Verse 11.227 [Confession and Repentance]

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

ख्यापनेनानुतापेन तपसाऽध्ययनेन च ।
पापकृत्मुच्यते पापात् तथा दानेन चापदि ॥ २२७ ॥

khyāpanenānutāpena tapasā'dhyayanena ca |
pāpakṛtmucyate pāpāt tathā dānena cāpadi || 227 ||

By confession, by repentance, by austerity and by study is the sinner freed from sin; as also by gifts in cases of difficulty.—(227)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

After the Brāhmaṇas have been apprized of it, the offender shall make his guilt known to others also; this would be ‘confession.’

‘Repentance’— dejection of mind, finding expression in some such feeling as—‘Woe to me that I committed such a misdeed! Useless has been my sinner’s life’! and so forth.

‘Study’ here stands for the repealing of the Sāvitrī, or the reciting of the Veda, in cases other than those of injury to living creatures.

When a man is unable to perforin the austerity, there shall be^‘gifts.’ This is what is meant by the assertion—‘as also by gifts in cases of difficulty’; which means that when the austerity causes great pain, the man may have recourse to gifts.’—(227)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Smṛtitattva (p. 483);—in Pāraśaramādhava (Prāyaścitta, p. 336);—and in Prāyaścittaviveka (p. 29), which says that the mention of ‘āpadi’ implies that ‘making gifts’ is the secondary alternative for ‘Vedic study and austerities’; and notes that this refers to sins other than that of killing.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 11.227-233)

Mahābhārata (13.112.5).—(Same as Manu 230.)

Yājñavalkya (3.30; also Parāśaramādhava-Prāyaścitta, p. 336).—‘Time, Fire, Action, Earth, Air, Mind, Knowledge, Austerity, Water, Repentance and Fasting are conducive to purification.’

Baudhāyana (Do.).—‘Abandonment, Austerity, Charity, Repentance, Proclaiming the deed, Devotion to Learning, and Bath,—these are the seven factors in the destruction of Sin.’