Jivanmuktiviveka 2.17_2.p9

2.17_2.p9

nāradaścatuḥṣaṣṭikalākuśalo'pyanātmavittvenānutaptaḥ sanatkumāramupasasāda iticchandogā adhīyate | anuṣṭhānavyasanaṃ viṣṇupurāṇe nidāghasyopalabhyate | vāsiṣṭharāmāyaṇe dāśūrasya | nidāgho hi ṛbhuṇā punaḥ punaḥ prabodhyamāno'pi karmaśraddhājāḍyaṃ ciraṃ na jahau | dāśūraścātyantaśraddhājāḍyenānuṣṭhānāya śuddhapradeśaṃ bhūmau na kvāpyupalebhe | asyāśca karmavāsanāyāḥ punarjanmahetutvānmalinatvam |
tathā cātharvaṇikā adhīyate- plavā hyete adṛr̤hā yajñarūpā aṣṭādaśoktamavaraṃ yeṣu karma |
etacchreyo ye'bhinandanti mūḍhā jarāmṛtyuṃ te punarevāpi yanti ||

The Chāndogyas study that Nārada, though skilled in the sixty-four arts, approached Sanatkumāra, repentant because he was not a knower of the Self. The obsession with ritual performance is found in the Viṣṇupurāṇa in the case of Nidāgha, and in the Vāsiṣṭharāmāyaṇa in the case of Dāśūra. For Nidāgha, even though repeatedly awakened by Ṛbhu, did not abandon the dullness of faith in rites for a long time. And Dāśūra, through extreme dullness of faith, found nowhere on earth a pure spot for ritual performance. And this latent impression of ritual action is impure because it is the cause of rebirth.
And so the followers of the Atharvaveda study:
"Frail indeed are these rafts in the form of sacrifices, eighteen in number, in which the lower ritual action is declared; / the fools who welcome this as the highest good go again to old age and death."