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VASISHTH A.
CHAPTER I. 1. Now, therefore, the desire to know the sacred law for their welfare (should arise) in (initiated) men.
2. He who knows and follows the (sacred law is called) a righteous man. .
3. He becomes most worthy of praise in this world and after death gains heaven.
4. The sacred law has been settled by the revealed texts and by the tradition (of the sages).
5. On failure of (rules given in) these (two sources) the practice of the Sishtas (has) authority.
6. But he whose heart is free from desire (is called) a Sishta.
7. (Acts sanctioned by) the sacred law (are those) for which no (worldly) cause is perceptible.
I. i. The word 'now' serves, in this as in analogous cases, various purposes. It marks the beginning of the book, serves as an auspicious invocation (mangala), and indicates that something else, the initiation, must precede the study of the sacred law. “Therefore' means because, after initiation, the neophyte is to be taught the prescribed ruleregarding personal purification.'Krishnapandita. For the wording of the Satra compare the beginning of Gaimini's Mîmâmsa-sûtras.
3-6. Gautama I, 1-4; XXVIII, 48.
7. The Sûtra contains a limitation of Sūtra 5. It indicates that the customs of the Sishtas, for which worldly motives are perceptible, have no authority, and are not to be followed. The principle enunciated is one inculcated by the Mimâmsakas (P.M. S.
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