Manava Dharmashastra 6.94

6.94

saṃnyasyedanṛṇaḥ | yadā ṛṇatrayamapākīrṇaṃ tadā saṃnyāsa ityevamarthametat | samānakāle pravrajyāyāṃ nādhikriyate | evaṃ saṃnyāse'pi | vedāntānvidhivat | aviditavedāntārthasya nāsti saṃnyāsaḥ | yadyapi-svādhyāyavidhyanuṣṭhānāccittaṃ karma vidhiśāstravadvedāntajñānamapi, svādhyāyaśabdavācyatvāviśeṣāttathāpi vedāntānāṃ punarupanyāso viśeṣārthaḥ | tatpareṇa bhavitavyam | atha ‘saṃnyasyediti’ kaḥ śāstrārthaḥ | ko'yaṃ saṃnyāso nāma ? mamedamiti parigrahatyāgaḥ | “nanu vedasaṃnyāsikā ityuktam | na tvedaṃ pratīyate ‘vedasya vedārthasya vā saṃnyāsaḥ’, na ca vaidikakarmasiddhayarthā ye pratigrahādyastaiṣāṃ saṃnyāsaḥ |” ‘idamānantyamicchatāmiti’ (ślo0 84) adhyayanasya jñānaprādhānye'pi vihitatvāt | agnihotrādīnāṃ tu dravyasādhyatvādasati mamakāre tyāga eva | sa cāyaṃ dharmāpādako mṛtabhāryasya paraniṣṭhasya vā kṛtasaṃpratividhānasya | vājasaneyake hi paṭhyate “yadā praiṣyanmanyate'tha putramāha” ityādi | agnisamāropaṇaṃ ca tadā vihitam | jīrṇasya ca “jarayā ha vā etasmānmucyata” ityāmananti | yāni cādravyasādhyāni saṃdhyopāsanādīni nityāgnihotrādīni teṣāmaniṣedhāttatra ā antyāducchvāsādadhikāraḥ|

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Being freed from debts, should take to Renunciation.’—This text is meant to lay down that Renunciation should come only after the three debts have been paid off. Just as all men are not entitled to go forth as a mendicant at the same period of their life, so with Renunciation also.

‘Having duly learnt the Vedānta texts’.—There is no renunciation for one who has not learnt what is contained in the Vedānta texts. Though the performance of Rites, as well as the learning of the Vedānta, are both implied in the injunction of ‘Vedic study’—both kinds of texts being equally ‘Veda,’—yet the learning of the Vedānta texts has been reiterated here for the purpose of laying special stress on it; the sense being that ‘the man shall devote himself entirely to it’.

“What is the actual meaning of the injunction.—‘shall take to Renunciation’? What is thia that is called ‘Renunciation’?”

‘Renunciation’ consists of abandoning the notion that ‘this is mine’.

“What have been referred to above are the ‘Renouncers of the Veda’, from which it would seem as if there were ‘renunciation’ of the ‘Veda’ or of ‘what is contained in the Veda’,—and not that of such acts as the accepting of gifts and the like, which are done for the purpose of enabling the man to perform the acts enjoined by the Veda.”

In verse 84 above it has been declared that the Veda is the ‘refuge for those seeking immortality’; so that Vedic study is enjoined even for that stage at which Knowledge (and not Action) becomes the predominating factor in one’s life. In as much as the Agnihotra and other rites are accomplished with the help of material substances, they naturally become renounced when there is no sense of property (the notion of mine). Such ‘renunciation’ is meritorious only for one whose wife is dead, or who, having made arrangements for the upkeep of bis Fires, concentrates his attention on the Supreme Self. We read in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad—‘when he thinks of going away, he says to his son &c. &c.,’ which lays down the handing over of the Fires. This renunciation of the Fires is enjoined also for the decrepit old man—‘By decrepitude does he become absolved from this.’ Those rites however which do not take the aid of material substances—such for instance as the Twilight Prayers, the daily Agnihotra and the like—the performance of these being not forbidden, one remains entitled to it till his very last breath.—(94).