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Vishnu-smriti (Vishnu sutra / Vaishnava Dharmasâstra)
The Ascetic
XCVI.
1. After having passed through the first three orders and annihilated passion, he must offer an oblation to Pragâpati, in which he bestows all his wealth (upon priests) as fee for the performance of the sacrifice, and enter the order of ascetics.
2. Having reposited the fires in his own mind, he must enter the village, in order to collect alms, (but never for any other purpose).
3. He must beg food at seven houses.
4. If he does not get food (at one house), he must not grieve.1
5, He must not beg of another ascetic.
6. When the servants have had their meal, when the dishes have been removed, let him beg food (consisting of the leavings).
7. (He must receive the food) in an earthen vessel, or in a wooden bowl, or in a vessel made of the bottle-gourd.
8. He must cleanse those vessels with water.
9. He must shun food obtained by humble salutation.
10. He must live in an empty house.2
11. Or (he must) live at the root of a tree.3
12. He must not stay for more than one night in one village (except during the rainy season).
13. His only dress must be a small piece of cloth worn over the privities.
14. He must set down his feet purified by looking down.4
15. He must drink water purified (by straining it) with a cloth.
16. He must utter speeches purified by truth.
17. He must perform acts purified by his mind.5
18. He must neither wish for death nor for (a long) life.
19. He must bear abuse patiently.
20. He must treat no one with contempt.
21. He must not pronounce a benediction.6
22. He must not salute any one reverentially.7
23. Should one man chop his one arm with an axe, and another sprinkle his other arm with sandal, he must neither curse the one in his mind, nor bless the other.
24. He must constantly be intent upon stopping his breath, upon retention of the image formed in his mind, and upon meditation.8
25. He must reflect upon the transitoriness of the passage through mundane existence;
26. And upon the impure nature of the body;
27. And upon the destruction of beauty by old age;
28. And upon the pain arising from diseases bodily, mental, or due to an excess (of the bile, &c.)9
29. And upon (the pain arising from) the (five) naturally inherent (affections).10
30. On his having to dwell in an embryo, covered with everlasting darkness;
31. And on (his having to dwell) between urine and fæces;
32. On his having to suffer, (as an embryo,) pain from the cold and hot. (food and drink, which his mother happens to have taken);
33, On the dreadful pain which he has to suffer, at the time of his birth, while the embryo is coming forth from the narrowness of the womb;
34. On his ignorance and his dependency upon his (parents and other) Gurus in childhood;
35. On the manifold anxieties arising from the study of the Veda (and from the other obligations of a student);
36. And (on the anxieties arising) in youth from not obtaining the objects of pleasure, and upon the abode in bell (ordained as punishment) for enjoying them, after they have been obtained unlawfully;
37. On the union with those whom we hate, and the separation from those whom we love;
38. On the fearful agonies of hell;
39. And (on the agonies) that have to be suffered in the passage of the soul through the bodies of animals (and of plants).
40. (And let him reflect thus that) there is no pleasure to be met with in this never-ceasing passage of the soul through mundane existence;
41. '(And that) even what is called pleasure, on account of the absence of pain, is of a transient nature;
42. (And that) he who is unable to enjoy such pleasures (from sickness or some such cause), or who is unable to procure them (from poverty), suffers severe pangs.
43. He must recognise this human frame to consist of seven elements. blood, flesh,
44. Those elements are, adeps, scrum of flesh, bone, marrow, and semen.
45. It is covered with skin.
46. And it has a nasty smell.11
47. It is the receptacle of (the above-named) impure substances (adeps and the rest).
48. Though surrounded by a hundred pleasures, it is subject to change.12
49. Though carefully supported (by elixirs and the like), it is subject to destruction.
50. It is the stay of carnal desire, wrath, greed, folly, pride, and selfishness.
51. It consists of earth, water, fire, air, and ether.13
52. it is provided with bone, tubular vessels (carrying bile and phlegm through the body), tubes (conducting the vital airs), and sinews.
53. It is endowed with the quality of ragas (passion).
54. It is covered with six skins.
55. It is kept together by three hundred and sixty bones.
56. They are distributed (as follows):
57. The teeth together with their receptacles are sixty-four in number.
58. There are twenty nails.
59. There are as many bones to the hands and feet (one at the root of each finger and toe).
60. There are sixty joints to the fingers and toes.
61. There are two (bones) to the two heels.
62. There are four to the ankles.
63. There are four to the elbows.
64. There are two to the shanks.
65. There are two to the knees and two to the cheeks.
66. (There are two) to the thighs and (two) to the shoulders.
67. (There are two) to the lower part of the temples, (two) to the palate, and (two) to the hips.
68. There is one bone to the organs of generation.
69. The backbone consists of forty-five (bones).
70. The neck consists of fifteen (bones).
71. The collar-bone consists of one (bone on each side).
72. The jaw likewise.
73. There are two (bones) at its root.
74. There are two (bones) to the forehead, (two) to the eyes, and (two) to the cheeks.,
75. The nose has one bone, the nose-bone.
76. The ribs together with the joints called 'arbuda,' and with the joints called 'sthânaka,' consist of seventy-two (bones).14
77. The breast contains seventeen bones.
78. There are two temporal bones.
79. The head has four skull-bones. Thus (the bones have been enumerated).
80. There are in this human frame seven hundred tubular vessels (carrying bile and phlegm through the body, or arteries).
81. Of sinews, there are nine hundred.
82. Of tubes (conducting the vital airs, or nerves), there are two hundred.
83. Of muscles, there are five hundred.
84. Of tubular vessels (or arteries), the branches of the smaller tubular vessels, there are twenty-nine Lakshas (two millions nine hundred thousand) and nine hundred and fifty-six.
