na tena vṛddho bhavati yenāsya palitaṁ śiraḥ |
yo vai yuvāpy adhīyānaḥ taṁ devās sthaviram viduḥ ||
(Manu-smṛti: 2.156)
“One does not become wise [i.e., venerable, lit., ‘an elder’] just because one has grey hair on one’s head. The devas recognize as an elder one who, although young, remains engaged in studying.”
na hāyanair na palitair na vittena na bandhubhiḥ |
ṛṣayaś cakrire dharmaṁ yo’nūcānaḥ sa no mahān ||
(Mahābhārata: 9.50.47; Manu-smṛti: 2.154)
“[The youthful Sārasvata Muni says to an assembly of elder ṛṣis who had requested him to teach them the Vedas after they had neglected to study them for many years during a prolonged famine and thus forgotten how to recite the Vedas in full and proper completion:] Neither by years, nor by grey hairs, nor by wealth, nor by relations have ṛṣis performed dharma. One who is devoted to learning [i.e., one who is well-versed in the śāstra so as to be able to read, repeat, and teach it to others] is the great one amongst us [i.e., a ṛṣi’s performance of dharma is constituted principally of learning, understanding, and teaching the śāstra].”
brahmacaryaṁ sadā rakṣed aṣṭadhā maithunaṁ pṛthak |
smaraṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ keliḥ prekṣaṇaṁ guhya-bhāṣaṇam ||
saṅkalpo’dhyavasāyaś ca kriyā-niṣpattir eva ca |
etan maithunam aṣṭāṅgaṁ pravadanti manīṣiṇaḥ ||
(Dakṣa Smṛti: 7.31–33)
“One should always observe brahmacarya to the exclusion of eightfold intercourse. Remembering, mentioning, playing [alt., joking], looking, conversing privately, fancying, pursuing, and completing the act [itself]—the wise say these are the eight aspects of intercourse. The opposite of these are the eight characteristics of brahmacarya.”
karmārpaṇaṁ dvividham—bhagavat-prīṇana-rūpaṁ, tasmiṁs tat-tyāga-rūpaṁ ceti | … atra nimittāni ca trīṇi—kāmanā, naiṣkarmyaṁ, bhakti-mātraṁ ceti | niṣkāmatvaṁ tu kevalaṁ na sambhavati, yad yad dhi kurute jantus tat tat kāmasya ceṣṭitam ity ukteḥ | atra kāmanā-naiṣkarmyayoḥ prāyaḥ karma-tyāgaḥ | prīṇanaṁ tu tad-ābhāsa eva, svārtha-paratvāt | bhaktau punaḥ prīṇanam eva, bhaktes tu tad-eka-jīvanatvāt | … parama-bhaktās tu bhagavat-paritoṣaṇaṁ prīṇanam eva prārthayante … |
(Bhakti Sandarbha: 224)
“Offering karma [to Bhagavān] is of two types: that in the form of pleasing Bhagavān (Bhagavat-prīṇana) [i.e., making an offering of one’s karma to please Bhagavān], and in the form of giving that [i.e., karma] to him [i.e., offering karma to him without any intention to please him]. … There are three causes in this regard [i.e., the desired object of those who offer their karma to Bhagavān is one of three types]: a desire (kāmanā) [i.e., the fulfillment of a particular worldly desire], freedom from karma (naiṣkarmya) [i.e., attaining mukti], and bhakti alone [i.e., attaining bhakti for its own sake]. Pure desirelessness (niṣkāmatva) is not at all possible, as per the statement [in Manu-smṛti 2.4], ‘Indeed anything a person does is an act of desire.’ Herein [i.e., in regard to these three causes], in the case of [the causes of] desire (kāmanā) and naiṣkarmya, for the most part giving up of karma occurs [i.e., these two causes mostly fall into the second of the two aforementioned categories of offering karma to Bhagavān, that is, simply giving over one’s karma to Bhagavān without any specific intent to please him]. Pleasing [Bhagavān] is present only in appearance in them [i.e., it is not really there] because their [i.e., these actions] being self-interested. In the case of bhakti [i.e., in the case of offering karma to Bhagavān with the desire only of attaining bhakti], on the contrary, pleasing [Bhagavān] alone is present [in such an offering of karma] because of that [i.e., pleasing Bhagavān] being the very life of bhakti. … Great bhaktas pray only for the complete satisfaction of Bhāgavan, that is, pleasing [Bhagavān].”
go-māṁsā-khādako yas tu viruddhaṁ bahu bhāṣate |
sarvācāra-vihīnaś ca mleccha ity abhidhīyate ||
(Baudhāyana Smṛti)
“One who eats cow meat, speaks perversely and excessively, and is devoid of all proper conduct is called a mleccha.”
yo’vamanyeta te mūle hetu-śāstrāśrayād dvijaḥ |
sa sādhubhir bahiṣkāryo nāstiko veda-nindakaḥ ||
(Manu Smṛti: 2.11)
“A twice-born who disregards those two sources [of instruction, i.e., the Śruti and Smṛti] on account of adherence to hetu-śāstra [i.e., nyāya-śāstra] is an unbeliever (nāstika), a defamer of the Veda, and to be shunned by sādhus.”
satyaṁ brūyāt priyaṁ brūyān na brūyāt satyam apriyaṁ |
priyaṁ ca nānṛtaṁ brūyād eṣa dharmaḥ sanātanaḥ ||
(Manu Smṛti: 4.138)
“Speak the truth, and speak that which is pleasant. Do not speak an unpleasant truth, and do not speak a pleasant untruth. This is the age-old dharma.”
ekaḥ prajāyate jantur eka eva pralīyate |
eko’nubhuṅkte sukṛtam eka eva ca duṣkṛtam ||
(Manu Saṁhitā: 4.240)
“A living being is born alone, indeed dies alone, and experiences the results of good deeds alone and indeed the results of bad deeds alone.”
devarṣi-bhūtāpta-nṛṇāṁ pitṝṇāṁ
na kiṅkaro nāyam ṛṇī ca rājan |
sarvātmanā yaḥ śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ
gato mukundaṁ parihṛtya kartam ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.5.41)
“O King, one who has forsaken one’s duties and taken shelter completely in the ultimate shelterer, Mukunda, is neither a servant of, nor a debtor to, the devas, the ṛṣis, [other] living beings, relatives, humanity, or ancestors.”
tasmāt tvam uddhavotsṛjya codanāṁ praticodanām |
pravṛttiñ ca nivṛttiñ ca śrotavyaṁ śrutam eva ca ||
mām ekam eva śaraṇam ātmānaṁ sarva-dehinām |
yāhi sarvātma-bhāvena mayā syā hy akuto-bhayaḥ ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.12.14–5)
“Therefore, O Uddhava, abandoning injunctions and prohibitions [i.e., the injunctions and prohibitions given in the Śruti and the Smṛti], engagement and resignation [i.e., the dharmas of a gṛhastha and of a sannyāsī], and that which is to be heard and that which has been heard [i.e., all that pertains to such dharmas and the injunctions and prohibitions related to them in śāstra; alt., all else that is to be heard from śāstra, that is, all that is said in śāstra related to the jñāna-mārga], you should take shelter exclusively in me alone, the Ātmā of all embodied beings, with the full existence of your self. With me [i.e., thus becoming situated in my shelter], be completely fearless.”
