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IV PRAPATHAKA, 4.
301
the other hand, no one who is not an ascetic brings his sacrificial works to perfection or obtains knowledge of the Highest Selfi. For thus it is said :
By ascetic penance goodness is obtained, from goodness understanding is reached, from understanding the Self is obtained, and he who has obtained that, does not return?. .
4. “Brahman is,” thus said one who knew the science of Brahman; and this penance is the door to Brahman, thus said one who by penance had cast off all sin. The syllable Om is the manifest greatness of Brahman, thus said one who well grounded (in Brahman) always meditates on it. Therefore by knowledge, by penance, and by meditation is Brahman gained. Thus one goes beyond Brahman (Hiranyagarbha), and to a divinity higher than the gods; nay, he who knows this, and worships Brahman by these three (by knowledge, penance, and meditation), obtains bliss imperishable, infinite, and unchangeable. Then freed from those things (the senses of the body, &c.) by which he was filled and overcome, a mere charioteer, he obtains union with the Self.'
mas, but he must have obeyed them first, before he can become a real Tapasvin.
1 M. reads âsrameshv evâvasthitas tapasvî kety ukyata ity, etad apy uktam, &c. This would mean, 'For it is said that he only who has dwelt in the asramas is also called a Tapasvin, a real ascetic; and this also has been said, that no one obtains self-knowledge except an ascetic.' This is not impossible, but the commentator follows the text as printed by Cowell. M. reads atmagñânenâdhigamah, karmasuddhi.
2 M. reads manasâ prâpyate tv âtmâ hy âtmâptyâ na nivartata iti. 8 M. reads pura eta, which may be right. • Rathitah is a very strange word, but, like everything else, it is
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