17 - Attainment of the Ultimate State of Life

Vayu said: 

1-2. After passing the three (earlier) stages and reaching the ultimate (Sannyasa) stage of life,1 he shall attain the Supreme knowledge by the end of a year. Taking leave of the preceptor, he should wander over the earth. He should apply in practice that excellent essential knowledge that leads to the attainment of the knowable.

1. Paramashrama is the last ashrama, viz. Sannyasa. The present chapter states the rules to be followed by a Sannyasin. We find here the echoes of Smrutis like Manu. Cf. for example the duty of wandering (cf. Manu VI. 52), the rules of conduct (cf. Manu VI. 92). Also cf. supra 8. 176-178.  

3. He who wanders remaining satisfied with the discrimination between knowledge and the knowable, will never attain the knowable even if he were to live for a thousand Kalpas. 

4. Giving up contacts and attachment, subduing one’s wrathfulness, subsisting on light food, he, with his sense-organs controlled, should close down all the portals of his intellect and should thus fix his mind in meditation. 

5. He should always practise Yoga in uninhabited places, caves, forests or on the banks (sands) of rivers.1

1. Vaikhanasa Sutra VIII. 9 prescribes this for a Paramahamsa. Buddhist and Jaina mendicants have similar instructions.  

6. He who has control over his speech, action and mind and represents each by a long staff is declared as Tridandin.2 

2. Cf. 

Vag-dando tha mano-danda kayadandas tathaiva ca |

yasyaite nihita buddhau tridanditi sa uchyate ||

-Manu XII. 10 also Daksha VII. 30. 

7. Thus established, he who loves meditation, has subdued his sense-organs, gives up both auspicious and inauspicious acts. Even after abandoning this (physical) body, he is neither born nor dead from the standpoint of scriptures.