893.  Verses 16 and 17 are exceedingly difficult.  The commentator has shown great learning in expounding them.  Unfortunately, the subject is a yoga mystery, and the explanation and illustrations of the commentator refer to things beyond the reach of ordinary experience and intelligence.  The words Chandramas, Kala, and Valam, and Akasa also and Ghosa (in verse 17), are technical terms of yoga.  I referred the passage to more than one learned Pundit.  My referees are of opinion that a yoga mystery is here expounded, which yogins alone can understand.  European scholars will probably smile at the statement that there is a hidden meaning in these words.  Most readers will take the verses for nonsense.  Reflection, however, has convinced me that yoga is not nonsense.  One who has not studied the elements of Geometry or Algebra, cannot, however intelligent, hope to understand at once a Proposition of the Principia or the theorem of De Moivre.  Failing to give the actual sense, I have contented myself with giving a verbal translation.

894.  Jatakarma is the ceremony that is performed with certain Vedic mantras immediately after a child’s birth.  There are many such ceremonies to be performed till Samavartana or return from the preceptor’s home after completion of the period of pupilage.  These ceremonies are necessarily such that they must be performed by the child’s father or somebody else whom the latter might call in.

895.  In this country, no fees are charged for tuition.  The pupil, however, after completing his studies, may give his preceptor a final fee which is determined by the choice of the preceptor himself and which varies according to the means of the pupil leaving the preceptor’s home for his own.

896.  By begetting children, one pays off one’s debt to ancestors; by studying the Vedas, one pays off one’s debt to the Rishis; and by performing sacrifices one pays off one’s debt to the deities.

897.  It is a deadly sin to take anything from the father-in-law or other relatives (by marriage) of a daughter.  What is got from such sources is, to this day, spent freely.  Those persons that sell their daughters in marriage are universally reckoned as fallen.

898.  The fact is, the duty of the householder obliges him to worship the deities and the Pitris, and to become hospitable to the others named.  The Brahmana, however, has no ostensible means for discharging this duty.  The only means open to him is acceptance of gifts.  In this case, acceptance, therefore, for such ends is not productive of demerit.

899.  Kritadapi is explained by the commentator as pakvannadapi.

900.  The sense is that there is no gift which is too valuable for such persons.

901.  The first and the fourth verses are triplets in the Bengal texts.

902.  These are, of course, religious acts.