1592.  Perhaps, this means the pleasures of heaven.

1593. i.e., they who have identified themselves with Brahma.

1594.  Yudhisthira’s question seems to be this.  Is there or is there not consciousness in the emancipate state?  Different scriptures answer this question differently.  If it be said that there is consciousness in that state, then why discard heaven and its pleasures, or the religion of Pravritti or acts which lead to those pleasures?  Where is the necessity then of Sannyasa or the religion of Nivritti or abstention from all acts?  On the supposition of there being consciousness in the emancipate state, the Religion of Pravritti should be taken as superior.  If, on the other hand, the existence of consciousness be denied, that would be an error.  Dnkshataram is ayuktaram.

1595.  Although I make use of the word ‘perceive’ yet remembering that the mind is included among the senses and regarded as the sixth sense, the functions of recollection, representation, etc., are also implied by the word pasyati.  The Burdwan translator gives a ridiculously erroneous version of this verse.

1596.  The commentator explains that the simile of the froth is introduced in consequence of its disappearance with the disappearance of water.  K. P. Singha is incorrect in taking the instance of froth as illustrative of the quickness of the destruction.

1597.  Sarvatra does not mean ‘through every part of the sleeper’s body’ as.  K. P. Singha takes it, but sarvavishaye as the commentator correctly explains it.

1598.  Iha is sapne Anisah is nasti isah or pravartaah yasya.

1599.  For the Soul, in dreams, sees and hears and touches and smells etc., precisely as it does while awake.

1600.  The sense seems to be that a person who becomes emancipate in this life becomes so in Samadhi.  When the state of Samadhi is over, his mind and senses return; and returning they do the bidding of the Supreme, i.e., bring about both happiness and misery, which, of course, are the consequences of the acts of past lives though that happiness and misery are not felt.  In the next verse is said that these men very soon leave their bodies and become freed from rebirth.

1601.  There are two kinds of Emancipation:  one is attainable here, in this body, it is Jivan-mukti; the other is Videha-kaivalya or that which becomes one’s when one is bodiless.  In 98, Jivan-mukti has been spoken of.  In this verse, the observations apply to Videha-kaivalya.

1602.  Vadanti is stuvanti.  Such men hymn its praises by regarding it as Supreme Deity possessed of attributes.  Those attributes, of course, are the result of illusion, for in its real nature there can be no attributes in Brahma.

1603.  Brahma is knowledge without duality i.e., knowledge without the consciousness of knower and known.  The knowledge or cognition of an object, when object is annihilated, assumes the form of that knowledge which is called Brahma.