The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s12.43

v2.c40.s12.43

The third stage, that of the anchorite, is not distinguished by Yājñavalkya from that of the wanderer: when he decides to give up the life of the householder he contemplates wandering about as a beggar.¹ The value of penance for the knowledge of the Brahman is not overestimated in the oldest Upaniṣads: the king Bṛhadratha,² after most painful mortification, is still far from attaining the desired knowledge. Asceticism, it is even said, leads only to the way of the Fathers, and has not the result of future emancipation. The man who really realizes the Brahman is above the Āçramas;³ he has realized all that is aimed at by asceticism; he has no longer individuality or family connexion, he wanders about homeless, begging, without possessions, and bears the name Sannyāsin, the renouncer of everything. How this ideal can be logically derived from knowledge of the Ātman is nowhere explained in the Upaniṣads.