manu sruthi for the madathipathies ---- sample points

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1.1. The great sages approached Manu, who was seated with a collected

mind, and, having duly

worshipped him, spoke as follows:

1.2. 'Deign, divine one, to declare to us precisely and in due order

the sacred laws of each of the

(four chief) castes (varna) and of the intermediate ones.

1.3. 'For thou, O Lord, alone knowest the purport, (i.e.) the rites,

and the knowledge of the soul,

(taught) in this whole ordinance of the Self-existent (Svayambhu),

which is unknowable and

unfathomable.'

1.4. He, whose power is measureless, being thus asked by the high-

minded great sages, duly

honoured them, and answered, 'Listen!'

1.5. This (universe) existed in the shape of Darkness, unperceived,

destitute of distinctive marks,

unattainable by reasoning, unknowable, wholly immersed, as it were,

in deep sleep.

1.6. Then the divine Self-existent (Svayambhu, himself)

indiscernible, (but) making (all) this, the

great elements and the rest, discernible, appeared with irresistible

(creative) power, dispelling the

darkness.

1.7. He who can be perceived by the internal organ (alone), who is

subtile, indiscernible, and

eternal, who contains all created beings and is inconceivable, shone

forth of his own (will).

1.8. He, desiring to produce beings of many kinds from his own body,

first with a thought created

the waters, and placed his seed in them.

1.9. That (seed) became a golden egg, in brilliancy equal to the sun;

in that (egg) he himself was

born as Brahman, the progenitor of the whole world.

1.10. The waters are called narah, (for) the waters are, indeed, the

offspring of Nara; as they were

his first residence (ayana), he thence is named Narayana.

1.11. From that (first) cause, which is indiscernible, eternal, and

both real and unreal, was produced

that male (Purusha), who is famed in this world (under the

appellation of) Brahman.

1.12. The divine one resided in that egg during a whole year, then he

himself by his thought (alone)

divided it into two halves;

1.13. And out of those two halves he formed heaven and earth, between

them the middle sphere,

the eight points of the horizon, and the eternal abode of the waters.

1.14. From himself (atmanah) he also drew forth the mind, which is

both real and unreal, likewise

from the mind egoism, which possesses the function of self-

consciousness (and is) lordly;

1.15. Moreover, the great one, the soul, and all (products) affected

by the three qualities, and, in

their order, the five organs which perceive the objects of sensation.

1.16. But, joining minute particles even of those six, which possess

measureless power, with

particles of himself, he created all beings.

1.17. Because those six (kinds of) minute particles, which form the

(creator's) frame, enter (a-sri)

these (creatures), therefore the wise call his frame sarira, (the

body.)

1.18. That the great elements enter, together with their functions

and the mind, through its minute

parts the framer of all beings, the imperishable one.

1.19. But from minute body (-framing) particles of these seven very

powerful Purushas springs this

(world), the perishable from the imperishable.

 

1.20. Among them each succeeding (element) acquires the quality of

the preceding one, and

whatever place (in the sequence) each of them occupies, even so many

qualities it is declared to

possess.

1.21. But in the beginning he assigned their several names, actions,

and conditions to all (created

beings), even according to the words of the Veda.

1.22. He, the Lord, also created the class of the gods, who are

endowed with life, and whose nature

is action; and the subtile class of the Sadhyas, and the eternal

sacrifice.

1.23. But from fire, wind, and the sun he drew forth the threefold

eternal Veda, called Rik, Yagus,

and Saman, for the due performance of the sacrifice.

1.24. Time and the divisions of time, the lunar mansions and the

planets, the rivers, the oceans, the

mountains, plains, and uneven ground.

1.25. Austerity, speech, pleasure, desire, and anger, this whole

creation he likewise produced, as he

desired to call these beings into existence.

1.26. Moreover, in order to distinguish actions, he separated merit

from demerit, and he caused the

creatures to be affected by the pairs (of opposites), such as pain

and pleasure.

1.27. But with the minute perishable particles of the five (elements)

which have been mentioned,

this whole (world) is framed in due order.

1.28. But to whatever course of action the Lord at first appointed

each (kind of beings), that alone it

has spontaneously adopted in each succeeding creation.

1.29. Whatever he assigned to each at the (first) creation,

noxiousness or harmlessness, gentleness

or ferocity, virtue or sin, truth or falsehood, that clung

(afterwards) spontaneously to it.

