[73] The word used in the question is _dik_, literally,
direction. Obviously, of course, it means in this connection
way. Yudhishthira answers that the way which one is to tread
along is that of the good.
[74] The _Srutis_ actually speak of space as water. These are
questions to test Yudhishthira's knowledge of the Vedic
cosmogony.
[75] The _Srutis_ speak of the cow as the only food, in the
following sense. The cow gives milk. The milk gives butter. The
butter is used in Homa. The Homa is the cause of the clouds. The
clouds give rain. The rain makes the seed to sprout forth and
produce food. Nilakantha endeavours to explain this in a
spiritual sense. There is however, no need of such explanation
here.
[76] What Yudhishthira means to say is that there is no special
time for a Sraddha. It is to be performed whenever a good and
able priest may be secured.
SECTION CCCXII
Vaisampayana continued,--"Then agreeable to the words of the Yaksha the
Pandavas rose up; and in a moment their hunger and thirst left them.
Thereupon Yudhishthira said, 'I ask thee that art incapable of being
vanquished and that standest on one leg in the tank, what god art thou,
for I cannot take thee for a Yaksha! Art thou the foremost of the Vasus,
or of the Rudras, or of the chief of the Maruts? Or art thou the lord
himself of the celestials, wielder of the thunder-bolt! Each of these my
brothers is capable of fighting as hundred thousand warriors, and I see
not the warrior that can slay them all! I see also that their senses
have refreshed, as if they have sweetly awaked from slumber.
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