Institutes of Vishnu — XXVIII.

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# XXVIII.

1. 1.Now students shall dwell at their Guru's (spiritual teacher's) house.

1. 1.They shall recite their morning and evening prayers.

1. 1.(A student) shall mutter the morning prayer standing, and the evening prayer sitting.

1. 1.He shall perform twice a day (in the mornings and evenings) the religious acts of sprinkling the ground (round the altar) and of putting fuel on the fire.

1. 1.He must plunge into the waters like a stick.

[XXVIII. passim. Âsv. Grihya-s. I, 22; III, 7-9; Gobh. Grihya-s. II, 10, 42-III, 4; Pâr. Grihya-s. II, 4-6; Sânkh. Grihya-s. II, 6, 9-12; III, 1.--1. Âpast. I, 1, 2, 11.--3. M. II, 101; Y. I, 24, 25; Gaut. II, 11.--4. M. II, 108; Y. I, 25; Âpast. I, 1, 4, 16.--5. Âpast. I, 1, 2, 30.--6, 7. M. II, 73, 182; Y. I, 27; Âpast. I, 2, 5, 27; I, 1, 4, 23; Gaut. I, 54; II, 29, 30.--8. M. II, 41-47; Y. I, 29; Âpast. I, 1, 2, 33-I, 1, 3, 10; Gaut. I, 15, 16, 22.--9, 10. M. II, 183, 184, 51; Y. I, 29, 31; Âpast. I, 1, 3, 25, 32; Gaut II, 35, 37-39.--11, 12. M. II, 177-179, &c.; Y. I, 33. &c.; Âpast. I, 1, 2, 23-28, &c.; Gaut II, 13, &c.--13-23. M. II, 194, 71, 72. 122-124, 195-198; Âpast. I, 2, 4, 28; I, 2, 5, 12, 23; I, 2, 6, 5-9, 14; Gaut. II, 21, 25-28; I, 52; II, 14.--17. Y. I, 26.--24-26. M. II, 199, 200.--27, 28. M. II, 204; Âpast. I, 2, 8, II, 13.--29, 30. M. II, 205; Âpast. I, 2, 8, 19-21.--31-33. M. II, 208, 209; Âpast. I, 2, 7, 28, 30; Gaut. II, 31, 32.--34-36. M. III, 2; II, 168.--37-40. M. II, 169-172; Y II, 39; Âpast. I, 1, 1, 15-17; Gaut. I, 8.--41. M. II, 219; Âpast. I, 1, 2, 31, 32; Gaut. I, 27.---42. M. II, 245; Y. I, 51; Âpast. I, 11, 30, 1; Gaut. IX, I.--43-46. M. II, 243, 247, 248; Y. I, 49; Âpast. I, 2, 4, 29; Gaut. II, 5-8.--47. M. II, 249; Gaut. III. 9.--48-53. M XI, 121, 123, 124; II, 181, 187, 220.--51, 52. Y. III, 218, 281; Gaut. XXIII, 20.

1. 1.'I.e. after the performance of the initiation ceremony.' (Nand.)

1. 1.The sense of this injunction, according to Nand., is, that he must not pronounce any bathing Mantras. But more probably it {footnote p. 117} is meant, that he shall swim motionless like a stick (see Âpast. I, 1, 2, 30, with Dr. Bühler's note). According to a third explanation, which is mentioned both by Haradatta and by Devapâla in his Commentary on the Kâthaka Grihya-sûtra, the sense would be, that he is not allowed, while bathing, to rub his skin, in order to clean himself with bathing powder and the like.]

1. 1.Let him study when called (by his teacher).

1. 1.He shall act so as to please his Guru (spiritual teacher) and to be serviceable to him.

1. 1.He shall wear his girdle, his staff, his skin, and his sacrificial string.

1. 1.He shall go begging at the houses of virtuous persons, excepting those of his Guru's (and of his own) relatives.

1. 1.He may eat (every morning and evening) some of the food collected by begging, after having received permission to do so from his Guru.

1. 1.He must avoid Srâddhas, factitious salt, food turned sour, stale food, dancing, singing, women, honey, meat, ointments, remnants of the food (of other persons than his teacher), the killing of living beings, and rude speeches.

12.. He must occupy a low couch.

1. 1.He must rise before his Guru and go to rest after him.

1. 1.He must salute his Guru, after having performed his morning devotion.

1. 1.Let him embrace his feet with crossed hands.

[11. Nand. interprets sukta, 'food turned sour,' by 'rude speeches,' because if taken in its other meaning, it would be included in the next term, paryushita, 'stale food.' However, if Nand.'s interpretation were followed, it would coincide with the last term of this enumeration, aslîla, 'rude speeches;' and its position between two articles of food renders the above interpretation more plausible.]

1. 1.The right foot with his right hand, and the left foot with his left.

1. 1.After the salutation (abhivâdaye, 'I salute') he must mention his own name and add the word 'bhos' (Venerable Sir) at the end of his address.

