' and he may eat what is ripened by time: and ' either let him break hard fruits with a ftone, or • let his teeth ferve as a pestle.*

18. Either let him pluck enough for a day,

or let him gather enough for a month; or let 'him collect enough for fix months, or lay up enough for a year.

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19. Having procured food, as he is able, he

may eat it at eve or in the morning; or he may take only every fourth, or every eighth, 'fuch regular meal;

20. Or, by the rules of the lunar penance, he may eat a mouthful less each day of the bright, • and a mouthful more each day of the dark, fortnight; or he may eat only once, at the close of ' each fortnight, a mess of boiled grains :

21. Or he may conftantly live on flowers

' and roots, and on fruit matured by time, which has fallen fpontaneously, ftrictly obferving the 'laws ordained for hermits.

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22. Let him flide backwards and forwards on the ground; or let him ftand awhole day on tip'toe; or let him continue in motion rifing and

fitting alternately; but at funrise, at noon, and at funfet, let him go to the waters and bathe. . In the hot season, let him fit expofed to 'five fires, four blazing around him with the fun

23.

above; in the rains, let him ftand uncovered,

without even a mantle, where the clouds pour

the heaviest fhowers; in the cold feafon, let ' him wear humid vesture; and let him increase 'by degrees the aufterity of his devotion:

24. Performing his ablution at the three 'Savanas, let him give satisfaction to the manes and to the gods; and, enduring harsher and harfher mortifications, let him dry up his bodily 'frame.

25.. Then, having repofited his holy fires, as the law directs, in his mind, let him live without external fire, without a manfion, wholly filent, feeding on roots and fruit;

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26. Not folicitous for the means of gratifi'cation, chaste as a ftudent, fleeping on the bare earth, in the haunts of pious hermits, ' without one selfish affection, dwelling at the < roots of trees..

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27..

• From devout Bráhmens let him receive alms to fupport life, or from other house

keepers of twiceborn claffes, who dwell in the • foreft:*

28. Or the hermit may bring food from a 'town, having received it in a basket of leaves, ⚫ in his naked hand, or in a potsherd; and then let him fwallow eight mouthfuls.

29. These and other rules must a Bráhmen, who retires to the woods, diligently practife; and, for the purpose of uniting his soul with the divine fpirit, let him ftudy the various upa

nishads of scripture, or chapters on the effence and * attributes of God,

30.

Which have been ftudied with reverence "by anchorites verfed in theology, and by housekeepers, who dwelt afterwards in forefts, for 'the fake of increafing their fublime knowledge ⚫ and devotion, and for the purification of their • bodies.

31..Or, if he has any incurable disease, let ⚫ him advance in a ftraight path, towards the in'vincible north eastern point, feeding on water and air, till his mortal frame totally decay, ( and his foul become united with the Su

preme.

32.. A Bráhmen, having fhuffled off his body by any of those modes, which great fages practifed, and becoming void of forrow and fear, rifes to exaltation in the divine • effence.

33.

HAVING thus performed religious acts in a foreft during the third portion of his life, let him become a Sannyáfi for the fourth por⚫tion of it, abandoning all fenfual affections, and wholly repofing in the Supreme Spirit:

34. 'The man, who has paffed from order to order, has made oblations to fire on his re'Spective changes of state, and has kept his members in fubjection, but, tired with fo long a courfe

of giving alms and making offerings, thus re'poses himself entirely on GoD, fhall be raised • after death to glory.

35. When he has paid his three debts to the fages, the manes, and the gods, let him apply 'his mind to final beatitude; but low fhall He fall, who prefumes to feek beatitude, without having discharged thofe debts:

36. After he has read the Védas in the form 'prescribed by law, has legally begotten a fon, ' and has performed facrifices to the best of his power, he has paid his three debts, and may then apply his heart to eternal blifs;

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37. But if a Bráhmen have not read the

Véda, if he have not begotten a son, and if he ⚫ have not performed facrifices, yet shall aim at final beatitude, he shall fink to a place of degradation.

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38. Having performed the sacrifice of PRAJA PETI, accompanied with a gift of all his wealth, and having repofited in his mind the facrificial fires, a Bráhmen may proceed from his

house, that is, from the fecond order, or be may • proceed even from the first, to the condition of * a Sannyáfi.

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39. Higher worlds are illuminated with the

glory of that man, who paffes from his houfe

' into the fourth order, giving exemption from

⚫ fear to all animated beings, and pronouncing the myftick words of the Véda:

40. To the Brahmen, by whom not even the smallest dread has been occafioned to fentient creatures, there can be no dread from any quarter whatever, when he obtains a release 'from his mortal body..

41. Departing from his houfe, taking with him pure implements, his waterpot and staff, keeping filence, unallured by defire of the ob'jects near him, let him enter into the fourth ' order.

42. Alone let him conftantly dwell, for the fake of his own felicity: obferving the happinefs of a folitary man, who neither forfakes ⚫ nor is forfaken, let him live without a compa'nion.

43. Let him have no culinary fire, no domicil; let him, when very hungry, go to the town for food; let him patiently bear disease; let

• his mind be firm; let him study to know God, and fix his attention on God alone.

44.

'An earthen waterpot, the roots of large 'trees, coarfe vefture, total folitude, equanimity toward all creatures, thefe are the character'ifticks of a Bráhmen set free.

45. Let him not wish for death; let him not wifh for life; let him expect his appointed time, as a hired fervant expects his wages.