Verse 6.43

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

अनग्निरनिकेतः स्याद् ग्राममन्नार्थमाश्रयेत् ।
उपेक्षकोऽसङ्कुसुको मुनिर्भावसमाहितः ॥ ४३ ॥

anagniraniketaḥ syād grāmamannārthamāśrayet |
upekṣako'saṅkusuko munirbhāvasamāhitaḥ || 43 ||

He shall be without fires and without home; he may go to a village for food;—disinterested, steady, silent and calmly-disposed.—(43).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The abandoning of the Śrauta fires has been mentioned before; this verse speaks of the abandoning of the domestic fire. Or tins may be taken as forbidding the act of cooking, and of seeking for fuel for the fire required for the allaying of cold and such other purposes.

‘Niketa’ is home.

‘He may go’—for one night—‘to a village for food’; and having got what he needs, he should spend the rest of his time in the forest. This living in the village for a single night has been declared by Gautama. If the man happen to be near a village, then he shall enter it only for obtaining food; but if he happens to be far off from it, then he may dwell there for a single night, and pass on to the forest for the second.

‘Disinterested’;—he should not own his even such inanimate objects as the water-pot and the like. Or, it may mean that he shall not have recourse to any remedy for his bodily ailments.

Some people read ‘asaṅkusukaḥ’;—‘saṅkusuka’ means fickle, unsteady; and the opposite of this denotes firmness of mind.

‘Silent’—with the organ of speech under his full control

‘Calmly disposed’— Calm in disposition; i.e., he shall give up all mental imaginings; he shall be calm by disposition not in mere speech (43).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

‘Muniḥ’—‘with the organ of speech controlled’ (Medhātithi);—‘meditating on Brahman’ (Kullūka).

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 953).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Mahābhārata (12.245.5-6).—(Same as Manu, the third foot read as ‘aśvastana-vidhātā syāt.’)

Gautama (3.11, 14).—‘The Renunciate shall not possess any store. He shall enter a village only for begging alms.’ Baudhāyana (2.11.16).—(See under 41.)

Āpastamba (2.21.10).—‘He shall live without a tire, without a house, without pleasures, without protection. Remaining silent and uttering speech only on the occasion of the daily recitation of the Veda, begging only so much food in the village as will sustain his life, he shall wander about, caring neither for this world nor for the next.’

Vaśiṣṭha (10.6).—‘The Renunciate sh all shave his head; he shall have no property, and no house.’

Viṣṇu (96.2).—‘Having reposited the fires in himself, he should enter the village only for collecting alms.’

Yājñavalkya (3.57).—(See under 41.)