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 12.104
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
तपो विद्या च विप्रस्य निःश्रेयसकरं परम् ।
तपसा किल्बिषं हन्ति विद्ययाऽमृतमश्नुते ॥ १०४ ॥tapo vidyā ca viprasya niḥśreyasakaraṃ param |
tapasā kilbiṣaṃ hanti vidyayā'mṛtamaśnute || 104 ||Austerity and knowledge are conducive to the Highest Good of the Brāhmaṇa; by Austerity he destroys sins and by Knowledge he attains immortality.—(104)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
What is meant by this is that, even though one may possess knowledge,—until his sins have been destroyed, he does not attain Liberation;—nor if, though his sins may have been destroyed, he has not acquired knowledge of the Self.
Thus there is no truth in the assertion that man attains Liberation by his very nature.
‘Immortality’—not returning to metempsychic birth; which has also been described as consisting in pure Bliss.—(104)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 512);—and in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 144).