Written by London swaminathan

Date: 16 JULY 2018

Time uploaded in London – 17-39 (British Summer Time)

Post No. 5225

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MANU’S BEAUTIFUL SIMILES IN THIRD CHAPTER

SIGNIFICANT POINTS FROM THIRD CHAPTER CONTINUED……

WOMAN

Women also do the ceremony every day, but without Mantra! (see 121)

DON’T SHOW OFF

Maximum -five for the Amavasya ceremony; even if you are rich you should not invite a crowd (see 125 and 126)

ONE GOOD SOUL IS BETTER THAN ONE MILLION

One Vedic scholar is eating is better than one million ignorant (see 131)

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BEAUTIFUL SIMILES AND SAYINGS

Blood cannot wash blood (see 132)

It reminds me of Shakespeare in Macbeth

LADY MACBETH

Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh! (act 5, Scene 1)—Shakespeare

Dead spirit swallows white hot spikes, spears and iron balls (see 133).

Blind cow in a stable- see 141

sowing seeds in barren soil – see 142

Extinguished like grass fire- see 168

perish like vessel of unburnt clay in water – see 179

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FOUR TYPES OF BRAHMINS

SEE 134

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SEVEN GENERATIONS

SEE 146

It is a typical Hindu phrase- satisfying, benefitting Seven Generations.

Tamil Literature repeats it in several places. See Tamil Veda Tirukkural- 62, 126, 107 , 398, 538, 835

Raghuvamsam of Kalidasa 18-50

Bhagavad Gita 6-43

(Tamil poet Valluvar, Manu Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita and Kalidasa in Raghuvamsam speak about benefits in Seven Generations or next Births).

DON’T FEED FRIENDS FOR FAVOURS

See 138

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BANNED PEOPLE: ASTROLOGERS, DOCTORS!!

Manu gives a long list of people who should not be invited for Sraddha ceremony: It includes ascetics with matted hair, Temple Pujaris, astrologers, Physicians etc. See 150 to 168.

see also 180

This list shows that Brahmins and others were also fed in the Sraddha Ceremonies. Manu talks about Soma plant (also 180) seller in the prohibited list. That means in his days still Soma plants were available for sale.

The long list shows the condition of the society of his days. He even talks about trainers of sporting dogs (for dog fight?) falconers!

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YOUNGER BROTHERS SHOULD NOT MARRY BEFORE THE ELDERS

See 171 to 174

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TWO TYPES OF SONS OF BAD WOMAN

KUNDA AND GOLAKA – See 3-156

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CONSEQUENCES OF SICK AND  PROHIBITED PEOPLE SEEING EATING

SEE 176 to 182

These should not be taken literally. The message is to avoid such people in Sraddha Ceremonies.

Here is the original Translation:–

121. But the wife shall offer in the evening a portion of the dressed food as a Bali-oblation, without the recitation of sacred formulas; for that rite which is called the Vaisvadeva is prescribed both for the morning and the evening.
122. After performing the Pitriyagna, a Brahmana who keeps a sacred fire shall offer, month by month, on the new-moon day, the funeral sacrifice (Sraddha, called) Pindanvaharyaka.
123. The wise call the monthly funeral offering to the manes Anvaharya (to be offered after the cakes), and that must be carefully performed with the approved sorts of flesh mentioned below.

NUMBER OF BRAHMANAS TO BE FED

3-124. I will fully declare what and how many Brahmanas must be fed on that occasion, who must be avoided, and on what kinds of food they shall dine.

125. One must feed two (Brahmanas) at the offering to the gods, and three at the offering to the manes, or one only on either occasion; even a very wealthy man shall not be anxious (to entertain) a large company.
126. A large company destroys these five advantages the respectful treatment (of the invited, the propriety of) place and time, purity and the selection of virtuous Brahmana guests; he therefore shall not seek to entertain a large company.
127. Famed is this rite for the dead, called (the sacrifice sacred to the manes and performed on the new-moon day; if a man is diligent in performing)that, the reward of the rite for the dead, which is performed according to Smarta rules, reaches him constantly.

3-128. Oblations to the gods and manes must be presented by the givers to a Srotriya alone; what is given to such a most worthy Brahmana yields great reward.

129. Let him feed even one learned man at(the sacrifice to the gods, and one at the sacrifice to the manes; thus he will gain a rich reward, not if he entertains many who are unacquainted with the Veda.
130. Let him make inquiries even regarding the remote ancestors of a Brahmana who has studied an entire recension of the Veda; if descended from a virtuous race such a man is a worthy recipient of gifts consisting of food offered to the gods or to the manes, he is declared to procure as great rewards as a guest atithi.

