The fact is, he was utterly absorbed in his work,
that when his good lady, moved by his apparent heartlessness, came out to
tax him he answered her, in thorough absence of mind, saying, 'Well, do
not be disturbed. If I do not weep for my son, I will do so for that
grandchild in your arms.' The pupils at last recalled him to the
realities of the hour.
575. i.e., by picking up fallen grains from the field after the crop has
been cut away and removed by the owner.
576. Upaskara means renunciation.
577. It is generally said that by procreating offspring, one gratifies
the Pitris or pays off the debt one owes to one's deceased ancestors.
Here Bhrigu says that by that act one gratifies the Creator. The idea is
the same that forms the root of the command laid on the Jews,--Go and
multiply.
578. The end of these attributes is Moksha or Emancipation.
579. Sishta is explained by Nilakantha as one who has been properly
instructed by wise Preceptors.
580. Niyama is explained by the commentator as a rite; upayoga as a vow
about food; charyya as an act like visiting sacred waters; vihita is
vidhana.
581. The Hindus had no poor laws. The injunctions of their scriptures
have always sufficed to maintain the poor, particularly their religious
mendicants. The mendicants themselves are restrained from disturbing the
householders often. None again save the well-to-do were to be visited by
the mendicants, so that men of scanty means might not be compelled to
support the recluses.
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