Verse 2.4 [Pūrvapakṣa concluded]

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

अकामस्य क्रिया का चिद् दृश्यते नैह कर्हि चित् ।
यद् यद् हि कुरुते किं चित् तत् तत् कामस्य चेष्टितम् ॥ ४ ॥

akāmasya kriyā kā cid dṛśyate naiha karhi cit |
yad yad hi kurute kiṃ cit tat tat kāmasya ceṣṭitam || 4 ||

No action is ever found in this world to be done by a man entirely without desires; whatever a man does is. the outcome of desire.—(4)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The preceding verse has described the fact that such activity and cessation from activity as are laid down in the scriptures are dependent upon knowledge; and the present verse speaks of similar dependence in the case of ordinary acts of the world; this is the difference between the two verses.

‘Iha’ means ‘in this world’;—‘Karhichit’ means ‘ever,’ ‘at any time.’ During the waking state, action is ever found in this world to be done by any person who is without desire for performing that action.

Whatever act, scriptural or temporal,—the permitted or the prohibited—is done is the outcome of desire. Since desire is the cause of all activity, every act is called the ‘outcome of desire.’

Thus the position becomes extremely difficult: ‘It is not right to be absorbed in desires’ (as declared in Verse 2), and yet there is no activity without desire.—(4)

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Āpastaṃba, Dharmasūtra, 1.2.7.—‘Having fully understood the nature of actions, one should perform that which he wishes.’