MILLION Vs ONE LEARNED

3-131. Though a million of men, unaquainted with the Riks, were to dine at a funeral sacrifice yet a single man, learned in the Veda, who is satisfied with his entertainment, is worth them all as far as the production of spiritual merit is concerned.

132. Food sacred to the manes or to the gods must be given to a man distinguished by sacred knowledge; for hands, smeared with blood, cannot be cleansed with blood.
133. As many mouthfuls as an ignorant man swallows at a sacrifice to the gods or to the manes, so many red-hot spikes, spears, and iron balls must (the giver of the repast) swallow after death.

FOUR TYPES OF BRAHMINS

3-134. Some Brahmanas are devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, and others to the performance of austerities; some to austerities and to the recitation of the Veda, and others to the performance of sacred rites.

135. Oblations to the manes ought to be carefully presented to those devoted to knowledge, but offerings to the gods, in accordance with the reason of the sacred law, to men of all the four above-mentioned classes.
136. If there is a father ignorant of the sacred texts whose son has learned one whole recension of the Veda and the Angas, and a son ignorant of the sacred texts whose father knows an entire recension of the Veda and the Angas,
137. Know that he whose father knows the Veda, is the more venerable one of the two; yet the other one is worthy of honour, because respect is due to the Veda which he has learned.

NOT FOR FRIENDS

3-138. Let him not entertain a personal friend at a funeral sacrifice; he may gain his affection by other valuable gifts; let him feed at a Sraddha a Brahmana whom he considers neither as a foe nor as a friend.

139. He who performs funeral sacrifices and offerings to the gods chiefly for the sake of gaining friends, reaps after death no reward for Sraddhas and sacrifices.
140. That meanest among twice-born men who in his folly contracts friendships through a funeral sacrifice, loses heaven, because he performed a Sraddha for the sake of friendship.

3-141. A gift of food by twice-born men, consumed with friends and relatives, is said to be offered to the Pisasas; it remains in this world alone like a blind cow in one stable.

3-142. As a husbandman reaps no harvest when he has sown the seed in barren soil, even so the giver of sacrificial food gains no reward if he presented it to a man unacquainted with the Rikas.

143. But a present made in accordance with the rules to a learned man, makes the giver and the recipient partakers of rewards both in this life and after death.
144. (If no learned Brahmana be at hand), he may rather honour a virtuous friend than an enemy, though the latter may be qualified by learning and so forth; for sacrificial food, eaten by a foe, bears no reward after death.
145. Let him take pains to feed at a Sraddha an adherent of the Rig-veda who has studied one entire recension of that Veda, or a follower of the Yagur-veda who has finished one Sakha, or a singer of Samans who likewise has completed the study of an entire recension.

3-146. If one of these three dines, duly honoured, at a funeral sacrifice, the ancestors of him who gives the feast, as far as the seventh person, will be satisfied for a very long time.

147. This is the chief rule to be followed in offering sacrifices to the gods and manes; know that the virtuous always observe the following subsidiary rule.

ALSO RELATIVES

3-148. One may also entertain on such occasions one’s maternal grandfather, a maternal uncle, a sister’s son, a father-in-law, one’s teacher, a daughter’s son, a daughter’s husband, a cognate kinsman, one’s own officiating priest or a man for whom one offers sacrifices.

149. For a rite sacred to the gods, he who knows the law will not make too close inquiries regarding an invited Brahmana; but when one performs a ceremony in honour of the manes, one must carefully examine the qualities and parentage of the guest.

PROHIBITED- ACTORS AND DOCTORS

3-150. Manu has declared that those Brahmanas who are thieves, outcasts, eunuchs, or atheists are unworthy (to partake) of oblations to the gods and manes.

