Verse 11.220

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

यथा कथं चित् पिण्डानां तिस्रोऽशीतीः समाहितः ।
मासेनाश्नन् हविष्यस्य चन्द्रस्यैति सलोकताम् ॥ २२० ॥

yathā kathaṃ cit piṇḍānāṃ tisro'śītīḥ samāhitaḥ |
māsenāśnan haviṣyasya candrasyaiti salokatām || 220 ||

If a man, with concentrated mind, somehow eats thrice eighty morsels of ‘sacrificial food,’ during a month, he attains the regions of the Moon.—(220)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

On one day he takes four morsels, on another twelve, on a third day he does not eat at all, on some day sixteen and so forth; this is what is meant by doing it ‘somehow’ during the thirty days. The only restriction is that during the month, ‘thrice eighty’ morsels should be eaten; i.e., two hundred and forty.

By doing this the man reaches the regions of the Moon.—(220)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (3.325);—in Prāyaścittaviveka (p. 517);—and in Hemādri (Kāla, p. 23), which says that it is the ‘Sāvana’ month that is meant here.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Baudhāyana (3.8.31).—‘He who studies this becomes the companion of the lunar constellations, of sun and moon, and dwells in the regions of these.’

Do. (4.5.20).—‘A Brāhmaṇa who eats anyhow, during a month, thrice-eighty mouthfuls of sacrificial food, goes to the regions of the Moon.’

Gautama (27.16-18).—‘He who has completed the Cāndrayāṇa, becomes free from sin and free from crime, and destroys all guilt. He who has completed a second month in the same manner, sanctifies himself, his ten ancestors and ten descendants, as well as any company to which he may be invited; and he who has lived a year in that manner dwells, after death, in the regions of the Moon.’

Viṣṇu (47.9).—‘Eating anyhow three hundred, minus sixty, mouthfuls a month, is the penance called Sāmānya - Cāndrāyaṇa.

Yājñavalkya (3.324, 326).—‘If, anyhow, one eats two hundred and forty morsels during one month, this would be another kind of Cāndrāyaṇa. One who performs the Cāndrāyaṇa for the sake of spiritual merit (and not as an expiatory penance), obtains the regions of the Moon.’