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PRACTICE OF KARMA YOGA
ceremony, his second birth. You will find in the Manu Smriti: "Let the student ever engage in the study of the Vedas and in doing service to his preceptor. Let the student refrain from wine, meat, perfumes, tasty dishes, garlands, company of women, and from injury to sentient creatures. Let him give up lust, anger, greed, dancing, singing and playing on musical instruments, dice play, gossip, slander and untruth."
"Let the student always sleep alone and let him not waste his seed; he who from lust destroyeth his seed, destroyeth his vow. He should develop the spirit of service, humility and obedience. He should mould his character properly. He should be chaste in thought, word and deed.”
Then comes the stage of the householder. The student, after finishing his duties enters the order of Grahasthya, when he is ready to take up the duties and responsibilities of the householder's life. Of all Ashramas, that of the householder is the highest, as it verily supports the other three. As all the streams and rivers flow to rest in the ocean, so all the Ashramas flow to rest in the householder. This is the field for developing various virtues such as mercy, love, generosity, patience, tolerance, purity, prudence and right judgment. It is highly lamentable to note that the grandeur, solemnity and dignity of this stage of life is lost now owing to the confusion of its duties with those of the student, caused by the modern evil of child-marriage. There is no ideal in the life of the
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