History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c46.41

v3.c46.41

and also contains the words of the Jābālopaniṣad as to Parama-haṁsas. It appears that long before the Āp. Dh. S. (II. 9. 21. 13-17) i. e. at least five or six centuries before Christ there were people who thought that an ascetic was beyond all *vidhi* (injunctions to do a thing) and niṣedha (prohibition), that he was above the ordinary rules about truthfulness or falsehood, that he should not care for pleasure or pain or for the study of the Vedas, or for this world or the next, he should simply seek to realize the Self, that when he realizes the Self all his sins, if any, would be liquidated thereby. Āp. combats these ideas by saying that such sentiments were opposed to the śāstras laying down rules about ascetics, that by realizing the Self, he cannot be free from the effects of what he does or the consequences of having a body. The sentiments which Āp. controverts arose from such passages as the one²¹⁵⁴ in the Bṛ. Up. IV. 4. 23 'This is the eternal greatness of the man who realizes *brahma* that by the actions he does, he does not add to it or detract from it. Therefore one should only know the real nature of that great-ness; he on knowing *brahma* is not affected by an evil action.' In the Kauṣītaki Bṛ. Up. III. 1 it is stated²¹⁵⁵ 'whoever realizes One (the Supreme Spirit), his worlds (i. e. his position) are not destroyed by any action of his, not even if he kills his parents, not even by theft nor by the murder of a learned brāhmaṇa.' These words are not to be taken literally, they are merely a boastful utterance (a prauḍhivāda), they are really laudatory statements emphasizing the supreme value of the realization of *brahman*. Similarly the Chān. Up. IV. 14. 3 says 'just as water does not stick to a lotus-leaf, so sinful actions do not cling to him who knows this'. In the same Upaniṣad (V. 2. 1) we read 'to him who knows this, nothing becomes unfit as food.' The Upaniṣads, however, generally lay great stress on moral virtues and emphasize that a high moral life is absolutely necessary for the seeker after spiritual truth. Vide Bṛ. Up. IV. 4. 23, Chān. Up. III. 14. 1, Kaṭha Up.