“Vyasa said, ’Having acquired (purity of conduct and body) by the practice of the first two modes of life, viz., Brahmacharya and domesticity, one should, after that, set one’s soul on Yoga in the third mode of life.  Listen now with concentrated attention to what should be done for attaining to the highest object of acquisition![1021] Having subdued all faults of the mind and of heart by easy means in the practice of the first three modes of life (viz., pupilage, domesticity, and seclusion) one should pass into the most excellent and the most eminent of all the modes, viz., Sannyasa or Renunciation.  Do thou then pass thy days, having acquired that purity.  Listen also to me.  One should, alone and without anybody to assist him or bear him company, practise Yoga for attaining to success (in respect of one’s highest object of acquisition).  One who practises Yoga without companionship, who beholds everything as a repetition of his own self, and who never discards anything (in consequence of all things being pervaded by the Universal Soul), never falls away from Emancipation.  Without keeping the sacrificial fires and without a fixed habitation, such a person should enter a village for only begging his food.  He should provide himself for the day without storing for the morrow.  He should betake himself to penances, with heart fixed on the Supreme.[1022] Eating little and that even under proper regulations, he should not eat more than once a day.  The other indications of a (religious) mendicant are the human skull, shelter under trees, rags for wearing, solitude unbroken by the companionship of any one, and indifference to all creatures.[1023] That person into whom words enter like affrighted elephants into a well, and from whom they never come back to the speaker, is fit to lead this mode of life which has Emancipation for its object.[1024] The mendicant (or Renouncer) should never take note of the evil acts of any person.  He should never hear what is said in dispraise of others.  Especially should he avoid speaking evil of a Brahmana.  He should always say only what is agreeable to the Brahmanas.  When anything is said in dispraise (of himself), he should (without answering) remain perfectly silent.  Such silence, indeed, is the medical treatment prescribed for him.  That person in consequence of whose single self the place he occupies becomes like the eastern sky, and who can make a spot teeming with thousands of men and things appear to himself perfectly solitary or unoccupied, is regarded by the deities to be a true Brahmana.[1025] Him the gods know for a Brahmana who clothes himself with whatever comes by the way, who subsists upon whatever he gets, and who sleeps on whatever spot he finds.  Him the gods know for a Brahmana who is afraid of company as of a snake; of the full measure of gratification (from sweet viands and drinks) as of hell; and of women as of a corpse.[1026] Him the gods know for a Brahmana who is never glad