Verse 3.189

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

निमन्त्रितान् हि पितर उपतिष्ठन्ति तान् द्विजान् ।
वायुवत्चानुगच्छन्ति तथाऽसीनानुपासते ॥ १८९ ॥

nimantritān hi pitara upatiṣṭhanti tān dvijān |
vāyuvatcānugacchanti tathā'sīnānupāsate || 189 ||

The Pitṛs attend upon those invited Brāhmaṇas; like the wind, they follow them and sit down when they are seated.—(189)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The present verse supplies a recommendation in support of the injunction that the invited person should remain self-controlled.

Because ‘the Pitṛs,’—in their invisible forms —‘attend upon’—enter into the body of—‘the invited Brāhmaṇas;’ just in the same manner in which people are obsessed by evil spirits.

‘Like the wind they follow him;’—when a man moves along, the ‘wind’—in the form of his breath—follows him; and it does not leave him while he is moving; and the Pitṛs also are in the form of air.

‘So when they ’—the Brāhmaṇas—‘are seated,’ “they sit down;’ i.e., they move when the Brāhmaṇas move and sit down when they are seated. The meaning is that the invited Brāhmaṇas take the form of the Pitṛs; hence those invited shall not be unrestrained in their behaviour.—(189)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Hemādri (Śrāddha, p. 1005), which adds that the Fathers ‘upatiṣṭhanti,’ enter the bodies of the invited Brāhmaṇas; i. e., the Brāhmaṇas represent the Fathers; for this reason they should keep pure.