Mahabharata 12.261.7

12.261.7

gṛhastha eva yajate gṛhasthastapyate tapaḥ |
gārhasthyamasya dharmasya mūlaṃ yatkiṃcidejate || 7 ||

"Syumarasmi said, 'If, indeed, that be the highest object of acquisition, if that be truly the highest end (which is attained by practising Renunciation) then the importance of the domestic mode of life becomes manifest, because without the domestic mode no other mode of life ever becomes possible. Indeed, as all living creatures are able to live in consequence of their dependence on their respective mothers, after the same manner the three other modes of life exist in consequence of their dependence upon the domestic mode. The householder who leads the life of domesticity, performs sacrifices, and practises penances. Whatever is done by anybody from desire of happiness has for its root the domestic mode of life. All living creatures regard the procreation of offspring as a source of great happiness. The procreation of offspring, however, becomes impossible in any other mode of life (than domesticity). Every kind of grass and straw, all plants and herbs (that yield corn or grain), and others of the same class that grow on hills and mountains, have the domestic mode of life for their root. Upon those depend the life of living creatures. And since nothing else is seen (in the universe) than life, domesticity may be looked upon as the refuge of the entire universe. Who then speaks the truth that says that domesticity cannot lead to the acquisition of Emancipation? Only those that are destitute of faith and wisdom and penetration, only those that are destitute of reputation that are idle and toil-worn, that have misery for their share in consequence of their past acts, only those that are destitute of learning, behold the plenitude of tranquillity in a life of mendicancy. The eternal and certain distinctions (laid down in the Vedas) are the causes that sustain the three worlds. That illustrious person of the highest order who is conversant with the Vedas, is worshipped from the very date of his birth. Besides the performance of Garbhadhana, Vedic mantras become necessary for enabling persons of the regenerate classes to accomplish all their acts in respect of both this and the other world. In cremating his body (after death), in the matter of his attainment of a second body, in that of his drink and food after such attainment, in that of giving away kine and other animals for helping him to cross the river that divides the region of life from that of Yama, in that of sinking funeral cakes in water--Vedic mantras are necessary. Then again the three classes of Pitris, viz., the Archishmats, the Varhishads, and the Kravyads, approve of the necessity of mantras in the case of the dead, and mantras are allowed to be efficient causes (for attainment of the objects for which these ceremonies and rites have been directed to be performed). When the Vedas say this so loudly and when again human beings are said to owe debts to the Pitris, the Rishis, and the gods, how can any one attain to Emancipation? This false doctrine (of incorporeal existence called Emancipation), apparently dressed in colours of truth, but subversive of the real purport of the declarations of the Vedas, has been introduced by learned men reft of prosperity and eaten up by idleness. That Brahmana who performs sacrifices according to the declarations of the Vedas is never seduced by sin. Through sacrifices, such a person attains to high regions of felicity along with the animals he has slain in those sacrifices, and himself, gratified by the acquisition of all his wishes succeeds in gratifying those animals by fulfilling their wishes. By disregarding the Vedas, by guile, or by deception, one never succeeds in attaining to the Supreme. On the other hand, it is by practising the rites laid down in the Vedas that one succeeds in attaining to Brahma.'