,[884] some say that such is the case; some, that
such is not the case; some, that both of these are not the case; and
some, that it is not that the reverse of both are not. These, of course,
are the contentions of those that depend on Acts, with reference to
objects. They however, whose vision is directed to truth regard Brahma as
the cause.[885] Penance is the highest good for living creatures. The
roots of penance are tranquillity and self-restraint. By penance one
obtains all things that one wishes for in one's mind. By penance one
attains to that Being who creates the universe. He who (by penance)
succeeds in attaining to that Being becomes the puissant master of all
beings. It is by Penance that the Rishis are enabled to read the Vedas
ceaselessly. At the outset the Self-born caused those excellent Vedic
sounds, that are embodiments of knowledge and that have neither beginning
nor end to (spring up and) flow on (from preceptor to disciple). From
those sounds have sprung all kinds of actions. The names of the Rishis,
all things that have been created, the varieties of form seen in existent
things, and the course of actions, have their origin in the Vedas.[886]
Indeed, the Supreme Master of all beings, in the beginning, created all
things from the words of the Vedas. Truly, the names of the Rishis, and
all else that has been created, occur in the Vedas. Upon the expiration
of his night (i.e., at the dawn of his day), the uncreate Brahman
creates, from prototypes that existed before, all things which are, of
course, well-made by Him.[887] In the Vedas hath been indicated the topic
of the Soul's Emancipation, along with the ten means constituted by study
of the Vedas, adoption of the domestic mode of life, penances, observance
of duties common to all the modes of life, sacrifices, performance of all
such acts as lead to pure fame, meditation which is of three kinds, and
that kind of emancipation which is called success (Siddhi) attainable in
this life.[888] That incomprehensible Brahma which has been declared in
the words of the Vedas, and which has been indicated more clearly in the
Upanishads by those who have an insight into the Vedas, can be realised
by gradually following the practices referred to above.[889] Unto a
person who thinks he has a body, this consciousness of duality, fraught
again with that of pairs of opposites, is born only of acts in which he
is engaged. (That consciousness of duality ceases during dr