| Philosophy and Religion / Sacred Laws of the Âryas |
The Sacred Laws of the Âryas: Âpastamba - Prasna II, Patala 9
Khanda 21
1. There are four orders, viz. the order of householders, the order of students, the order of ascetics, and the order of hermits in the woods.1
2. If he lives in all these four according to the rules (of the law), without allowing himself to be disturbed (by anything), he will obtain salvation.2
3. The duty to live in the teacher's house after the initiation is common to all of them.3
4. Not to abandon sacred learning (is a duty common) to all.
5. Having learnt the rites (that are to be performed in each order), he may perform what he wishes.
6. Worshipping until death (and living) according to the rule of a (temporary) student, a (professed) student may leave his body in the house of his teacher.
7. Now (follow the rules) regarding the ascetic (Samnyâsin).
8. Only after (having fulfilled) the duties of that (order of students) he shall go forth (as an ascetic), remaining chaste.4
9. For him (the Samnyâsin) they prescribe the following rules).
10. He shall live without a fire, without a house, Without pleasures, without protection. Remaining silent and uttering speech only on the occasion of the daily recitation of the Veda, begging so much food only in the village as will sustain his life, he shall wander about neither caring for this world nor for heaven.5
11. It is ordained that he shall wear clothes thrown away (by others as useless).
12. Some declare that he shall go naked.6
13. Abandoning truth and falsehood, pleasure and pain, the Vedas, this world and the next, he shall seek the Âtman.7
14. (Some say that) he obtains salvation if he knows (the Âtman).
15. (But) that (opinion) is opposed to the Sâstras.8
16. (For) if salvation were obtained by the knowledge of the Âtman alone, then he ought not to feel any pain even in this (world).
17. Thereby that which follows has been declared.9
18. Now (follow the rules regarding) the hermit living in the woods.
19. Only after (completing) that (studentship) he shall go forth, remaining chaste.
20. For him they give (the following rules):
21. he shall keep one fire only, have no house, enjoy no pleasures, have no protector, observe silence, uttering speech on the occasion of the daily recitation of the Veda only.10
Khanda 22
1. A dress of materials procured in the woods (skins or bark) is ordained for him.11
2. Then he shall wander about, sustaining his life by roots, fruits, leaves, and grass.12
3. In the end (he shall live on) what has become detached spontaneously.
4. Next he shall live on water, (then) on air, then on ether.13
5. Each following one of these modes of subsistence is distinguished by a (greater) reward.
6. Now some (teachers) enjoin for the hermit the successive performance (of the acts prescribed for the several orders).14
7. After having finished the. study of the Veda, having taken a wife and kindled the sacred fires, he shall begin the rites, which end with the Soma-sacrifices, (performing) as many as are prescribed in the revealed texts.
8. (Afterwards) he shall build a dwelling, and dwell outside the village with his wife, his children, and his fires,15
9. Or (he may live) alone.
10. He shall support himself by gleaning corn.16
11. And after that he shall not any longer take presents.
12. And he shall sacrifice (only) after having bathed (in the following manner):
13. He shall enter the water slowly, and bathe without beating it (with his hand), his face turned towards the sun.
14. This rule of bathing is valid for all (castes and orders).
15. Some enjoin (that he shall prepare) two sets of utensils for cooking and eating, (and) of choppers, hatchets, sickles, and mallets.17
16. He shall take one of each pair (of instruments), give the others (to his wife), and (then) go into the forest.
17. After that time (he shall perform) the burnt-oblations, (sustain) his life, (feed) his guests, and (prepare) his clothes with materials produced in the forest.18
18. Rice must be used for those sacrifices for which cakes mixed with meat (are employed by the householder).
19. And all (the Mantras), as well as the daily portion of the Veda, (must be recited) inaudibly.
20. He shall not make the inhabitants of the forest hear (his recitation).19
21. (He shall have) a house for his fire (only).
22. He himself (shall live) in the open air.
23. His couch and seat, must not be covered (with mats).
24. If he obtains fresh grain, he shall throw away the old (store).20
Khanda 23
1. If he desires (to perform) very great austerities, he (shall not make a hoard of grain, but) collect food every day only, morning and evening, in his vessel.21
2. Afterwards he shall wander about, sustaining his life with roots, fruits, leaves, and grass (which he22 collects). Finally (he shall content himself with) what has become detached spontaneously. Then he shall live on water, then on air, (and finally) upon ether. Each succeeding mode of subsistence procures greater rewards.
3. Now they quote (the following) two verses from a Purâna:23
4. Those eighty thousand sages who desired offspring passed to the south by Aryaman's road and obtained burial-grounds.24
5. Those eighty thousand sages who desired no offspring passed by Aryaman's road to the north and obtained immortality.
6. Thus are praised those who keep the vow of chastity.
7. Now they accomplish also their wishes merely by conceiving them,
8. For instance, (the desire to procure) rain, to bestow children, second-sight, to move quick as thought, and other (desires) of this description.
9. Therefore on account of (passages) of the revealed texts, and on account of the visible results, some declare these orders (of men keeping the vow of chastity to be) the most excellent.
10. But (to this we answer): It is the firm opinion of those who are well versed in the threefold sacred learning, that the Vedas are the highest authority. They consider that the (rites) which are ordered there to be performed with rice, yava, animals, clarified butter, milk, potsherds, (in conjunction) with a wife, (and accompanied) by loud or muttered (Mantras), must be performed, and that (hence) a rule of conduct which is opposed to these (rites) is of no authority.
11. But by the term burial-ground (in the text above given) it is intended to ordain the last rites for those who have performed many sacrifices, (and not to mean that dead householders become demons and haunt burial-grounds.)25
12. The revealed texts declare that after (the burial follows) a reward without end, which is designated by the term 'heavenly bliss.'