1. 1.He must not speak to his Guru while he is himself standing, or sitting, or lying, or eating, or averting his face.

1. 1.And let him speak, if his teacher sits, standing up; if he walks, advancing towards him; if he is coming near, meeting him; if he runs, running after him;

1. 1.If his face is averted, turning round so as to face him;

1. 1.If he is at some distance, approaching him;

1. 1.If he is in a reclining position, bending to him;

1. 1.Let him not sit in a careless attitude (such as e. g. having a cloth tied round his legs and knees, while sitting on his hams) before the eyes of his teacher,

1. 1.Neither must he pronounce his mere name (without adding to it the word Srî or a similar term at the beginning).

1. 1.He must not mimic his gait, his manner, his speech, and so on.

1. 1.Where his Guru is censured or foully belied, there let him not stay.

1. 1.Nor must he sit on the same seat with him,

1. 1.Unless it be on a rock, on a wooden bench, in a boat, or in a carriage.

[28. Thus according to Kullûka, (on M. II, 204). Nand. takes the term sîlaphalaka as a compound denoting a stone seat.']

1. 1.If his teacher's teacher is near, let him behave towards him as if he were his own teacher.

1. 1.He must nor salute his own Gurus without his teacher's leave.

1. 1.Let him behave towards the son of his teacher, who teaches him the Veda, as towards his teacher, even though he be younger or of an equal age with himself;

1. 1.But he must not wash his feet,

1. 1.Nor eat the leaving of his food.

1. 1.Thus let him acquire by heart one Veda, or two Vedas, or (all) the Vedas.

1. 1.Thereupon, the Vedângas (that treating of phonetics and the rest).

1. 1.He who, not having studied the Veda, applies himself to another study, will degrade himself, and his progeny with him, to the state of a Sûdra.

1. 1.From the mother is the first birth; the second, from the girding with the sacrificial string.

1. 1.In the latter, the Sâvitrî hymn is his mother, and the teacher his father.

1. 1.It is this which entitles members of the three higher castes to the designation of 'the twice-born.'

1. 1.Previous to his being girded with the sacrificial string, a member of these castes is similar to a Sûdra (and not allowed to study the Veda).

[30. Nand. here interprets Guru by 'a paternal uncle and the rest.'

1. 1.This rule refers to a son of his spiritual teacher, who teaches him one or two chapters of the Veda, while the teacher himself is gone out for bathing or some such reason. Vâ, 'or,' is added in order to include a son of the teacher, who is himself a pupil, as Manu (II, 208) says. (Nand.)

1. 1.See Max Müller, Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 108 seq.

1. 1.Rig-Veda, III, 62, 10.]

1. 1.A student shall shave all his hair, or wear it tied in one lock.

1. 1.After having mastered the Veda, let him take leave of his teacher and bathe, after having presented, him with a gift.

1. 1.Or let him spend the remainder of his life at his teacher's house.

1. 1.If, while he is living there, his teacher should die, let him behave to his teacher's son as towards his teacher himself;

1. 1.Or towards one of his wives, who is equal to him in caste.

1. 1.On failure of such, let him pay homage to the fire, and live as a perpetual student.

1. 1.A Brâhmana who passes thus without tiring (of the discharge of his duties) the time of his studentship will attain to the most exalted heavenly abode (that of Brahman) after his death, and will not be born again in this world.

1. 1.A voluntary effusion of the semen by a twice-born youth (in sexual intercourse with a woman), during the period of his studentship, has been pronounced a transgression of the rule prescribed for students by expounders of the Vedas well acquainted with the system of duties.

1. 1.Having loaded himself with that crime, be must go begging to seven houses, clothed only with the skin of an ass, and proclaiming his deed.

[42. After the solemn bath (see Âsv. III, 8, 9; Gobh. III, 4; Pâr. II, 6; Sânkh. III, 1), which terminates the period of studentship, the student, who is henceforth called Snâtaka, 'one who has bathed,' is allowed to return home.

1. 1.'According to Nand., the particle vâ, 'or,' is used in order to include another alternative, that of living with an old fellow-student, as directed by Gautama, III, 8.]

1. 1.Eating once a day only a meal consisting of the alms obtained at those (houses), and bathing at the three Savanas (dawn, noon, and evening), he will be absolved from guilt at the end of the year.

1. 1.After an involuntary effusion of the semen during sleep, a twice-born student must bathe (on the next morning), worship the sun (by offerings of perfumes and the like), and mutter three times the Mantra, 'Again shall my strength return to me.'

1. 1.He who for seven days omits to collect alms and to kindle the sacred fire, must perform the penance of an Avakîrnin (breaker of his vow), provided that he has not been prevented from the discharge of his duties by an illness.

1. 1.If the sun should rise or set while a student is purposely indulging in sleep, ignoring (the precepts of law), he must fast for a day, muttering (the Gâyatrî one thousand and eight times).

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