Written by LONDON SWAMINATHAN

 

Date: 13 JUNE 2018

 

Time uploaded in London –  21- 16 (British Summer Time)

 

Post No. 5107

 

Pictures shown here are taken from various sources such as Facebook friends, Books, Google and newspapers; thanks. Pictures may be subject to copyright laws.

 

 

MY COMMENTS:

1.Manu is the only one ancient law maker in the world who praises women sky high. He says that families will be destroyed completely if they don’t respect women. Gods are pleased only where women are honoured.

2.Foreigners and Marxists chose one or two couplets from Manu out of 2600+ and do anti Manu propaganda. If one compares the couplets in several other chapters on women and with those slokas quoted by the  Marxist, they will know that Manu was the only one ancient man that respected women.

3.His recommendation of the days for sexual intercourse, the ways to get male children etc. should be tested scientifically. What he says in an ancient and obscure language must be written in modern language. Words like sixteen days etc should be explained. Fortunately several ancient commentaries are available

4.His warning against dowry also shows his progressive /modern thinking.

5.His ban on certain professions may not be applicable today.

6. His condition for domestic happiness shows that his respect for women. Women must also feel happy only then family happiness is obtained, he says.

7.His concept of Five Slaughter Houses and Five daily rituals for expiation is a very good concept.

8. His linking of Fire rituals with producing rain is scientifically proved. Smoke and hot air triggers rain. Cloud seeding is one of them.
9. His Pancha Yajna (Five rituals everyday) is in several Tamil books including Tirukkural of Thiruvalluvar

 

THIRD CHAPTER CONTINUED……………

MANU AND WOMEN

3-45. Let (the husband) approach his wife in due season, being constantly satisfied with her (alone); he may also, being intent on pleasing her, approach her with a desire for conjugal union (on any day) excepting the Parvans.

(The Lunar junctures are parvans—the new moon day and full moon days and sometimes the eighth and fourteenth day of each lunar fortnight; Purnima, Amavasya, Ashtami, Chaturdasi are prohibited days for sex.)

46. Sixteen (days and) nights in each month, including four days which differ from the rest and are censured by the virtuous, are called the natural (fertile) season of women.

(The Special days are the four days after the beginning of her menstrual period

47. But among these the first four, the eleventh and the thirteenth are (declared to be) forbidden; the remaining nights are recommended.

 

DO YOU WANT MALE CHILD?

3-48. On the even nights sons are conceived and daughters on the uneven ones; hence a man who desires to have sons should approach his wife in due season on the even (nights).

49. A male child is produced by a greater quantity of male seed, a female child by the prevalence of the female; if both are equal, a hermaphrodite or a boy and a girl; if both are weak or deficient in quantity, a failure of conception results.
50. He who avoids women on the six forbidden nights and on eight others, is (equal in chastity to) a student, in whichever order he may live.

 

DON’T GET DOWRY- DON’T SELL YOUR DAUGHTER

3-51. No father who knows the law must take even the smallest gratuity for his daughter; for a man who, through avarice, takes a gratuity, is a seller of his offspring.

52. But those male relations who, in their folly, live on the separate property of women, (e.g. appropriate) the beasts of burden, carriages, and clothes of women, commit sin and will sink into hell.
53. Some call the cow and the bull given at an Arsha wedding ‘a gratuity;’ but that is wrong, since the acceptance of a fee, be it small or great, is a sale of the daughter.
54. When the relatives do not appropriate for their use the gratuity given, it is not a sale;(in that case the gift is only a token of respect and of kindness towards the maidens.

WHERE WOMEN ARE HONOURED GODS ARE PLEASED

3-55. Women must be honoured and adorned by their fathers, brothers, husbands, and brothers-in-law, who desire their own welfare.

56. Where women are honoured, there the gods are pleased; but where they are not honoured, no sacred rite yields rewards.
57. Where the female relations live in grief, the family soon wholly perishes; but that family where they are not unhappy ever prospers.
58. The houses on which female relations, not being duly honoured, pronounce a curse, perish completely, as if destroyed by magic.
59. Hence men who seek their own welfare, should always honour women on holidays and festivals with gifts of ornaments, clothes, and dainty food.

