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260 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
liberation, is bound (with the fetters of the Samsara) by accepting (food given) in consequence of humble salutations.
Ch. VI-59. By eating little, and by standing and sitting in solitude, let him restrain his senses, if they are attracted by sensual objects.
Ch. VI-60. By the restraint of his senses, by the destruction of love and hatred, and by the abstention from injuring the creatures, he becomes fit for immortality.
Ch. VI-80. [1] When by the disposition (of his heart) he becomes indifferent to all objects, he obtains eternal happiness both in this world and after death.
Ch. VI-81. He who has in this manner gradually given up all attachments and is freed from all the pairs (of opposites), reposes in Brahman alone.
Ch. VI-82. All that has been declared (above) depends on meditation; for he who is not proficient in the knowledge of that which refers to the Soul reaps not the full reward of the performance of rites.
Ch. VI-83. Let him constantly recite (those texts of) the Veda which refer to the sacrifice (those) referring to the deities, and (those) which treat of the Soul and are contained in the concluding portions of the Veda (Vedanta).
Ch. VI-84. That is the refuge of the ignorant, and even that (the refuge) of those who know (the meaning of the Veda); that is (the protection) of those who seek (bliss in) heaven and of those who seek endless (beatitude).
Ch. VI-85. A twice-born man who becomes an ascetic, after the successive performance of the above-mentioned acts, shakes off sin here below and reaches the highest Brahman.
Comparing the Vanaprastha with the Sannyasi the resemblance in this observances is so close that one is led to ask why these two stages are created as separate stages. There appear to be only a few differences. Firstly a Vanaprastha may take his wife with him and a Sannyasi cannot. Secondly a Vanaprastha is required only to leave his property behind, and a Sannyasi has to divest himself of it. Thirdly a Vanaprastha must make his dwelling in a forest and a Sannyasi cannot have a fixed dwelling but keep on wandering from place to place. As for the rest their mode of life is identical. Why did the Brahmins recognize an additional stage such as that of a Vanaprastha when the stage of Sannyas would have sufficed for both. But the question remains—namely what good these two stages serve. They cannot be cited as examples of self sacrifice. The Vanaprastha and Sannyasi cannot but be old men. Manu is very positive as to the
1 S.B.E. Vol. XXV versus 80-85 pp. 213-14.