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. 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 births, 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. He who succeeds in transcending all pairs of attributes and
resisting their influence, succeeds in casting off all attachments, and
attains to infinite felicity in the next world, going thither like a bird
soaring into the sky from below. In this connection, there is a saying
sung of old by king Yayati and borne in remembrance, O sire, by all
persons conversant with the scriptures bearing upon Emancipation. Th