SECTION XLVII
"Brahmana said. 'The ancients who were utterers of certain truth, say
that Renunciation is penance. Brahmanas, dwelling in that which has
Brahman for its origin, understand Knowledge to be high Brahman.[143]
Brahman is very far off, and its attainments depends upon a knowledge of
the Vedas. It is free from all pairs of opposites, it is divested of all
qualities; it is eternal; it is endued with unthinkable qualities: it is
supreme. It is by knowledge and penance that those endued with wisdom
behold that which is the highest. Verily, they that are of untainted
minds, that are cleansed of every sin, and that have transcended all
passion and darkness (succeed in beholding it). They who are always
devoted to renunciation, and who are conversant with the Vedas, succeed
in attaining to the supreme Lord who is identical with the path of
happiness and peace, by the aid of penance. Penance, it has been said, is
light. Conduct leads to piety. Knowledge is said to be the highest.
Renunciation is the best penance. He who understands self through
accurate determination of all topics, which is unperturbed, which is
identical with Knowledge, and which resides in all entities, succeeds in
going everywhere. The learned man who beholds association, and
dissociation, and unity in diversity, is released from misery. He who
never desires for anything, who despises nothing, becomes eligible, even
when dwelling in this world, for assimilation with Brahman. He who is
conversant with the truths about qualities of Pradhana, and understands
the Pradhana as existing in all entities who is free from mineness and
egoism, without doubt becomes emancipated. He who is freed from all pairs
of opposites, who does not bend his head to any body, who has transcended
the rites of Swadha, succeeds by the aid of tranquillity alone in
attaining to that which is free from pairs of opposites, which is
eternal, and which is divested of qualities. Abandoning all action, good
or bad, developed from qualities, and casting off both truth and
falsehood, a creature, without doubt, becomes emancipated. Having the
unmanifest for the seed of its origin, with the understanding for its
trunk, with the great principle of egoism for its assemblage of boughs,
with the senses for the cavities of its little sprouts, with the (five)
great elements for its large branches, the objects of the senses for its
smaller branches, with leaves that are ever present, with flowers that
always adorn it and with fruits both agreeable and disagreeable always
produced, is the eternal tree of Brahman which forms the support of all
creatures. Cutting and piercing that tree with knowledge of truth as the
sword, the man of wisdom, abandoning the bonds which are made of
attachment and which cause birth, decrepitude and death, and freeing
himself from mineness and egoism, without doubt, becomes emancipated.
These are the two birds, which are immutable, which are friends, and
which should be known as unintelligent. That other who is different from
these two is called the Intelligent. When the inner self, which is
destitute of knowledge of nature, which is (as it were) unintelligent,
becomes conversant with that which is above nature, then, understanding
the Kshetra, and endued with an intelligence that transcends all
qualities and apprehends everything, one becomes released from all sins.'"
