Atri Smriti 2

English (machine translation) 2

Language: English

2.16 — 1 part

2.1

One should perform breath controls according to rule, without indolence; / from sin committed day or night, one is purified that very moment.

2.2

Whatever guilt one incurs by deed, mind, or speech during the night, / by standing at the morning twilight junction [and] by breath controls, one is purified.

2.3

He who remains restraining himself repeatedly through breath controls— / ten, twelve, or beyond twenty-four—[attains] the highest austerity.

2.4

Silently reciting the Kautsa hymn, 'āpaḥ', and each triplet of Vasiṣṭha, / the Kūṣmāṇḍa mantras, and the Pāvamāna hymns, even a drinker of liquor becomes completely purified.

2.5

Reciting once 'asya pānīyam' and the Śivasaṅkalpa, / even after having stolen gold, one becomes spotless in an instant.

2.6

Studying 'haviṣmān', the hymn to Yama, and 'na tam aṃhaḥ', / and reciting the Puruṣasūkta, a violator of the guru's bed is freed.

2.7

Sixteen breath controls with the sacred utterances and with the praṇava, / performed day after day, purify even a slayer of an embryo in a month.

2.8

Or, submerging in water, one should recite the Aghamarṣaṇa three times; / Manu has stated that this is equal to the horse-sacrifice, king of rituals.

The sacrifice of undertaking belongs to the Kṣatriya, the sacrifice of oblation to the Vaiśyas, / the sacrifice of service belongs to the Śūdra, and the sacrifice of silent recitation to the foremost of the twice-born.

2.10

The sacrifice of silent recitation is ten times superior to the sacrifice of undertaking; / whispered, it is a hundred times; mental, it is handed down as a thousand times [as effective].

2.11

Whispered is declared to be with moving tongue and slight motion of the lips, / or separation of the lower lip; breathing is the mark of whispered; / with an unmoved face, through the mind alone, it is handed down as mental.

2.12

A thousand times being the best, a hundred middling, and ten the lowest, / the brahmin who recites the divine Gāyatrī is not tainted by sin.

2.13

A Kṣatriya crosses his misfortune by the strength of his arms; / the Vaiśya and Śūdra through wealth; the foremost of the twice-born through silent recitations and fire oblations.

2.14

Just as horses without a chariot, or a chariot without horses [are useless], / so is austerity without learning, or learning for one who lacks austerity.

2.15

Just as food combined with honey, or honey combined with food [is good], / even so austerity and learning combined constitute a great medicine.

2.16

A brahmin endowed with learning and austerity, devoted to silent recitation, / even if subsisting by blameworthy means, guilt does not affect him.

2.16.p1

Thus ends the second chapter in the Smṛti of Atri.

Linked texts (1)

Atrismṛti (Atrisaṃhitā) — Atri, Sanskrit