The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s12.33

v2.c40.s12.33

The true ideal, therefore, of the seeker for truth is embodied in the practice of asceticism and the adoption of renunciation: by turning away from the things of this world, and by concentrating unnaturally the mind on the object, the vision beatific was to be obtained: the utter incompatibility of this with the purely intellectual view, that the recognition of the Brahman as the self was emancipation, is obvious, but contradictions *in adjecto* are the normal characteristic of the Upaniṣads. Hence was developed the scheme by which the old rule of life was complicated and a series of four Āçramas, ‘places of asceticism’, was devised, through which the man should pass on his way to his home in the heaven.