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A learned man should adopt the Vanaprastha mode of life after performance of the necessary rites, when he hath been able to control his appetites for enjoyment and desire of acquiring valuable possessions. When one dieth in the woods while leading the Vanaprastha mode of life, he maketh his ancestors and the successors, numbering ten generations including himself, mix with the Divine essence.

Undergoing the purificatory rite in respect of bearing matted locks, after having gone through the rite of regeneration and performed for some time the rites in respect of the sacred fire and studied the Vedas, one should, with cleansed soul and senses under restraint, having first carefully performed all the duties of the mode called Garhasthya, proceed, with or without his wife, to the woods for adoption of the mode called Vanaprastha.

Look here again at these tigers among men, mighty in the use of the bow, the twin children begotten upon Madri by the twin Aswins. Leading in righteousness the life of a Vanaprastha in the woods, illustrious Pandu hath thus revived the almost extinct line of his grandfather. The birth, growth, and Vedic studies of these children of Pandu, will, no doubt, give you great pleasure.

A learned man should adopt the Vanaprastha mode of life after performance of the necessary rites, when he hath been able to control his appetites for enjoyment and desire of acquiring valuable possessions. When one dieth in the woods while leading the Vanaprastha mode of life, he maketh his ancestors and the successors, numbering ten generations including himself, mix with the Divine essence.

All those regions that are acquired by persons leading duly the Garhasthya, the Brahmacharya, and the Vanaprastha modes of life, are soon acquired by a king by only protecting his subjects righteously. Thou shalt then obtain the reward of righteousness and no grief and pain will be thine. Thou shalt, O son of Pandu, obtain great prosperity in heaven.

Bestowing favours and inflicting punishments upon the wives and brothers, elder and younger, and upon their sons and grandsons, are the domestic duties of a king and these constitute his best penances. Inviting to this home, O Bharata, persons that have betaken themselves to that Vanaprastha and other modes of life, and treating them with food, constitute the domestic duties of a king.

That king who always worships those that are deserving of worship by giving them their due, completely attains, O son of Kunti, to the object of the Bhaikshya mode of life. That king, O Yudhishthira, who rescues from distress, to the best of his power, his kinsmen and relatives and friends, attains to the object of the Vanaprastha mode of life.

Until I lay down this body, I shall thus practise the severe ordinances of the Vanaprastha scriptures, always searching for severer ones that they may contain.

That king who duly adheres to the duties laid down by the Creator, obtains the blessed merits of all the modes of life. That king, O son of Kunti, in whom no virtue is wanting, that foremost of men, O Yudhishthira, is said by the learned to be a person in the observance of the Vanaprastha and all the other modes of life.

Until I lay down this body, I shall thus practise the severe ordinances of the Vanaprastha scriptures, always searching for severer ones that they may contain.