13. i.e., they for whom he acts do not take the consequences of his acts.

14.  Bhagena is explained by Nilakantha as swargaisysaryena.

15.  The sense is that as the Ordainer cannot be censured, therefore, that which He has ordained for the Kshatriyas cannot be deserving of censure.

16.  The meaning is that they who perform sacrifice and partake of the sacrificial food after offering it unto gods and guests, acquire such religious merit that the like of it cannot be acquired by other men.  Sacrifice, therefore, is the highest act in life and the most meritorious that man call do.

17.  The iti after vadi is really eti, the absence of sandhi in the proper form is Arsha.  Literally rendered, the line becomes,—­According to the manner in which the person of firm conviction approaches the Soul, is the success that he gets here.  As the Srutis declare, if one firmly regards oneself to be Siva, the success one attains here and hereafter is after the kind of that deity.

18.  The brevity of such passages is the chief obstacle to their clear comprehension.  Fortunately the allusions are very plain.  What is meant is that those who die during the lighted fortnights of the summer solstice attain to solar regions of bliss.  Those that die during the dark fortnights of the winter solstice, attain to lunar regions.  These last have to return after passing their allotted periods of enjoyment and happiness.  While those that are freed from attachments, whatever the time of their Death, go to Stellar regions which are equal to that of Brahma.

19.  Without attaining to the companionship of the gods and Pitris, and without obtaining Brahma, they sink in the scale of being and become worms and vermin.

20.  The sense is that the gods themselves have become so by action.

21.  The first word is compounded of an and astika.

22.  Deva-yana is the Yana or way along which the deities have gone, the strict observance of the Vedic rites.

23.  Renouncer of his own self, because he dries up his very body by denying himself food.

24.  Such a person also is not a true renouncer.  For a Kshatriya, again, such a mode of life would be sinful.

25.  Nilakantha thinks that the object of this verse is to show that even such a life properly appertains to a Brahmana and not to a Kshatriya.  Therefore, if Yudhishthira would, without reigning, live quietly in the kingdom governed by some brother of his, he would then be equally sinning.

26.  Acts done from vanity, i.e., with the bragging consciousness of one being himself the actor and the arranger of everything, Acts done from a spirit of renunciation, i.e., without hope of reaping their fruits.

27.  The threefold aims, i.e., Religion, Pleasure and Profit.

28.  Antarala is thus explained by Nilakantha.

29.  Sariram is contra-distinguished from Vahyam.  The first is explained as appertaining to or encased in Sarira, i.e., the mind.