 

WHERE IS HAPPINESS?

3-60. In that family, where the husband is pleased with his wife and the wife with her husband, happiness will assuredly be lasting.

61. For if the wife is not radiant with beauty, she will not attract her husband; but if she has no attractions for him, no children will be born.
62. If the wife is radiant with beauty, the whole house is bright; but if she is destitute of beauty, all will appear dismal.

BANNED JOBS

3-63. By low marriages, by omitting (the performance of) sacred rites, by neglecting the study of the Veda, and by irreverence towards Brahmanas, great families sink low.

64. By practising handicrafts, by pecuniary transactions, by begetting children on Sudra females only, by trading in cows, horses, and carriages, by (the pursuit of) agriculture and by taking service under a king,
65. By sacrificing for men unworthy to offer sacrifices and by denying (the future rewards for good) works, families, deficient in the knowledge of the Veda, quickly perish.
66. But families that are rich in the knowledge of the Veda, though possessing little wealth, are numbered among the great, and acquire great fame.
67. With the sacred fire, kindled at the wedding, a householder shall perform according to the law the domestic ceremonies and the five greaT sacrifices, and (with that) he shall daily cook his food.

FIVE SLAUGHTER HOUSES AND FIVE GREAT SACRIFICES

3-68. A householder has five slaughter-houses (as it were, viz.) the hearth, the grinding-stone, the broom, the pestle and mortar, the water-vessel, by using which he is bound (with the fetters of sin).

69. In order to successively expiate the offences committed by means of all these (five) the great sages have prescribed for householders the daily (performance of the five) great sacrifices.
70. Teaching and studying is the sacrifice offered) to Brahman, the (offerings of water and food called Tarpana the sacrifice to the manes, the burnt oblation the sacrifice offered to the gods, the Bali offering that offered to the Bhutas, and the hospitable reception of guests the offering to men.
71. He who neglects not these five great sacrifices, while he is able to perform them, is not tainted by the sins committed in the five places of slaughter, though he constantly lives in the order of house -holders.
72. But he who does not feed these five, the gods, his guests, those whom he is bound to maintain, the manes, and himself, lives not, though he breathes.
73. They call (these) five sacrifices also, Ahuta, Huta, Prahuta, Brahmya-huta, and Prasita.
74. Ahuta not offered in the fire is the muttering of Vedic texts, Huta the burnt oblation offered to the gods, Prahuta offered by scattering it on the ground the Bali offering given to the Bhutas, Brahmya-huta (offered in the digestive fire of Brahmanas), the respectful reception of Brahmana (guests), and Prasita (eaten) the (daily oblation to the manes, called) Tarpana.
75. Let (every man) in this (second order, at least) daily apply himself to the private recitation of the Veda, and also to the performance of the offering to the gods; for he who is diligent in the performance of sacrifices, supports both the movable and the immovable creation.

 

YAGA AND RAIN

3-76. An oblation duly thrown into the fire, reaches the sun; from the sun comes rain, from rain food, therefrom the living creatures derive their subsistence.

77. As all living creatures subsist by receiving support from air, even so the members of all orders subsist by receiving support from the householder.
78. Because men of the three other orders are daily supported by the householder with gifts of sacred knowledge and food, therefore the order of householders is the most excellent order.
79. The duties o) this order, which cannot be practised by men with weak organs, must be carefully observed by him who desires imperishable bliss in heaven, and constant happiness in this life.
80. The sages, the manes, the gods, the Bhutas, and guests ask the householders for offerings and gifts; hence he who knows the law, must give to them what is due to each.
81. Let him worship, according to the rule, the sages by the private recitation of the Veda, the gods by burnt oblations, the manes by funeral offerings (Sraddha), men by (gifts of) food, and the Bhutas by the Bali offering.
82. Let him daily perform a funeral sacrifice with food, or with water, or also with milk, roots, and fruits, and thus please the manes.

–TO BE CONTINUED………………