85. Of hair-holes, of the hair of the beard and of the head, there are three hundred thousand.
86. Of sensitive parts of the body, there are one hundred and seven.
87. Of joints, there are two hundred.
89. Of (atoms of) hairs (of the body), there are fifty-four Kotis (or five hundred and forty millions) and sixty-seven Lakshas (making in all five hundred and forty-six millions and seven hundred thousand).
89. The navel, the principle of vital action (which dwells in the heart), the anus, semen, blood, the temples, the head, the throat, and the heart are the seats of the vital airs.
90. The two arms, the two legs, the belly, and the bead are the six limbs.
91. Adeps, marrow, the left lung, the navel, the right lung, the liver, the spleen, the small cavity of the heart, the kidneys, the bladder, the rectum, the stomach, the heart, the large cavity (intestine), the anus, the belly, and the two bowels in it (are the inner parts of the body).
92. The pupils of the eye, the eyelashes15, the outer parts of the cars, the ears themselves, the tragus of each ear, the cheeks, the eyebrows, the temples, the gums, the lips, the cavities of the loins, the two groins, the scrotum, the two kidneys and breasts of females, which are composed of phlegm, the uvula, the hindparts, the arms, the shanks, the thighs, the fleshy parts of the shanks and thighs, the palate, the two bones (or muscles) at the upper end of the bladder, the chin, the soft palate, and16 the nape of the neck: these are the 'places' (of vital energy) in the body.
93. Sound, tangibility, form or colour, savour, and odour are the (five) objects of sense.
94. Nose, eye, skin, tongue, and ear are the (five) organs of perception.
95. Hands, feet, anus, parts of generation, and tongue are the (five) organs of action.
96. Mind, intellect, the individual Self, and the indiscrete' are 'that which exceeds the senses.'17
97. This human frame, O Earth, is called 'field.' He who knows (how to enter and how to leave) it is denominated, by those conversant with the subject, 'the knower of the field' (i.e. Self or Soul).
98. Know me, O illustrious one, to be the Self of all fields (whether born from the womb, or arisen from an egg, or from sweat, or from a germ or shoot). Those striving after final emancipation must constantly seek to understand the 'field' and to obtain a knowledge of the knower of the field.
Footnote
1. 'This implies that he must not rejoice if he does get it, as Manu (VI, 67) says.' (Nand.)
2. 'Empty' means 'inhabited by no one else,' and implies that the house in question should be situated in a dark place, difficult of access. (Nand.)
3. 'The article vâ implies that he must live there alone.' (Nand.)
4. Nand. assigns as the reason of both these rules, 'lest he should not kill some insect.' Kullûka (on M. VI, 46) gives the same reason for the second rule, but the looking down, according to him, is ordained in. order that be may not accidentally tread upon a hair or other impure substance.
5. The sense of this Sûtra is, that in doubtful cases he must act as his mind prompts him to do. (Nand.)
6. 'The meaning is, that he must not utter a benediction when he has been reverentially saluted by any one. He must confine himself to saying, "O Nârâyana." Others explain, that he must not utter a benediction in begging food.' (Nand.)
7. 'The sense is, that he must not salute any one reverentially who has reverentially saluted him, nor return his greeting {footnote p. 281} otherwise than by saying, "O Nârâyana." Others explain, that he must not make an obeisance in begging food.' (Nand.)
8. Nand. quotes a passage of the Yogasâstra, which states that one Dhâranâ = three Prânâyâmas (stoppings or regulations of the breath). A passage of the Gâruda-purana quoted in the Petersburg Dictionary) states that one Dhâranâ = sixteen Prânâyâmas. I have taken the term dhâranâ in its ordinary acceptation of 'retention of an idea' (cf. Wilson, Vishnu-purâna V, 237) with regard to an analogous passage of Yâgñavalkya (III, 201), which is also quoted by Nand.
9. According to Nand,, the particle ka is used to include other diseases, love, anxiety or wrath, caused by enemies, and other mental pangs.
10. They are, ignorance, egotism, love, wrath, and dread of temporal suffering (Nand., according to Patañgali). The particle ka, according to Nand., is used in order to imply meditation upon the thousand births which man has to pass through, as stated by Yâgñavalkya (III, 64).
11. The particle ka, according to Nand., refers to the fact that the human body is defiled by the touch of impure objects.
12. 'The meaning is that, though food and drink and other sensual enjoyments abound, they may cause pain as well as pleasure by producing phlegm, &c.' (Nand.)
13. 'Earth,' i.e. the flesh and bone, &c.; 'water,' i.e. the blood; 'fire,' i. e. the digestive faculty, the eyesight, &c.; 'air,' i. e. the five vital airs; 'ether,' i. e. the space enclosed by the airs, in the mouth, in the belly, &c. (Nand.)
14. 'There are thirteen ribs to each flank, which makes in all twenty-six ribs. There are twenty joints to them in the breast, called "arbuda," and twenty-six joints in the back, called "sthânaka." which makes a total of seventy-two bones.' (Nand.)
15. Others interpret akshikûte, 'the eyelashes,' by 'the joints between the eyes and the nose.' (Nand.) See also Böhtlingk's new. Dictionary.
16. The use of the particle ka implies, according to Nand., that the feet, hands, and other limbs mentioned in an analogous passage of Yâgñavalkya (III, 99) have also to be included in this enumeration.
17. Nand. interprets avyaktam, 'the indiscrete,' by pradhânam, 'the chief one.' Both terms are in the. Sânkhya system of philosophy synonyms of prakriti, 'that which evolves or produces everything else.'
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