Khanda 24
1. Now the Veda declares also one's offspring to be immortality (in this verse): 'In thy offspring thou art born again, that, mortal, is thy immortality.'
2. Now it can also be perceived by the senses that the (father) has been reproduced separately (in the son); for the likeness (of a father and of a son) is even visible, only (their) bodies are different.
3. 'These (sons) who live, fulfilling the rites taught (in the Veda), increase the fame and heavenly bliss of their departed ancestors.'
4. 'In this manner each succeeding (generation increases the fame and heavenly bliss) of the preceding ones.'
5. 'They (the ancestors) live in heaven until the (next) general destruction of created things.'
6. At the new creation (of, the world) they become the seed. That has been declared in the Bhavishyatpurâna.26
7. Now Pragâpati also says,
8. 'Those dwell with us who fulfil the following (duties): the study of the three Vedas, the studentship, the procreation of children, faith, religious austerities, sacrifices, and the giving of gifts. He who praises other (duties), becomes dust and perishes.'27
9. Those among these (sons) who commit sin, perish alone, just as the leaf of a tree (which has been attacked by worms falls without injuring its branch or tree). They do not hurt their ancestors.
10. (For) the (ancestor) has no connection with the acts committed (by his descendant) in this world, nor with their results in the next.
11. (The truth of) that may be known by the following (reason):
12. This creation (is the work) of Pragâpati and of the sages.
13. The bodies of those (sages) who stay there (in heaven) on account of their merits appear visibly most excellent and brilliant (as, for instance, the constellation of the seven Rishis).28
14. But even though some (ascetic), whilst still29 in the body, may gain heaven through a portion of (the merit acquired by his former) works or through austerities, and though he may. accomplish (his objects) by his mere wish, still this is no reason to place one order before the other.
Footnotes
1. 'Though four (orders) are enumerated, he uses the word "four," lest, in the absence of a distinct rule of the venerable teacher, one order only, that of the householder, should be allowed, as has been taught in other Smritis.'--Haradatta. Manu VI, 87.
2. Manu VI, 88.
3. Manu II, 247-249, and above.
4. The meaning of the Sûtra is, that the studentship is a necessary preliminary for the Samnyâsin. If a man considers sufficiently purified by his life in that order, he may become a Samnyâsin immediately after its completion. Otherwise he may first become a householder, or a hermit, and enter the last order, when his passions are entirely extinct. See also Manu VI, 36; Yâgñ. III, 56-57.
5. Manu VI, 33, 42-45; Yâgñ. III, 58 seq.
6. 'Another (commentator) says, "Some declare that he is free from all injunctions and prohibitions, i.e. he need neither perform nor avoid any (particular actions),"'--Haradatta.
7. 'He shall seek, i.e. worship, the Âtman or Self, which has been described in the section on transcendental knowledge (I, 8).'--Haradatta.
8. Haradatta apparently takes the word Sâstras to mean 'Dharmasâstras.'
9. 'That which follows' are the Yogas, which must be employed in order to cause the annihilation of pain, after the knowledge of the Âtman or Self has been obtained.
10. 'But which is that one fire? Certainly not the Grihya-fire, because he must remain chaste. Therefore the meaning intended is, "He shall offer a Samidh morn and evening in the common fire, just as formerly, (during his studentship)." Another commentator says, "Gautama declares that he shall kindle a fire according to the rule of the Srâmanaka Sûtra. The Srâmanaka Sûtra is the Vaikhânasa Sûtra. Having kindled a fire in the manner prescribed there, he shall sacrifice in it every morning and every evening."'--Haradatta. See also Manu VI, 4; Yâgñ. III, 45.
11. Manu VI, 6.
12. Manu VI, 5, 21; Yâgñ. III, 46.
13. 'Then he shall live on ether, i.e. eat nothing at all.'--Haradatta. Manu VI, 31; Yâgñ. III, 55.
14. 'The word atha, "now," introduces a different opinion. Above, it has been declared that the life in the woods (may be begun) after the studentship only. But some teachers enjoin just for that hermit a successive performance of the acts.
15. Manu VI, 3 seq.; Yâgñ. III, 45.
16. Haradatta thinks that this rule refers both to the hermit who lives with his family and to him who lives alone. Others refer it to the latter only.
17. According to Haradatta, the word kâga appears to designate a 'mallet;' in the passage from the Râmâyana quoted in the Petersburg Dict. the commentator explains it by petaka, 'basket.'
18. Yâgñ. III, 46.
19. This Sûtra explains the word upâmsu, 'inaudibly.'
20. Manu VI, 15; Yâgñ. III, 47.
21. The following rules apply to a solitary hermit.
22. These Sûtras are repeated in order to show that, according to, the opinion of those who allow hermits to live with their families, the end should be the same.
23. 'The "orders" have been described. Now, giving conflicting opinions, he discusses which of them is the most important.'--Haradatta.
24. This verse and the next are intended to disparage the order of householders. Haradatta explains 'burial-grounds' by 'new births which lead to new deaths;' but see below, Sûtra 10. See also Yâgñ. III, 186-187.
25. The Sûtra is intended to remove the blame thrown on the order of householders by the verse quoted. Haradatta seems to have forgotten his former explanation of Smasânâni.
26. 'They become the seed,' i.e. 'The Pragâpatis.'
27. 'Other (duties), i.e. the order of ascetics and the like.'--Haradatta.
28. As the Rishis have not lost heaven through the sins of their sons, the dogma according to which ancestors lose heaven through the sins of their sons, must be false.
29. Âpastamba's own opinion is apparently against pure asceticism.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
