“Syumarasmi said, ’O Brahmana, I am Syumarasmi by name.  I have come here for acquiring knowledge.  Desirous of doing good to myself I have started this conversation in artless candour and not from desire of disputation.  The dark doubt has taken possession of my mind.  O illustrious one, solve it to me.  Thou hast said that they who take the path of the good (viz., Yoga), by which Brahma is attained, realise its fruits by the direct evidence of their senses.  What, indeed, is that which is so realisable by the direct evidence of the senses and which is pursued by yourselves?  Avoiding all sciences that have disputation only for their foremost object, I have so studied the Agama as to have July mastered their true meaning.  By Agama I understand the declarations of the Vedas.  I also include la that word those sciences based on logic which have for their object the bringing out of the real meaning of the Vedas.[1251] Without avoiding the duties laid down for the particular mode of life which one may lead, one should pursue the practices laid down in Agama.  Such observance of the practices laid down in Agama crowns one with success.  In consequence of the certainty of the conclusions of Agama, the success to which the latter leads may be said to be almost realisable by direct evidence.  As a boat that is tied to another bound for a different port, cannot take its passengers to the port they desire to reach, even so ourselves, dragged by our acts due to past desires, can never cross the interminable river of birth and death (and reach the heaven of rest and peace we may have in view).  Discourse to me on this topic, O illustrious one!  Teach me as a preceptor teaches a disciple.  No one can be found amongst men that has completely renounced all worldly objects, nor one that is perfectly contented with oneself, nor one that has transcended grief, nor one that is perfectly free from disease, nor one that is absolutely free from the desire to act (for one’s own benefit), nor one that has an absolute distaste for companionship, nor one that has entirely abstained from acts of every kind.  Even men like yourself are seen to give way to joy and indulge in grief as persons like ourselves.  Like other creatures the senses of persons like yourselves have their functions and objects.  Tell me, in what then, if we are to investigate the question of happiness, does pure felicity consist for all the four orders of men and all the four modes of life who and which have, as regards their inclinations, the same resting ground.’

“Kapila said, ’Whatever the Sastras according to which one performs the acts one feels inclined to do, the ordinances laid down in it for regulating those acts never become fruitless.  Whatever again the school of opinion according to which one may conduct oneself, one is sure to attain to the highest end by only observing the duties of self-restraint of Yoga.  Knowledge assists that man in crossing (this interminable river of life and death) who pursues