"'"Vyasa said, 'One should not show any affection for scents and tastes and
other kinds of enjoyment. Nor should one accept ornaments and other
articles contributing to the enjoyment of the senses of scent and taste.
One should not covet honour and achievements and fame. Even this is the
behaviour of a Brahmana possessed of vision.[1068] He that hath studied
all the Vedas, having waited dutifully on his preceptor and observed the
vow of Brahmacharya, he that knows all the Richs, Yajuses, and Samans, is
not a regenerate person.[1069] One that behaves towards all creatures as
if one is their kinsman, and one that is acquainted with Brahma, is said
to be conversant with all the Vedas. One that is divested of desire
(being contented with knowledge of the Soul), never dies. It is by such a
behaviour and such a frame of mind that one becomes a truly regenerate
person.[1070] Having performed only various kinds of religious rites and
diverse sacrifices completed with gift of Dakshina, one does not acquire
the status of a Brahmana if he is devoid of compassion and hath not given
up desire.[1071] When one ceases to fear all creatures and when all
creatures cease to fear one, when one never desires for anything nor
cherishes aversion for anything, then he is said to attain to the status
of Brahma. When one abstains from injuring all creatures in thought,
speech, and act, then he is said to acquire the status of Brahma. There
is only one kind of bondage in this world, viz., the bondage of desire,
and no other. One that is freed from the bondage of desire attains to the
status of Brahma. Freed from desire like the Moon emerged from murky
clouds, the man of wisdom, purged of all stains, lives in patient
expectation of his time. That person into whose mind all sorts of desire
enter like diverse streams falling into the ocean without being able to
enhance its limits by their discharge, succeeds in obtaining
tranquillity, but not he who cherishes desire for all earthly objects.
Such a person becomes happy in consequence of the fruition of all his
wishes, and not he who cherishes desire for earthly objects. The latter,
even if he attains to heaven, has to fall away from it.[1072] The Vedas
have truth for their recondite object. Truth hath the subjugation of the
senses for its recondite object. The subjugation of the senses hath
charity for its recondite object. Charity hath penance for its recondite
object. Penance hath renunciation for its recondite object. Renunciation
hath happiness for its recondite object. Happiness hath heaven for its
recondite object. Heaven hath tranquillity for its recondite
object.[1073] For the sake of contentment thou shouldst wish to obtain a
serene understanding which is a precious possession, being indicative of
Emancipation, and which, scorching grief and all purposes or doubts
together with thirst, destroys them completely in the end.[1074] One
possessed of those six attributes, viz., contentment, grieflessness,
freedom from attachment, peacefulness, cheerfulness, and freedom from
envy, is sure to become full or complete.[1075] They that, transcending
all consciousness of body, know the Soul which resides within the body
and which is understood by only persons of wisdom with the aid of the six
entities (already mentioned, viz., the Vedas and truth, etc.) when
endowed with only the attribute of Sattwa, and with the aid also of the
other three (viz., instruction, meditation and Yoga), succeed in
attaining to Emancipation.[1076] The man of wisdom, by understanding the
Soul which presides within the body, which is divested of the attributes
of birth and death, which exists in its own nature, which being
uninvested with attributes requires no act of purification, and which is
identical with Brahma, enjoys beatitude that knows no termination. The
gratification that the man of wisdom obtains by restraining his mind from
wandering in all directions and fixing it wholly on the Soul is such that
its like cannot be attained by one through any other means. He is said to
be truly conversant with the Vedas who is conversant with that which
gratifies one whose stomach is empty, which pleases one who is indigent,
and which invigorates one whose limbs are dry. Suspending his senses that
have been duly restrained from unworthy indulgence, he who lives engaged
in Yoga meditation, is said to be a Brahmana. Such a person is said to be
distinguished above others. Such a person is said to derive his joys from
the Soul. With reference to one who lives after having weakened desire
and devoting himself to the highest topic of existence, it should be said
that his happiness is continuously enhanced like the lunar disc (in the
lighted fortnight).[1077] Like the Sun dispelling darkness, felicity
dispels the sorrows of that Yogin who transcends both the gross and the
subtile elements, as also Mahat and the Unmanifest.[1078] Decrepitude and
death cannot assail that Brahmana who has got beyond the sphere of acts,
who has transcended the destruction of the Gunas themselves, and who is
no longer attached to worldly objects.[1079] Indeed, when the Yogin,
freed from everything, lives in a state transcending both attachment and
aversion, he is said to transcend even in this life his senses and all
their objects. That Yogin, who having transcended Prakriti attains to the
Highest Cause, becomes freed from the obligation of a return to the world
in consequence of his having attained to that which is the
highest.'"'"[1080]