Here Bhrigu says that by that act one gratifies the Creator.  The idea is the same that forms the root of the command laid on the Jews,—­Go and multiply.

578.  The end of these attributes is Moksha or Emancipation.

579.  Sishta is explained by Nilakantha as one who has been properly instructed by wise Preceptors.

580.  Niyama is explained by the commentator as a rite; upayoga as a vow about food; charyya as an act like visiting sacred waters; vihita is vidhana.

581.  The Hindus had no poor laws.  The injunctions of their scriptures have always sufficed to maintain the poor, particularly their religious mendicants.  The mendicants themselves are restrained from disturbing the householders often.  None again save the well-to-do were to be visited by the mendicants, so that men of scanty means might not be compelled to support the recluses.

582.  The words used by Bharadwaja in the question are capable of being construed as an enquiry after the next world.  Bhrigu also, in his answer, uses the word Paro lokah.  The reference to Himavat, therefore, is explained by the commentator as metaphorical.  The whole answer of Bhrigu, however, leaves little room for doubt that the sage speaks of a region on earth and not in the invisible world after death.