That cleansed understanding, again, it is said, is
unattainable without one's connection with a preceptor. The preceptor is
the helmsman, and knowledge is the boat (aided by whom and which one
succeeds in crossing the ocean of the world). After having acquired that
boat, one becomes crowned with success. Indeed, having crossed the'
ocean, one may abandon both. For preventing the destruction of all the
worlds and for preventing the destruction of acts (upon which the world
depend), the duties appertaining to the four modes of life were practised
by the wise of old. By abandoning acts, good and bad, agreeably to this
order of acts one succeeds, in course of many birth, in attaining to
Emancipation.[1739] That man who, through penances performed in course of
many births, succeeds in obtaining a cleansed mind and understanding and
soul, certainly becomes able to attain to Emancipation (in a new birth)
in even the very first mode viz., Brahmacharyya.[1740] When, having
attained to a cleansed understanding, Emancipation becomes his and in
consequence thereof he becomes possessed of knowledge in respect of all
visible things, what desirable object is there to attain by observing the
three other modes of life?[1741] One should always cast off faults born
of the attributes of Rajas and Tamas. Adhering to the path of Sattwa, one
should know Self by Self.[1742] Beholding one's self in all creatures and
all creatures in one's self, one should live (without being attached to
anything) like aquatic animals living in water without being drenched by
that element.
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