Of excellent conduct and observant of duties, of cheerful soul and
possessed of learning and knowledge of self, such a man wins esteem while
here and attains to a high end hereafter. All acts that are regarded as
good on earth, all those acts that are practised by the righteous,
constitute the path of the ascetic possessed of knowledge. A person that
is good never deviates from that path. Retiring from the world and
betaking himself to a life in the woods, that learned person having a
complete control over the senses who treads in that path, in quiet
expectation of his decease, is sure to attain to the state of Brahma. He
who has no fear of any creature and of whom no creature is afraid, has,
after the dissolution of his body, no fear to encounter.[460] He who
exhausts his merits (by actual enjoyment) without seeking to store them
up, who casts an equal eye upon all creatures and practises a course of
universal friendliness, attains to Brahma. As the track of birds along
the sky or of fowl over the surface of water cannot be discerned, even so
the track of such a person (on earth) does not attract notice. For him, O
king, who abandoning home adopts the religion of emancipation, many
bright worlds wait to be enjoyed for eternity. If, abandoning all acts,
abandoning penances in due course, abandoning the diverse branches of
study, in fact, abandoning all things (upon which worldly men set their
hearts), one becomes pure in his desires, liberated from all
restraints,[461] of cheerful soul, conversant with self, and of pure
heart, one then wins esteem in this world and at last attains to heaven.
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