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A man by residing with purity and regulated vows for twelve years in Pushkara, acquireth the merit of all the sacrifices, and goeth to the abode of Brahma. The merit of one who performeth the Agnihotra for full one hundred years, is equal to that of him who resideth for the single month of Karttika in Pushkara.
He should never desire any thing from motives of gain or pleasure. He should worship the Pitris and gods and guests. In his own house he should live the life of a mendicant. He should duly adore the deities in his Agnihotra, morning, noon, and evening every day, by pouring libations agreeably to the ordinance.
This we learn from Scripture itself: 'Him Brahmanas seek to know by the study of the Veda, by sacrifices, gifts, austerities, and fasting. This passage shows that works such as the Agnihotra give rise to knowledge, and as knowledge in order to grow and become more perfect has to be practised day after day until death, the special duties of the asrama also, which assist the rise of knowledge, have daily to be performed.
In the same way as in the case of those bound to chastity who, as the texts show, may possess the knowledge of Brahman knowledge is promoted by practices other than the Agnihotra and the like, so it is concluded in the case of those also who do not belong to any abrama knowledge may be promoted by certain practices not exclusively connected with any asrama, such as prayer, fasting, charity, propitiation of the divinity, and so on.
He, therefore, once more caused the earth to be filled with water by raising a mighty wave. On another occasion, when Angiras became enraged with me, I fled away, leaving the world, and dwelt for a long time concealed in the Agnihotra of the Brahmanas through fear of that Rishi.
And, thereupon, O king, that powerful deer of exceeding fleetness with long bounds, speedily went out of the hermitage, taking those articles away. And, O foremost of Kurus, seeing those articles of his thus carried away, the Brahmana, anxious on account of his Agnihotra, quickly came before the Pandavas.
These works are to be performed also on account of their being co- operative towards knowledge in so far, namely, as they give rise to the desire of knowledge; and their thus being enjoined for a double purpose does not imply contradiction any more than the double injunctions of the Agnihotra, which one text connects with the life of the sacrificer and another text with his desire to reach the heavenly world.
And because his son had been slain, the sacrificial fires which used to welcome him everyday, did not on that day come forward to welcome him. And marking this change in the Agnihotra, the great sage asked the blind Sudra warder seated there, saying, "Why is it, O Sudra, that the fires rejoice not at sight of me? Thou too dost not rejoice as is thy wont. Is it all well with my hermitage?
The wise have said that that man reaps the merit of an Agnihotra sacrifice in whose tank water is held in the season of the rains. The high reward in the world that is reaped by the person who makes a gift of a thousand kine is won by that man in whose tank water is held in the season of autumn.
And then the text proceeds to teach the Agnihotra offered to Prana, which is something subsidiary to the meditation taught. The final conclusion then remains that Vaisvanara is none other than the highest Self, the supreme Person. Here terminates the adhikarana of 'Vaisvanara. The abode of heaven, earth, &c. Up.
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