Aphorisms on Brahman 2.702.2

2.702.2

'tasmādbrahmaṇaḥ pāṇḍityaṃ nirvedya bālyena tiṣṭhāset' (bṛ. 3.5.1) iti bālyamanuṣṭheyatayā śrūyate /
tatra bālasya bhāvaḥ karma vā bālyamitiraddhite sati bālabhāvasya vayoviśeṣasyecchāyā saṃpādayitumaśakyatvādyathopapādaṃ mūtrapurīṣatvādibālacaritantargatā vā bhāvaviśuddhiraprarūḍhendriyatvaṃ dambhadarpādirahitatvaṃ vā bālyaṃ syāditi saṃśayaḥ /
kiṃ tāvatprāptaṃ kāmacāravādabhakṣaṇatā yathopapādamūtrapurīṣatvaṃ ca prasiddhataraṃ loke bālyamiti tadgrahaṇaṃ yuktam /

The passage, 'Therefore let a Brâhmana after he has done with learning wish to stand by a childlike state,' speaks of the childlike state as something to be undertaken. Now by the 'childlike state' we have to understand either the nature or the actions of a child. Childhood in so far as it means a period of life cannot be brought about at will, and we therefore must take the 'childlike state' to mean either the behaviour of a child--such as attending to the calls of nature without any respect of place, &c.--or inward purity, i.e. absence of cunning, arrogance, force of the sensual passions, and so on.--With regard to the doubt thus arising the pûrvapakshin maintains that by 'childlike being' people more commonly understand behaving, talking, and eating according to one's liking, freely attending to the calls of nature and so on, and that therefore the word is to be understood here also in that sense.--But such free conduct is improper, because sinfulness and so on would follow from it!--Not so, the pûrvapakshin replies; for the Samnyâsin possessing knowledge is, through express scriptural statements, free from all sinfulness thus incurred; just as the sacrificer is declared to be free from the sin he might incur in slaying the sacrificial animal.