5.  The constellation of the Great Bear.

6.  The Pole Star.

7.  Matanga was begotten upon a Brahmana woman by a Sudra father.

8.  Charu is properly an oblation or rice, barley, and pulse, boiled with butter and milk, for presentation to the gods in a sacrifice or ordinary worship.

9.  The meaning seems to be that if Destiny be unfavourable, there need not be much fear with respect to this world.  But if one be wanting in Exertion, great must his fear be with respect to the next world, for happiness can never be obtained in the next world unless one acts righteously while here.

10.  The commentator explains that hitam tad vada are understood in the last line.

11.  The commentator explains that the allusion here is to the adage that swans in drinking milk mixed with water always drink the milk leaving out the water.  Learned Brahmanas are like swans for in discoursing upon even the topics of the world they select what is good and instructive but reject what is evil and sinful, or, as the Commentator puts it, they know the difference between what is soul and what is not soul.

12.  Vrijinam is explained by the commentator as ’Sankatam, phalasa iti yavat’ etc.

13. i.e., one should keep oneself aloof from both Energy and Penances, for both these can consume, if troubled or interfered with.  By ‘Energy’ is meant both physical and mental force.  It belongs to the Kshatriya as Penances belong to the Brahmana.

14.  The commentator thinks that by Krishna, the Island-born Krishna or Vyasa is meant.

15.  The sense is that such a Brahmana, if his expectation be not gratified, is competent to consume the person that has falsely raised that expectation.

16.  Akshyayyam is fire, because it is fire that eats the food offered to the Pitris and makes it inexhaustible.

17.  The sense is that as a physician cures diverse ailments of the body, after the same manner, a gratified Brahmana cures diverse faults of the kingdom in which he continues to live honoured and gratified by the king.

18.  Santirishta is the rishti or benefits caused by santi.  The commentator cites Medini for explaining that ‘rishti’ is ‘kshema’.

19.  Tapasye is Tapah karishye.  There being no indirect narration in Sanskrit, such forms cannot be helped.  A Kulapati is an ascetic that owns ten thousand ascetics for his disciples, Kanwa, the foster-father of Sakuntala, was a Kulapati.

20. i.e. renouncing service which is the duty ordained for person of his order, he desired to betake himself to universal Renunciation or Sanyasa, without, however, the lingam or marks of that vow.

21.  Sankalpa-niyamopetah means Sankalpasya nigraha, of chittavritti nirodha; tena upetah.

22.  No Brahmana, the scriptures declare, should ever assist a Sudra in the performance of his religious or Pitri rites.  Those Brahmanas that violate this injunction fall away from their superior position.  They are condemned as Sudra-yajins.  Here the Rishi, by only giving directions to the Sudra as to how the Pitri rites were to be performed, became a Sudra-yajin.  There are many families to this day whose status has been lowered in consequence of such or similar acts of indiscretion on the part of their ancestors.