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 6.45
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
नाभिनन्देत मरणं नाभिनन्देत जीवितम् ।
कालमेव प्रतीक्षेत निर्वेशं भृतको यथा ॥ ४५ ॥nābhinandeta maraṇaṃ nābhinandeta jīvitam |
kālameva pratīkṣeta nirveśaṃ bhṛtako yathā || 45 ||He shall not rejoice at death; nor shall he rejoice at life; he shall await his time, just as the servant awaits the fulfilment of his contract—(45).
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This denotes freedom from troubles.
He shall not seek death; nor shall he seek life, for the purpose of acquiring more knowledge.
‘He shall await his time’.—He shall cultivate the habit of thinking ‘let anything happen at any time it may’.
‘Just as the servant waits for the fulfilness of his contract’—‘This work I have got to do for him during the day,—if I stop in the middle, I shall not obtain full wages’.
Worldliness having thus ceased, when the man’s body falls off, he attains Liberation, by this process and not by doing whatever he likes.—(45)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 953), which explains ‘nirveśam’ as ‘time limit’—in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 569);—and in Nṛsiṃhaprasāda (Saṃskāra, p. 70a).
Comparative notes by various authors
Mahābhārata (12.245.15).—(Same as Manu, reading ‘nideśam’ for ‘nirveśam.’)
Viṣṇu (96.18)—‘He must neither wish for death nor for life.’