Verse 4.257 [End of the Householding Stage]

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

महर्षिपितृदेवानां गत्वाऽनृण्यं यथाविधि ।
पुत्रे सर्वं समासज्य वसेन् माध्यस्थ्यमाश्रितः ॥ २५७ ॥

maharṣipitṛdevānāṃ gatvā'nṛṇyaṃ yathāvidhi |
putre sarvaṃ samāsajya vasen mādhyasthyamāśritaḥ || 257 ||

Having paid off, according to law, the debts owing to the Great Sages, to the Pitṛs and to the Gods, he shall consign everything to his son and remain fixed in neutrality.—(257)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

This is another method prescribed for the Householder.

Debts to the Great Sages are paid by Vedic Study; those to the Pitṛs are paid by the begetting of children; and those to the Gods are paid by sacrifices. This is what has been described in the passage—‘The Brāhmaṇa is under three kinds of debts.’

‘Gatvā’—having brought, about the three forms of freedom from debt.

‘He shall consign’—make over—‘everything’—the entire business of the house and family—‘to his son’—who has attained the age of business.

He shall remain in the house ‘fixed in neutrality’—i.e., having resigned all egoism. That is, ‘he shall continue to dwell in the house, having relinquished all such notions as this is my wealth, these my son and wife, these my male and female slaves.‘Neutrality’ consists in the feeling, ‘I do not belong to any one, no one belongs to me,’ in which all desire is abandoned.

What is meant is the^‘renunciation’ of only ordinary voluntary acts done for some purpose, and not of all (even obligatory) acts; as we shall show later on.—(257)