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 4.159
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
यद् यत् परवशं कर्म तत् तद् यत्नेन वर्जयेत् ।
यद् यदात्मवशं तु स्यात् तत् तत् सेवेत यत्नतः ॥ १५९ ॥yad yat paravaśaṃ karma tat tad yatnena varjayet |
yad yadātmavaśaṃ tu syāt tat tat seveta yatnataḥ || 159 ||He shall carefully avoid every such act as is dependent upon others; such acts as are dependent upon himself, every one of these he shall eagerly pursue.—(159)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
An act, securing a benefit for others by requesting other (wealthy) persons, is what is spoken of as ‘dependent upon others;’ and this has to be avoided; and not such acts as are dependent upon one’s own conduct; such, e.g., as straightforwardness, and the like; because these are entirely under one’s own control; in fact, it is in view of this that the man accepts payment for services rendered.
This text is not meant to forbid all those acts that are done for the Initiated Sacrificer by the Priests in return for payment, and are, in that sense ‘dependent on others.’ This cannot be the sense, because the Smṛti could not set aside what has been ordained by the Śruti (such as the Sacrificial acts are); specially as room for the application of the Smṛti-rule (contained in the present text) is available in the case of the acts mentioned before.
What is dependent upon oneself,—e .g., the helping of others with small amounts of money, and so forth—should always be done.
In the event of one’s inability to perfom (perform?) one’s obligatory duties, and in the event also of one’s not possessing wealth enough for the maintaining of one’s family, one must have recourse to begging; specially when one has no other means available. But when the man himself possesses some little wealth, he shall remain contented, and shall not crave for more, with a view to performing costlier sacrifices, or making richer presents, and so forth. Such is the sense of the verse.—(159)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 224);—and in Madanapārijāta (p. 14).