Having studied the Vedas
with close attention and subjugated his senses, and having given his
preceptor the tuition fee, he should, with the permission of his
preceptor, return home. Returning home, he should betake himself to the
domestic mode of life and weeding a spouse confine himself to her, and
live freeing himself from every kind of malice, and having established
his domestic fire. Living in the domestic mode, he should procreate sons
and grandsons. After that, he should retire to the forest, and continue
to worship the same fires and entertain guests with cordial hospitality.
Living righteously in the forest, he should at last establish his fire in
his soul, and freed from all pairs of opposites, and casting off all
attachments from the soul, he should pass his days in the mode called
Sannyasa which is otherwise called the mode of Brahma.
"'Suka said, If one succeeds in attaining to an understanding cleansed by
study of the scriptures and to true conceptions of all things, and if the
heart succeeds in freeing itself permanently from the effects of all
pairs of opposites, is it still necessary for such a person to adopt, one
after another, the three modes of life called Brahmacharyya, Garhastya,
and Vanaprastha? This is what I ask thee. It behoveth thee to tell me.
Indeed, O ruler of men, do tell me this according to the true import of
the Vedas!
"'Janaka said, Without the aid of an understanding cleansed by study of
the scriptures and without that true conception of all things which is
known by the name of Vijnana, the attainment of Emancipation is
impossible.
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