The Law Code of Yājñavalkya 3.3.69

3.3.69

brahmalokaḥ sthānaviśeṣo na tu nityaṃ brahma, tatra lokaśabdasyāprayogāt, turīyāśramam antareṇa muktyanaṅgīkārāc ca | na ca yogābhyāsena vā punaḥ iti brahmopāsanavidhyanupapattyā tadbhāvāpattiḥ pariśaṅkanīyā, sālokyādiprāptyarthatvenāpi tad upapatteḥ | ata eva śrutau trayo dharmaskandhāḥ ity upakramya, yajño 'dhyayanaṃ dānam iti prathamaḥ | tapa eveti dvitīyaḥ |brahmacary ācāryakulavāsī tṛtīyaḥ | atyantam ācaryakula evam ātmānam avasādayan iti gārhasthyavānaprasthanaiṣṭikatvasvarūpam abhidhāya, sarva ete puṇyalokā bhavanti iti trayāṇām āśramiṇāṃ puṇyalokaprāptim abhidhāya, brahmasaṃstho 'mṛtatvam eti (ChU 2.23.1) iti pāriśeṣyāt parivrājakasyaiva brahmasaṃsthasya muktilakṣaṇāmṛtatvaprāptir abhihitā | yad api

The “world of Brahmā” is a specific realm, not the eternal Brahman, because the word “world” is not used for the latter, and because liberation is not accepted without the fourth stage of life. Nor should it be suspected that absorption into Brahman occurs due to the impossibility [otherwise] of the injunction to meditate on Brahman in the verse “or again through the practice of yoga,” because that [injunction] is accounted for by the attainment of dwelling in the same world as the deity and similar states. For this very reason, the Veda, beginning with “Three are the branches of duty,” states the nature of the householder, the forest hermit, and the perpetual student with: “Sacrifice, study, and charity are the first; austerity alone is the second; a student residing in the family of the teacher is the third, severely mortifying himself only in the family of the teacher”; and having stated the attainment of meritorious worlds by the three orders of life with “All these become possessors of meritorious worlds,” it states that the attainment of immortality characterized as liberation belongs exclusively to the wandering mendicant who is firmly established in Brahman, by the principle of residue, with: “One firmly established in Brahman attains immortality” (ChU 2.23.1). As for what is said: