Bhishma said The next morning, king Janaka, O Bharata, accompanied by his minister and the whole household, came to Shuka, preceded by his priest.

Bringing with him rich seats and various sorts of jewels and gems, and bearing the ingredients of the Arghya on his own head, the king approached the son of his reverend preceptor.

The king, taking with his own hands, from the hands of his priest, that seat adorned with many gems, covered with an excellent sheet, beautiful in all its parts and dearly costly, presented it with great respect to his preceptor's son Shuka.

After the son of Krishna had taken his seat on it, the king adored him according to prescribed rites. At first offering him water to wash his feet, he then presented him the Arghya and kine.

The ascetic accepted that worship offered with due rites and Mantras. That foremost of twice-born ones, having thus accepted the worship offered by the king, and taking the kine also that were presented to him, then saluted the king, gifted with great energy, he next enquired after the king's welfare and prosperity.

Indeed, O king, Shuka asked about the welfare of the king's followers and officers also. Receiving Shuka's permission, Janaka sat down with all his followers.

Having a high soul and possessed of high birth, the king with joined hands, sat down on the bare ground and enquired after the wellbeing and unabated prosperity of Vyasa's son. The king then asked his guest the object of his visit.

Shuka said Blessed be you, my father told me that his client, the king of the Videhas, known all over the world by the name of Janaka, is well-versed in the Religion of Liberation.

He ordered me to come to him forthwith, if I had any doubts to be solved in the Religion of either Action or Renunciation. He gave me to understand that the king of Mithila would remove all my doubts.

I have, therefore, come come here at the command of my father, for the purpose of receiving instruction from you. You should, O foremost of all righteous persons, instruct me!

What are the duties of a Brahmana, and what is the essence of those duties that have Liberation for their object. How, also, is Liberation to be acquired. Is it to be acquired by the help of Knowledge or by that Penances?

Janaka said Hear what the Duties are of a Brahmana from the time of his birth. After his investiture, O son, with the sacred thread, he should give his attention to the study of the Vedas.

By practising penances and dutifully serving his preceptor, and observing the duties of Brahmacharya, O powerful one, he should satisfy the debt be owes to the gods, and the Pitris, and renounce all malice.

Having read the Vedas with close attention, and controlled his senses, and having given his preceptor the tuition-fee, he should, with the order of his preceptor, return home.

Coming back home, he should follow the domestic mode of life and marry a wife, confine himself to her, and live freeing himself from every sort of malice, and having established his domestic fire.

Living as a householder, he should procreate sons and grandsons. After that, he should retire to the forest, and continue to adore the same fires and entertain guests with cordial hospitality.

Living virtuously in the forest, he should, at last, establish his fire in his soul, and freed from all pairs of opposites, and renouncing all attachments, he should pass his days in the anchorite-mode of life, which is otherwise called the mode of Brahma.

Shuka said If one acquires an understanding cleansed by study of the scriptures and true conceptions of all things, and if the heart succeeds in freeing itself permanently from the effects of all pairs of opposites, is it still necessary for such a person to follow one after another, the three modes of life called Brahmacharya, Garahastya, and Vanaprastha.

This is what I ask you. You should me. Indeed, O king, do tell me this according to the true meaning of the Vedas.

Janaka said It is impossible to aquire Liberation without the help of an understanding purified by the study of the scriptures and without that true conception of all things which is known by the name of Vijnana, again, without that cleansed understanding, one cannot get a Preceptor.

The Preceptor is the helmsman, and Knowledge is the Boat. After having got that Boat, one becomes successful. Indeed, having crossed the Ocean, one may renounce both.

For preventing the destruction of all the worlds, and for preventing the destruction of deeds, the duties belonging to the four modes of life were practised by the wise of old.

By renouncing acts, good and bad, according to this order of acts, one succeeds, in course of many births, in acquiring Liberation.

That man who, through penances, practised in many births, succeeds in acquiring purified mind and understanding, and soul, certainly becomes able to acquire Liberation in even the very first mode.

When, having acquired cleansed understanding, Liberation becomes his, and on account thereof be becomes possessed of knowledge of all visible things, what desirable object is there to attain by following the three other modes of life? a

One should always renounce faults produced by the qualities of Rajas and Tamas. Following the path of Sattva, one should see Self by Self.

Seeing one's Self in all creatures and all creatures in one's self, one should live like acquatic animals living in water without being drenched by it.

He who succeeds in getting over all pairs of opposites and resisting their influence, succeeds in renouncing all attachments, and acquires infinite happiness in the next world, going there like a bird soaring into the sky from below.

Regarding it, there is a saying sung of old by king Yayati, and remembered, O sire, by all persons conversant with the Scriptures dealing with Liberation.

The effulgent ray exists in one's Soul and not any where else. It exists equally in all creatures. One can see it himself if his heart be given to Yoga.

When a person lives in such a way that another is not filled with fear on seeing him, and when a person is not himself filled with fear on seeing others, when a person ceases to cherish desire and malice, he is then said to attain to Brahma.

When a person ceases to cherish a sinful attitude towards all creatures in thought, word, and deed, he is then said to attain to Brahima.

By controlling the mind and the soul, by renouncing malice that stupefies the mind, and by throwing off desire and stupefaction, one is said to attain to Brahma.

When a person assumes an equality of attitude about all objects of hearing and vision, as also about all living creatures, and gets over all pairs of opposites, he is then said to attain to Brahma.

When a person regards impartially praise and dispraise, gold and iron, happiness and misery, heat and cold, good and evil, the agreeable and the disagreeable, life and death, he is then said to attain to Brahma.

One following the duties of the mendicant order should restrain his senses and the mind like a tortoise withdrawing its outstretched limbs.

As a house covered with darkness, is capable of being seen with the help of a lighted lamp, similarly can the soul be seen with the help of the lamp of the understanding.

O foremost of intelligent persons, I see that all this knowledge that I am imparting to you, lives in you. Whatever else should be known by one desirous of learning the Religion of Liberation, is already known to you.

O regenerate Rishi, I am convinced that through the mercy of your preceptor and through the instructions you have received, you have already transcended all objects of the senses.

O great ascetic, through the grace of your father, I have acquired omniscience, and hence I have succeeded in knowing you.

Your knowledge is much greater than what you think it to be. Your perceptions also that result from intuition, are much greater than what you think them to be. Your power also is much greater than you are conscious of.

Whether in consequence of your tender age, or of the doubts you have not been able to remove, or of the fear that is due to be unattainment of Liberation, you are conscious of that Knowledge due to Intuition, although it has originated in your mind.

After one's doubts have been removed by persons like us, one succeeds in opening the knots of one's heart, and, then, by a righteous endeavour, acquires, and becomes conscious of, that Knowledge. not one

As regards yourself, you are one that has already acquired knowledge. Your intelligence is steady and tranquil. You are free from covetousness. For all that, O Brahmana, one never succeed, without endeavour in attaining to Brahma, which is the highest object of acquisition.

You see no difference between happiness and misery. You are not covetous. You have no desire for dancing and song. You have no attachments.

You have no attachment to friends. You have no fear in things which fill with fear. O blessed one, I see that you consider equally a lump of gold and a clod of Earth.

Myself and other persons endued with wisdom, see you established in the highest and indestructible path of peace.

O Brahmana, you discharge the duties of Brahmana and enjoy the fruit which should be his, and which is at one with the essence of the object represented by Liberation. What else have you to enquire of me?