151. Let him not entertain at a Sraddha one who wears his hair in braids (a student), one who has not studied the Veda, one afflicted with a skin-disease, a gambler, nor those who sacrifice for a multitude of sacrificers.
152. Physicians, temple-priests, sellers of meat, and those who subsist by shop-keeping must be avoided at sacrifices offered to the gods and to the manes.
153. A paid servant of a village or of a king, man with deformed nails or black teeth, one who opposes his teacher, one who has forsaken the sacred fire, and a usurer;
154. One suffering from consumption, one who subsists by tending cattle, a younger brother who marries or kindles the sacred fire before the elder, one who neglects the five great sacrifices, an enemy of the Brahmana race, an elder brother who marries or kindles the sacred fire after the younger, and one who belongs to a company or corporation,
155. An actor or singer, one who has broken the vow of studentship, one whose only or first wife is a Sudra female, the son of a remarried woman, a one-eyed man, and he in whose house a paramour of his wife resides;
156. He who teaches for a stipulated fee and he who is taught on that condition, he who instructs Sudra pupils and he whose teacher is a Sudra, he who speaks rudely, the son of an adulteress, and the son of a widow,
157. He who forsakes his mother, his father, or a teacher without a (sufficient) reason, he who has contracted an alliance with outcasts either through the Veda or through a marriage,
158. An incendiary, a prisoner, he who eats the food given by the son of an adulteress, a seller of Soma, he who undertakes voyages by sea, a bard, an oil-man, a suborned to perjury,
159. He who wrangles or goes to law with his father, the keeper of a gambling-house, a drunkard, he who is afflicted with a disease in punishment of former crimes, he who is accused of a mortal sin, a hypocrite, a seller of substances used for flavouring food,
160. A maker of bows and of arrows, he who lasciviously dallies with a brother’s widow, the betrayer of a friend, one who subsists by gambling, he who learns (the Veda) from his son,
161. An epileptic man, who suffers from scrofulous swellings of the glands, one afflicted with white leprosy, an informer, a madman, a blind man, and he who cavils at the Veda must (all) be avoided.

ASTROLOGERS BANNED

3-162. A trainer of elephants, oxen, horses, or camels, he who subsists by astrology, a bird-fancier, and he who teaches the use of arms,

163. He who diverts water-courses, and he who delights in obstructing them, an architect, a messenger, and he who plants trees (for money),
164. A breeder of sporting-dogs, a falconer, one who defiles maidens, he who delights in injuring living creatures, he who gains his subsistence from Sudras, and he who offers sacrifices to the Ganas,
165. He who does not follow the rule of conduct, a (man destitute of energy like a) eunuch, one who constantly asks (for favours), he who lives by agriculture, a club-footed man, and he who is censured by virtuous men,
166. A shepherd, a keeper of buffaloes, the husband of a remarried woman, and a carrier of dead bodies, all these must be carefully avoided.
167. A Brahmana who knows the sacred law should shun at sacrifices both (to the gods and to the manes) these lowest of twice-born men, whose conduct is reprehensible, and who are unworthy to sit in the company at a repast.

3-168. As a fire of dry grass is unable to consume the offerings and is quickly extinguished, even so is it with an unlearned Brahmana; sacrificial food must not be given to him, since it would be offered in ashes.

EVIL CONSEQUENCES

3-169. I will fully declare what result the giver obtains after death, if he gives food, destined for the gods or manes, to a man who is unworthy to sit in the company.

170. The Rakshasas, indeed, consume the food eaten by Brahmanas who have not fulfilled the vow of studentship, by a Parivettri and so forth, and by other men not admissible into the company.
171. He must be considered as a Parivettri who marries or begins the performance of the Agnihotra before his elder brother, but the latter as a Parivitti.
172. The elder brother who marries after the younger, the younger brother who marries before the elder, the female with whom such a marriage is contracted, he who gives her away, and the sacrificing priest, as the fifth, all fall into hell.
173. He who lasciviously dallies with the widow of a deceased brother, though she be appointed to bear a child by him in accordance with the sacred law, must be known to be a Didhishupati.

KUNDA SON AND GOLAKA SON

3-174. Two kinds of sons, a Kunda and a Golaka, are born by wives of other men; he who is born while the husband lives, will be a Kunda, and (he who is begotten) after the husband’s death, a Golaka.

175. But those two creatures, who are born of wives of other men, cause to the giver the loss of the rewards, both in this life and after death, for the food sacred to gods or manes which has been given to them.
176. The foolish giver of a funeral repast does not reap the reward for as many worthy guests as a man, inadmissible into company, can look on while they are feeding.

BLIND, ONE EYED, LEPER

3-177. A blind man by his presence causes to the giver of the feast the loss of the reward for ninety guests, a one-eyed man for sixty, one who suffers from white leprosy for a hundred, and one punished by a terrible disease for a thousand.

178. The giver of a Sraddha loses the reward, due for such a non-sacrificial gift, for as many Brahmanas as a guest who sacrifices for Sudras may touch during the meal with his limbs.

3-179. And if a Brahmana, though learned in the Veda, accepts through covetousness a gift from such a man, he will quickly perish, like a vessel of unburnt clay in water.

180. Food given to a seller of Soma becomes ordure, that given to a physician pus and blood, but that presented to a temple-priest is lost, and that given to a usurer finds no place in the world of the gods.
181. What has been given to a Brahmana who lives by trade that is not useful in this world and the next, and a present to a Brahmana born of a remarried woman resembles an oblation thrown into ashes.
182. But the wise declare that the food which is offered to other unholy, inadmissible men, enumerated above, is turned into adipose secretions, blood, flesh, marrow, and bone.

to be continued……………….

–SUBHAM–