Manava Dharmashastra 3.83

3.83

pūrvasyopasaṃhāraḥ | sarvagrahaṇādanyeṣāmapi mṛgakukkuṭamārjārarādīnāṃ grāse sambhavatāmannenopakartavyam | arcatiranugrahe na pūjāyāṃ, śvādīnāṃ tadasambhavāt | avajñānapratiṣedhārthaṃ caivamupāttaṃ, nānugṛhṇātīti paṭhitam | paraṃ sthānaṃ dhāma brahma prāpnoti | payarjunau | na saṃsārayonīrbahvīrbhrāmyati | "kiṃpunaretatphalavidhānam" | neti brūmaḥ | nityo'yaṃ vidhirityuktam | nitye ca phalaśravaṇamarthavādaḥ | na hyatra vidhiḥ śrūyate | gacchatītivartamānopadeśo'yam | tejomūrtiḥ kevalatejaḥśarīraḥ, na pāñcabhautikaṃ śarīramabhisambadhyate, bodhasvabhāva eva bhavati | niṣkalmaṣatā vā'nena lakṣyate | śuddhaprakṛtirbhavatītyarthaḥ | bhūtānukampanaṃ cedam | asati śāstrātikrame pāpasambandhasyābhāvācchuddhatā yuktā | itarathā pāpasya malarūpatvānna tejomūrtiḥ | asati ca pāpe paraṃ dhāma śreṣṭhamaduḥkharūpaṃ prāpnotītyetadapi yuktameva |

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This sums up what has gone before.

The epithet ‘all’ indicates that one should help with food the deer, the cock, the cat and such other animals as grow in the villages.

‘Honour’ here denotes help, not worship; us worship could not apply to dogs, &c. In fact, what is meant is the forbidding of ill-treatment; and it in with this view that the author has not used the term ‘help.’

‘Highest place’—i.e., he reaches Brahman.

‘By the straight path’—i.e., he has not to wander through an endless series of births as different animals.

Question—“Is this verse meant to lay down the reward (to be obtained)?”

We say—no. For it has already been explained that the injunction of the offerings is an obligatory one; and if a reward happen to be mentioned in connection with an obligatory act, it can only be taken as a commendatory description. Nor is any injunctive word found in the verse; the word used is ‘goes,’ in the present tense.

‘With a body of light’—i.e., with a body made up of light only; he is no longer tramelled with a body made up of the five elemental substances; i.e., he becomes of the nature of pure Consciousness. Or, the term may be takeu as connoting freedom from sin; the meaning being that he becomes pure of character. The act done is one of helping all beings; and when the man does not transgress any scriptural injunctions, he incurs no sin; and hence it is only right that he should be pure. If it were otherwise, then sin being an impurity, he could never have a body of light. There being no sin in him, it is only natural that the man should reach the highest place, which consists in a state free from all pain and suffering.—(93)