Manava Dharmashastra 2.1.3

2.1.3

rāgadveṣapradhānatvābhāvaścātra pratipādyate | na sarveṇa sarvaṃ tadabhāvayogyāvasthāgatasya hetoranvayamucchidyate | tathā ca śrutiḥ-“na ha vai saśarīrasya sataḥ priyāpriyayorapahatirastīti” | rāgo viṣayopabhogagṛdhnutā | tatpratiṣedhavyāpāro dveṣaḥ | lobho mātsaryamasādhāraṇyenaspṛhā, parasya caitanmābhūdvibhavakhyātyādi | cittadharmā ete | athavā cetanāvatsu strīsutasuhṛdbāndhavādiṣu sneho rāgaḥ; lobho'cetaneṣvapi dhanādiṣu spṛhā | hṛdayena | hṛdayaśabdena cittamācaṣṭe | anujñānaṃ ca hṛdayasya prasādaḥ | eṣā hi sthitiḥ | antarhṛdayavarttīni buddhyāditattvāni | yadyapi bāhyahiṃsāmadyabhakṣaṇādiṣu mūḍhā dharmabuddhyā pravarttante, tathā'pi hṛdayākrośanaṃ teṣāṃ bhavati | vaidike tvanuṣṭhāne parituṣyati manaḥ| tadasya sarvasyāyamarthaḥ | na mayā tādṛśo dharma ucyate yatraite doṣāḥ santi | kintu ya evaṃvidhairmahātmabhiranuṣṭhīyate svayaṃ ca yatra cittaṃ pravarttayati vā | ata ādarātiśaya ucyamāneṣu dharmeṣu yuktaḥ | athavā hṛdayaṃ vedaḥ | sa hyadhīto bhāvanārūpeṇa hṛdayasthito 'hṛdayam' | tataśca tritayamatropāttam | yadi tāvadavicārryaiva svāgrahātkācitpravṛttiḥ kasyacittathā'pyatraiva yuktā | etaddhṛdayenābhyanujñāta ityanenocyate | athāpyayaṃ nyāyo 'mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ' iti, tadapyatraivāsti | vidvāṃso hyatra niṣkāmāḥ pravṛttapūrvā anindyāśca loke | prathāprāmāṇikī pravṛttiḥ, sā'pi vedaprāmāṇyātsiddhaiveti | sarvaprakāraṃ pravṛttyābhimukhyamanena janyate |

What is really meant is the absence of undue predominance of Love and Hate (and not absolute absence); because no man, even though there be forces at work tending to make him free from Love and Hate, can get rid of these entirely, as declared by Śruti (Chāndogya Upaniṣad, 8-12-1)—‘So long as one has a body, there can be no cessation of the agreeable and the disagreeable.’

‘Love’ here stands for hankering after the enjoyment of things; and ‘Hate’ is that which leads one to avoid or escape from a certain thing. ‘Greed’ is the jealous hankering after the sole possession of an object; the feeling being in the form ‘may all this prosperity, fame and the like not belong to any other person.’ All these are functions of the Mind. Or, ‘Love’ may be taken as standing for the affection one feels towards sentient beings, like one’s wife, son, relations and so forth; and ‘greed’ for the longing that one has for riches and such insentient things.

‘By the heart.’—‘Heart’ here stands for the Mind;—‘sanction’ is satisfaction of mind. The real condition of things is this: Buḍḍhi and other principles are located inside the Heart; and even though deluded persons have recourse to such unrighteous acts as the killing of animals apart from sacrifices, the eating of prohibited food and so forth,—thinking them to be right ‘Dharma,’—yet they have compunctions in their hearts; in the case of the performance of actions prescribed in the Veda, on the other hand, the Mind feels satisfied.

The sense of all this is as follows:—‘The Dharma that I am going to expound is not one beset with the said defects;—it is one that is actually followed by high-souled persons and towards which the Mind itself urges us. For these reasons it is only right that great regard should be paid to the Dharmas that are going to be propounded.’

Or, ‘Heart’ may be taken as standing for the Veda; the Veda, duly studied and borne within the heart in the form of ideas and conceptions, is called ‘heart.’

The present statement refers to the following three cases:—(1) when a person, without much thought, undertakes an action, through sheer impulse,—it must be right; this is what is meant by ‘sanctioned by the heart’;—(2) the same expression also includes the case when one acts according to custom, depending upon the dictum ‘that is the right path by which great men have gone’;—(3) when ‘learned’ persons, without any ulterior motives, are found to act in a certain manner they are never blamed for it, and even when people do not find their action authorised (by the Veda), they accept the fact that it must be based upon the Veda. In every way the present verse makes men have recourse to activity.