creatures regard the procreation of offspring as a
source of great happiness. The procreation of
offspring, however, becomes impossible in any other
mode of life (than domesticity). Every kind of
grass and straw, all plants and herbs (that yield corn
or grain), and others of the same class that grow
on hills and mountains, have the domestic mode of
life for their root. Upon those depend the life
of living creatures. And since nothing else is
seen (in the universe) than life, domesticity may
be looked upon as the refuge of the entire universe.[1241]
Who then speaks the truth that says that domesticity
cannot lead to the acquisition of Emancipation?
Only those that are destitute of faith and wisdom
and penetration, only those that are destitute of
reputation that are idle and toil-worn, that have misery
for their share in consequence of their past acts,
only those that are destitute of learning, behold
the plenitude of tranquillity in a life of mendicancy.
The eternal and certain distinctions (laid down in
the Vedas) are the causes that sustain the three worlds.
That illustrious person of the highest order who is
conversant with the Vedas, is worshipped from the
very date of his birth. Besides the performance
of Garbhadhana, Vedic mantras become necessary for
enabling persons of the regenerate classes to accomplish
all their acts in respect of both this and the other
world.[1242] In cremating his body (after death), in
the matter of his attainment of a second body, in
that of his drink and food after such attainment,
in that of giving away kine and other animals for helping
him to cross the river that divides the region of
life from that of Yama, in that of sinking funeral
cakes in water—Vedic mantras are necessary.
Then again the three classes of Pitris, viz.,
the Archishmats, the Varhishads, and the Kravyads,
approve of the necessity of mantras in the case of
the dead, and mantras are allowed to be efficient
causes (for attainment of the objects for which these
ceremonies and rites have been directed to be performed).
When the Vedas say this so loudly and when again human
beings are said to owe debts to the Pitris, the Rishis,
and the gods, how can any one attain to Emancipation?[1243]
This false doctrine (of incorporeal existence called
Emancipation), apparently dressed in colours of truth,
but subversive of the real purport of the declarations
of the Vedas, has been introduced by learned men reft
of prosperity and eaten up by idleness. That
Brahmana who performs sacrifices according to the
declarations of the Vedas is never seduced by sin.
Through sacrifices, such a person attains to high
regions of felicity along with the animals he has
slain in those sacrifices, and himself, gratified by
the acquisition of all his wishes succeeds in gratifying
those animals by fulfilling their wishes. By
disregarding the Vedas, by guile, or by deception,
one never succeeds in attaining to the Supreme.
On the other hand, it is by practising the rites laid
down in the Vedas that one succeeds in attaining to
Brahma.’