Manava Dharmashastra 1.1.4

1.1.4

manurnāma kaścitpuruṣaviśeṣo'nekavedaśākhādhyayana vijñānānuṣṭhānasampannaḥ smṛtiparamparāprasiddhaḥ | tamabhigamyābhimukhyena tatsamīpaṃ gatvā, vyāpārā Cornertyāgena, na yadacchayā, saṃgamya | anena cābhigamanaprayatnena pṛcchyamānavastugauravaṃ vaktuśca prāmāṇyaṃ khyāpyate | na hyakuśalaḥ prativacane yatnena pṛcchyate āgatya | ekāgramāsīnamekāgraṃ sthitamekāgraṃ santam | na tvatra bṛsyādyupaveśanamāsanam, anupayogāt | āsanena svasthavṛttittā lakṣyate | tathābhūtaḥ prativacanasamartho bhavati | 'abhigamyeti' kevala eva manuḥ karma | praśnakriyāyāstvekāgramāsīnamiti viśeṣaṇam | kuśalapraśnānurūpakathā pravṛttyādinaikāgramavikṣiptamanaskaṃ jñātvā praśnaśravaṇe dattāvadhānamidaṃ vacanamabruvan | ekāgraśabdo rūḍhyā niścalatāmāha | pratyāhāreṇa parihṛtarāgādidoṣasaṃsargasya vikalpānivṛttau tattvāvabodhacintāyāṃ manasaḥ sthairyamekāgratā | tathābhūta eva ca saṃnihitarūpaśabdādiviṣayāvadhāraṇe yogyo bhavati, na sadasadvikalpayuktaḥ | athavā yogato'graśabdo manasi vartate, arthagrahaṇe cakṣurādibhyo'gragāmitvāt | prathamapravṛttiyuktaḥ puraḥsaro loke'gra ucyate | ekasmin dhyeye grāhye vā'gramasyeti vigrahaḥ, vyadhikaraṇānāmapi bahuvrīhirgamakatvāt | atrāpi vyākṣepānivṛttirevaikāgratā | pratipūjya yathānyāyam | nyāyaḥ śāstravihitā maryādā-tāmanatikramyayādṛśī śāstreṇābhivādanāpāsanādikā guroḥ prathamopasarpaṇe pūjā vihitā tathā pūjayitvā, bhaktyādarā darśayitvā |

‘Manu’ is the name of a particular person known, in long-continued tradition, as having studied several Vedic texts, as knowing their meaning and as practising the precepts therein contained;—‘Eating approached’ him, i.e., having gone forward near him, intentionally, giving up all other actions, and not by mere chance, having met with him the special effort made by the Sages to get near Manu shows the importance of the subject-matter of their question, as also the authoritative and trustworthy character of the expounder; a man who is not capable of rightly expounding a subject is never questioned by persons going up to him for that purpose.—‘Whose mind was calm and collected’—‘Seated with mind calm and collected,’—i.e., whose mind was in a tranquil state; and it does not mean ṭhat he was actually seated upon a mat, or some such seat; os there would be no point in stating this; in fact the word ‘seated’ merely connotes calmness; it is only when one’s mind is calm that he is capable of answering questions.—‘Having approached’—has for its object simply ‘Manu’; ‘seated with mind calm and collected’ being an adverbial clause modifying the act of ‘questioning’ (by the sages). The sense of the sentence thus is—‘they said to him the following words, on finding, from the manner in which he engaged into conversation with them in making enquiries about their welfare, that his mind was not preoccupied, but calm and collected, and he was therefore attentive to their questioning.’

The term ‘ekāgra,’ by ordinary usage, connotes what is meant by (he term is steadiness of the mind, it being concentrated upon the contemplation of the knowledge of truth, following upon the cessation of all doubts and illusions of the person in whom the contact of all defects of passion and the like is set aside by inhibition. It is only when one h as his mind in this condition that he is capable of apprehending sound and other objects that lie within reach of his senses; which is not the case when he is in doubt as to the object being a real entity or otherwise.—Or, etymologically the term ‘agra’ denotes the mind, by reason of the fact that in the act of apprehending things it is the Mind that goes before (agragāmi) the Eye and other sense-organs; and in ordinary parlance that which acts first or goes ahead, is called ‘agra’;—so that the compound ‘ekāgra’ is to be expounded as ‘he who has his agra, or Mind, fixed upon one perceptible object’; there being nothing incongruous in a Bahuvrīhi Compound being taken, if its sense demands it, as referring to things that are not co-existent. By this explanation also ‘ekāgra’ connotes absence of distraction.

‘Saving paid their respects in due form’—‘Due form’ stands for the rule prescribed in the scriptures; and they did not transgress any such rule; the scriptures have laid down the rule that on first approaching his Teacher, the pupil should offer his obeisance, attend upon him, and so forth; and it was in this prescribed manner that the sages paid their respects to Manu; which means that they showed due devotion and respect.