THE

LAWS OF MENU,

SON OF BRAHMA'.

CHAP. I.

On the Creation; with a Summary of the Contents.

I.

1. MENU sat reclined, with his attention fixed on CHAP.

one object, the Supreme GOD; when the divine Sages.

approached him, and, after mutual salutations in due

form, delivered the following address:

2. Deign, sovereign ruler, to apprize us of the sa-

'cred laws in their order, as they must be followed by

all the four classes, and by each of them, in their

'several degrees, together with the duties of every

'mixed class;

3. For thou, Lord, and thou only among mortals,

'knowest the true sense, the first principle, and the

prescribed ceremonies, of this universal, supernatural

Véda, unlimited in extent and unequalled in authority.'

4. HE,

B

CHAP.

I.

4. HE, whose powers were measureless, being thus

requested by the great Sages, whose thoughts were

profound, saluted them all with reverence, and gave

them a comprehensive answer, saying: Be it heard!

5. This universe existed only in the first divine idea

yet unexpanded, as if involved in darkness, impercep-
tible, undefinable, undiscoverable by reason, and un-
discovered by revelation, as if it were wholly immers-
'ed in sleep:

6. Then the sole self-existing power, himself undis-

cerned, but making this world discernible, with five

⚫ elements and other principles of nature, appeared with

' undiminished glory, expanding his idea, or dispelling

the gloom.

7.

HE, whom the mind alone can perceive, whose
essence eludes the external organs, who has no visible
'parts, who exists from eternity, even HE, the soul of
all beings, whom no being can comprehend, shone

¿ forth in person.

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8. HE, having willed to produce various beings from

' his own divine substance, first with a thought created

the waters, and placed in them a productive seed:

9. 6

The seed became an egg bright as gold, blazing

like the luminary with a thousand beams; and in that

egg, he was born himself, in the form of BRAHMA',

the great forefather of all spirits.

10. The waters are called nárá, because they were

• the

'the production of NARA, or the spirit of GOD; and CHAP.

'since they were his first ayana, or place of motion, he I.

• thence is named Na'ra'yana, or moving on the waters.

11. From THAT WHICH IS, the first cause, not the

object of sense, existing every where in substance, not

existing to our perception, without beginning or end,

was produced the divine male, famed in all worlds

under the appellation of BRAHMA'.

12. In that egg the great power sat inactive a whole

year of the Creator, at the close of which, by his

thought alone, he caused the egg to divide itself;

13. And from its two divisions he framed the heaven

' above and the earth beneath in the midst he placed
the subtil ether, the eight regions, and the permanent

' receptacle of waters.

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14. From the supreme soul he drew forth Mind,
existing substantially though unperceived by sense,

'immaterial; and before mind, or the reasoning power,

'he produced consciousness, the internal monitor, the

ruler;

15. And, before them both, he produced the great
principle of the soul, or first expansion of the divine
idea; and all vital forms endued with the three quali-
'ties of goodness, passion, and darkness; and the five
' perceptions of sense, and the five organs of sensation.
16. <
Thus, having at once pervaded, with emanations

'from the Supreme Spirit, the minutest portions of six

CHAP.

I.

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principles immensely operative, consciousness and the

five perceptions, He framed all creatures;

17. And since the minutest particles of visible na

ture have a dependence on those six emanations from

GOD, the wise have accordingly given the name of

's'aríra or depending on six, that is, the ten organs on

consciousness, and the five elements on as many percep-

tions, to His image or appearance in visible nature:

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18. Thence proceed the great elements, endued with
peculiar powers, and Mind with operations infinitely
subtil, the unperishable cause of all apparent forms.

19. This universe, therefore, is compacted from the

'minute portions of those seven divine and active prin-
ciples, the great Soul, or first emanation, consciousness,
and five perceptions; a mutable universe from immuta-
'ble ideas.

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20. Among them each succeeding element acquires

the quality of the preceding; and, in as many degrees
as each of them is advanced, with so many properties
is it said to be endued.

21. HE too first assigned to all creatures distinct

names, distinct acts, and distinct occupations; as they
had been revealed in the pre-existing Véda.

22. HE, the supreme Ruler, created an assemblage

of inferior Deities, with divine attributes and pure

'souls; and a number of Genii exquisitely delicate;

and he prescribed the sacrifice ordained from the be-

ginning.

23. From

23. From fire, from air, and from the sun he milk- CHAP.

ed out, as it were, the three primordial Védas, named

Rich, Yajush and Sáman, for the due performance of

the sacrifice.

24 He gave being to time and the divisions of time,
HE
to the stars also, and to the planets, to rivers, oceans,
' and mountains, to level plains, and uneven valleys.

25. To devotion, speech, complacency, desire, and

'wrath, and to the creation, which shall presently be
' mentioned; for He willed the existence of all those
'created things.

26. For the sake of distinguishing actions, He

'made a total difference between right and wrong, and
'enured these sentient creatures to pleasure and pain,
'cold and heat, and other opposite pairs.

27. With very minute transformable portions, call-

'ed mátrás, of the five elements, all this perceptible
' world was composed in fit order;

28. And in whatever occupation the supreme Lord

'first employed any vital soul, to that occupation the
same soul attaches itself spontaneously, when it re-
'ceives a new body again and again.

29. Whatever quality, noxious or innocent, harsh

or mild, unjust or just, false or true, He conferred

on any being at its creation, the same quality enters

'it of course on its future births;

I.

30. ' As