1.30. As at the change of the seasons each season of its own accord

assumes its distinctive marks,

even so corporeal beings (resume in new births) their (appointed)

course of action.

1.31. But for the sake of the prosperity of the worlds he caused the

Brahmana, the Kshatriya, the

Vaisya, and the Sudra to proceed from his mouth, his arms, his

thighs, and his feet.

1.32. Dividing his own body, the Lord became half male and half

female; with that (female) he

produced Virag.

1.33. But know me, O most holy among the twice-born, to be the

creator of this whole (world),

whom that male, Virag, himself produced, having performed austerities.

1.34. Then I, desiring to produce created beings, performed very

difficult austerities, and (thereby)

called into existence ten great sages, lords of created beings,

1.35. Mariki, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Praketas,

Vasishtha, Bhrigu, and Narada.

1.36. They created seven other Manus possessing great brilliancy,

gods and classes of gods and

great sages of measureless power,

1.37. Yakshas (the servants of Kubera, the demons called) Rakshasas

and Pisakas, Gandharvas (or

musicians of the gods), Apsarases (the dancers of the gods), Asuras,

(the snake-deities called)

Nagas and Sarpas, (the bird-deities called) Suparnas and the several

classes of the manes,

1.38. Lightnings, thunderbolts and clouds, imperfect (rohita) and

perfect rainbows, falling meteors,

supernatural noises, comets, and heavenly lights of many kinds,

1.39 (Horse-faced) Kinnaras, monkeys, fishes, birds of many kinds,

cattle, deer, men, and carnivorous beasts with two rows of teeth,

1.40. Small and large worms and beetles, moths, lice, flies, bugs,

all stinging and biting insects and

the several kinds of immovable things.

1.41. Thus was this whole (creation), both the immovable and the

movable, produced by those

high-minded ones by means of austerities and at my command, (each

being) according to (the

results of) its actions.

1.42. But whatever act is stated (to belong) to (each of) those

creatures here below, that I will truly

declare to you, as well as their order in respect to birth.

1.43. Cattle, deer, carnivorous beasts with two rows of teeth,

Rakshasas, Pisakas, and men are born

from the womb.

1.44. From eggs are born birds, snakes, crocodiles, fishes,

tortoises, as well as similar terrestrial and

aquatic (animals).

1.45. From hot moisture spring stinging and biting insects, lice,

flies, bugs, and all other (creatures)

of that kind which are produced by heat.

1.46. All plants, propagated by seed or by slips, grow from shoots;

annual plants (are those) which,

bearing many flowers and fruits, perish after the ripening of their

fruit;

1.47. (Those trees) which bear fruit without flowers are called

vanaspati (lords of the forest); but

those which bear both flowers and fruit are called vriksha.

1.48. But the various plants with many stalks, growing from one or

several roots, the different kinds

of grasses, the climbing plants and the creepers spring all from seed

or from slips.

1.49. These (plants) which are surrounded by multiform Darkness, the

result of their acts (in former

existences), possess internal consciousness and experience pleasure

and pain.

1.50. The (various) conditions in this always terrible and constantly

changing circle of births and

deaths to which created beings are subject, are stated to begin with

(that of) Brahman, and to end

with (that of) these (just mentioned immovable creatures).

1.51. When he whose power is incomprehensible, had thus produced the

universe and men, he

disappeared in himself, repeatedly suppressing one period by means of

the other.

1.52. When that divine one wakes, then this world stirs; when he

slumbers tranquilly, then the

universe sinks to sleep.

1.53. But when he reposes in calm sleep, the corporeal beings whose

nature is action, desist from

their actions and mind becomes inert.

1.54. When they are absorbed all at once in that great soul, then he

who is the soul of all beings

sweetly slumbers, free from all care and occupation.

1.55. When this (soul) has entered darkness, it remains for a long

time united with the organs (of

sensation), but performs not its functions; it then leaves the

corporeal frame.

1.56. When, being clothed with minute particles (only), it enters

into vegetable or animal seed, it

then assumes, united (with the fine body), a (new) corporeal frame.

1.57. Thus he, the imperishable one, by (alternately) waking and

slumbering, incessantly revivifies

and destroys this whole movable and immovable (creation).

1.58. But he having composed these Institutes (of the sacred law),

himself taught them, according

to the rule, to me alone in the beginning; next I (taught them) to

Mariki and the other sages.

1.59. Bhrigu, here, will fully recite to you these Institutes; for

that sage learned the whole in its

entirety from me.