Vishnupurana 3.9.p3

3.9.p3

"The fourth condition of life, O king, is called by the sages, that of a mendicant. I shall relate the characteristics thereof; do thou hear. O lord of men, having relinquished attachments for wife, children and other earthly objects, men leading the life of a hermit, must enter into the fourth stage of life. He must forego the three objects of life, namely pleasure, wealth and virtue either secular or religious. And regarding all with an equal eye, he must be friend to all living beings. And being devoted, he must not injure any living creature, human or brute, either in act, word, or thought and renounce all attachments. He must not live more than one night in a village and more than five nights in a city. He must live in all those places where good feeling and not animosity is created in mind. He must, for his maintenance, beg for alms at the houses of the three first castes at the time when fires have been put out and peoples have eaten. The itinerant beggar must not call anything his own and must suppress desire, anger, covetousness, pride and folly. The ascetic, who gives no cause of fear to any living creature, does not apprehend any danger from them. The Brāhmin, who, having placed the sacrificial fire in his own body, feeds that flame with the butter that is procured by alms, through the altar of his mouth, goes to his own proper abode. But the Brāhman who longs for final emancipation, who has got a pure heart, and whose mind is perfected by self-investigation, goes to the region of Brahman, which is quiet and is as bright as the flameless smoke".