Verse 3.77

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

यथा वायुं समाश्रित्य वर्तन्ते सर्वजन्तवः ।
तथा गृहस्थमाश्रित्य वर्तन्ते सर्व आश्रमाः ॥ ७७ ॥

yathā vāyuṃ samāśritya vartante sarvajantavaḥ |
tathā gṛhasthamāśritya vartante sarva āśramāḥ || 77 ||

Just as all Creatures subsist by deriving support from air, so do the other states subsist by deriving support from the Housohelder.—(77)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The present verse proceeds to indicate, in another way, the necessity of performing the Great Sacrifices.

All creatures subsist by desiring support from ‘Air’—i.e., from life-breath; no one can live without the life-breath; in fact, the act of ‘living’ consists in the bearing of the life-breath.

The term ‘creatures’ stands for all living beings.

The epithet ‘all’ has been added with a view to the fact that the subsistence of even gods and sages, who are endowed with superior powers, is dependent upon Air.

Similarly, the Householder is like Air for persons in all other states. Hence, what the Injunction means is that the Householder should act in such a manner that all others may derive their subsistence from him.

Though the presence of the term ‘other’ would indicate that persons other than householders were meant, yet the text is not meant to exclude the householder from the said support, specially because the making of gifts to guests and others has been specially prescribed for the Snātaka. Hence the term ‘other’ is meant to indicate that the other states are on the same footing as the state of the Householder. Nor has it been declared anywhere that the Householder should not support himself, or should not take steps for the supporting of the members of his family [and all this would excluded from his support if ‘other states’ stood for states other than that of the Householder.]

The compound ‘itarāśramāḥ’ is to be expounded as a Karmadhāraya compound.—(77)