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 4.160
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
सर्वं परवशं दुःखं सर्वमात्मवशं सुखम् ।
एतद् विद्यात् समासेन लक्षणं सुखदुःखयोः ॥ १६० ॥sarvaṃ paravaśaṃ duḥkhaṃ sarvamātmavaśaṃ sukham |
etad vidyāt samāsena lakṣaṇaṃ sukhaduḥkhayoḥ || 160 ||All that is dependent on others is painful; all that is dependent on oneself is pleasing; he shall know this to be, in short, the definition of pleasure and pain.—(160)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This verse deprecates begging.
‘All that is dependent on others is painful;’—to say nothing of attending at his gates, following in his wake, and wandering about here and there (all which is involved in the act of begging). It has been said that—‘the very idea of begging, the heart cannot bear,—it is doubtless the greatest illusion; it is not a creation of the self-born Creator.’
‘In short’—briefly. Pain is briefly defined as ‘begging,’ and Pleasure as ‘absence of want’—(‘60)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Madanapārijāta (p. 14);—and in Aparārka (p. 224).