Verse 2.227

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

यं मातापितरौ क्लेशं सहेते सम्भवे नृणाम् ।
न तस्य निष्कृतिः शक्या कर्तुं वर्षशतैरपि ॥ २२७ ॥

yaṃ mātāpitarau kleśaṃ sahete sambhave nṛṇām |
na tasya niṣkṛtiḥ śakyā kartuṃ varṣaśatairapi || 227 ||

The trouble that the parents undergo in the birth of children,—for that there can be no compensation even in a hundred years.—(227)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

This is another commendatory statement describing a past event.

‘Trouble’—pain;—‘Parents’–‘father and mother’;—‘of children’—of their offsprings. ‘At the birth’—from conception up to the tenth year of their age. The ‘trouble’ of the mother consists in the bearing of the child in the womb; then again, parturition endangers the very life of women. After the birth of the child, there follows the trouble of rearing him; all this is known by all persons in their own experience. For the father also there is ‘trouble’ beginning with Upanayana and ending in the explanation of the meaning of Vedic texts.

The term ‘birth’ here cannot mean conception; as this act entails no trouble at all; what are meant are all the acts that follow the act of conceiving, all which are troublesome.

‘For that’—trouble—‘there can be no compensation’—payment of the debt; the repayment of the benefits conferred; this cannot be done ‘even in a hundred years’—i.e., even during several lives; what to say of a single life! There may be some compensation for parents if one presents them with innumerable wealth or saves them from a very great calamity.—(227)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 94).

 

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 225-228)

See Comparative notes for Verse 2.225.