ed in attaining to that Purushottama (the foremost of
Purusha)? Do tell me all this, which is, no doubt, known to thee. Do thou
discourse to me also of Pravritti in due order.'

"Vaisampayana said, 'That which is the twenty-fifth (in the enumeration of
topics as made in the Sankhya system) viz., when it becomes able to
abstain entirely from acts, succeeds in attaining to the Purushottama
which is exceedingly subtile, which is invested with the attribute of
Sattwa (in its subtile form), and which is fraught with the essences
symbolised by three letters of the alphabet (viz., A, U, and M). The
Sankhya system, the Aranyaka-Veda, and the Pancharatra scriptures, are
all one and the same and form parts of one whole. Even this is the
religion of those that are devoted with their whole souls to Narayana,
the religion that has Narayana for its essence.[1909] As waves of the
ocean, rising from the ocean, rush away from it only to return to it in
the end, even so diverse kinds of knowledge, springing from Narayana,
return to Narayana in the end. I have thus explained to thee, O son of
Kuru's race, what the religion of Sattwa is. If thou beest competent for
it, O Bharata, do thou practise that religion duly. Even thus did the
highly-blessed Narada explain to my preceptor,--the Island-born
Krishna--the eternal and immutable course, called Ekanta, (ending in One)
followed by the Whites[1910] as also by the yellow-robed Yatis. Vyasa
gratified with Dharma's son Yudhishthira, imparted this religion to king
Yudhishthira the just who was possessed of great intelligence. Derived
from my preceptor I have also communicated it to thee! O best of kings,
this religion is for these reasons, exceedingly difficult of practice.
Others, hearing it, become as much confounded as thou hast suffered
thyself to be. It is Krishna who is the protector of the universe and its
beguiler. It is He who is the destroyer and the cause, O monarch.'"

SECTION CCCL

"Janamejaya said, 'The Sankhya system, the Pancharatra scriptures, and the
Aranyaka-Vedas,--these different systems of knowledge or religion,--O
regenerate Rishi, are current in the world. Do all these systems preach
the same course of duties, or are the courses of duties preached by them,
O ascetic, different from one another? Questioned by me, do thou
discourse to me on Pravritti in due order!'

"Vaisampayana said, 'I bow unto that great Rishi who is the dispeller of
darkness, and whom Satyavati