Manusmriti with the Commentary of Medhatithi
by Ganganatha Jha | 1920 | 1,381,940 words | ISBN-10: 8120811550 | ISBN-13: 9788120811553
This is the English translation of the Manusmriti, which is a collection of Sanskrit verses dealing with ‘Dharma’, a collective name for human purpose, their duties and the law. Various topics will be dealt with, but this volume of the series includes 12 discourses (adhyaya). The commentary on this text by Medhatithi elaborately explains various t...
Verse 1.52
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
यदा स देवो जागर्ति तदेवं चेष्टते जगत् ।
यदा स्वपिति शान्तात्मा तदा सर्वं निमीलति ॥ ५२ ॥yadā sa devo jāgarti tadevaṃ ceṣṭate jagat |
yadā svapiti śāntātmā tadā sarvaṃ nimīlati || 52 ||When that divine being is awake, then this world is active; when he slumbers, with his mind in calm repose, then all vanishes.—(52)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘When that Divine Being is awake—i. e., when he wills, that ‘this world may come into being and may continue to exist for such a time,’—‘then this world is active’; that is, it becomes accompanied by such internal activities as mental, verbal and material, and such external activities as inspiration, respiration, eating, walking, cultivation, sacrifice and so forth.
‘When he slumbers’—when his will desists from the creation and maintaining of the world,—‘then all vanishes,’ undergoes absorption.
‘Waking’ and ‘sleeping’ here stand respectively for the prevalence and cessation of his will.
‘With his mind in calm repose’—means that he has withdrawn from his state of diversity.—(52)