^236:2 A blissful state in the Brahma-world, which, however, is not yet perfect freedom, but may lead on to it. Thus it is said in the Sivadharmottara:

Dhyanad aisvaryam, atulam aisvaryat sukham uttamam,
Gnanena tat parityagya videho muktim apnuyat.

^236:3 This alone-ness, kevalatvam, is produced by the knowledge that the individual self is one with the divine self, and that both the individual and the divine self are only phenomenal forms of the true Self, the Brahman.

^236:4 Bhokta, possibly for bhoktra, unless it is a Khandasa form. It was quoted before, Bibl. Ind. p. 292, l. 5. The enjoyer is the purusha, the individual soul, the subject; the enjoyed is prakriti, nature, the object; and the ruler is the Isvara, that is, Brahman, as god. I take brahmam etat in the same sense here as in verse 9.

^236:5 This metaphor, like most philosophical metaphors in Sanskrit, is rather obscure at first sight, but very exact when once understood. Fire, as produced by a fire drill, is compared to the Self. It is not seen at first, yet it must be there all the time; its linga or subtle body cannot have been destroyed, because as soon as the stick, the indhana, is drilled in the under-wood, the yoni, the fire becomes visible. In the same way the Self, though invisible during a state of ignorance, is there all the time, and is perceived when the body has been drilled by the Pranava, that is, after, by a constant repetition of the sacred syllable Om, the body has been subdued, and the ecstatic vision of the Self has been achieved.

Indhana, the stick used for drilling, and yoni, the under-wood, in which the stick is drilled, are the two aranis, the fire-sticks used for kindling fire. See Tylor, Anthropology, p. 260.

^237:1 Cf. Dhyanavindupan. verse 20; Brahmopanishad, p. 256.

^237:2 Srotas, a stream, seems to mean here the dry bed of a stream, which, if dug into, will yield water.

^237:3 The construction is correct, if we remember that he who is seized is the same as he who looks for the hidden Self. But the metre would be much improved if we accepted the reading of the Brahmopanishad, evam atma atmani grihyate 'sau, which is confirmed by B. The last line would be improved by reading, satyenainam ye 'nupasyanti dhirah.