Manava Dharmashastra 6.84

6.84

idamiti vedākhyaṃ brahmācaṣṭe | so'pi brahmaiva | tathā coktaṃ"dve brahmaṇī veditavye śabdabrahma paraṃ ca yat | śabdabrahmaṇi niṣṇātaḥ paraṃ brahmādhigacchati" | iti | adhyayanaṃ vijñānaṃ, tadarthānuṣṭhānena 'niṣṇātatā' | pūrvasya vidherayamarthavādaḥ | ajñānāmatadarthavidāṃ japādiṣvadhikāreṇa | tathā bhagavatā vyāsena siddhirjapakānāṃ darśitā | athavā 'ajñā' anātmajñāḥ śākhānavagatātmatattvā api tadupāsanāparā alabdhacittasthairyāḥ teṣāṃ vedaḥ 'śaraṇam' | japena karmānuṣṭhānena tāvatyā ca vidyayā | narakeṣu kīṭapataṅgādiyoniṣu cānupapatteḥ | idameva vijānatām | kathaṃ punarviduṣāṃ śaraṇamata āha | idamanvicchatāṃ svargam | etāvadete karmakāṇḍajñā ātmanyalabdhamanaḥ pratiṣṭhā vā, teṣāṃ karmānuṣṭhānātsvargādiphalaṃ labhyate | itare tyaktasaṅgāḥ prakṣīṇarāgādidoṣā jñātātmatattvopāsanāparāsteṣāmānantyamapunarāvṛttiriti | sarveṣāṃ veda eva śaraṇaṃ, nānyaḥ panthā astītyarthaḥ |

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘This’ refers to the Veda; which also is Brahman; as has been declared in the following words—‘Two Brahmans have to be recognised—the Verbal Brahman and the Supreme Brahman; one who is thoroughly acquainted with the Verbal Brahman reaches the Supreme One’;—one is said to become ‘acquainted with the Veda’ when he studies it, understands it and acts according to its injunctions.

This verse is a commendatory supplement to the foregoing injunction.

‘For the ignorant’—those who do not understand the meaning of Vedic texts, and are yet entitled to and desirous of their reciting. The revered Vyāsa has declared success for the mere reciter. Or, ‘ignorant’ may mean those not knowing the true nature of the Soul; i.e., those who have not realised, with the help of the scriptures, the real nature of the Soul, and though engaged in meditation upon it, have not yet acquired the requisite steadiness of the mind.

For these people the Veda is the ‘refuge’; as by reciting it, acting in accordance with it and acquiring some knowledge of it, they are saved from falling into the life of worms and insects, or into hell.

‘This for the learned.’ The text proceeds to show how. it is the ‘refuge’ for the learned—‘this for those seeking heaven;’—i.e., those who know only the Ritualistic Sections of the Veda, and have not acquired any firm conviction regarding the Soul; and when these people perform the rites laid down in the Veda, they obtain heaven and other rewards. Others however, who have renounced all attachment and destroyed all passions, and are intent upon the contemplation of the real nature of the Soul, obtain ‘immortality’, i.e., non-return to the cycle of births and deaths.

For all these the Veda is the only ‘refuge’, and there is no other path. Such is the sense of the verse—(84)