apartments, for living
there. One should not associate with another in either speech, act, or
thought. Disregarding all things, and eating very abstemiously, the Yogin
should look with an equal eye upon objects acquired or lost. He should
behave after the same manner towards one that praises and one that
censures him. He should not seek the good or the evil of one or the
other. He should not rejoice at an acquisition or suffer anxiety when he
meets with failure or loss. Of uniform behaviour towards all beings, he
should imitate the wind.[974] Unto one whose mind is thus turned to
itself, who leads a life of purity, and who casts an equal eye upon all
things,--indeed, unto one who is ever engaged in Yoga thus for even six
months,--Brahma as represented by sound appears very vividly.[975]
Beholding all men afflicted with anxiety (on account of earning wealth
and comfort), the Yogin should view a clod of earth, a piece of stone,
and a lump of gold with an equal eye. Indeed, he should withdraw himself
from this path (of earning wealth), cherishing an aversion for it, and
never suffer himself to be stupefied. Even if a person happens to belong
to the inferior order, even if one happens to be a woman, both of them,
by following in the track indicated above, will surely attain to the
highest end.[976] He that has subdued his mind beholds in his own self,
by the aid of his own knowledge the Uncreate, Ancient, Undeteriorating,
and Eternal Brahma,--That, viz., which can not be attained to except by
fixed senses,--That which is subtiler than the most subtile, and grosser
than the most gross, and which is Emancipation's self.'"[977]

"'Bhishma continued, "By ascertaining from the mouths of preceptors and by
themselves reflecting with their minds upon these words of the great and
high-souled Rishi spoken so properly, persons possessed of wisdom attain
to that equality (about which the scriptures say) with Brahman himself,
till, indeed, the time when the universal dissolution comes that swallows
up all existent beings."'"[978]

SECTION CCXLI

"'"Suka said, 'The declarations of the Vedas are twofold. They once lay
down the command, "Do all acts." They also indicate (the reverse,
saying), "Give up acts." I ask, "Whither do persons go by the aid of
Knowledge and whither by the aid of acts?"[979] I desire to hear this. Do
tell me this. Indeed, these declarations about knowledge and acts are
dissimilar and even contradictory.'"