the fruits of those acts which every one has himself performed. As
Apsaras and great Rishis attain to fruits of great felicity, after the
same manner, men of righteous deeds, as the fruits of their respective
righteous acts, obtain in the other world cars of transcendent brightness
that move everywhere at the will of the riders. Men of stainless deeds
and cleansed souls and pure birth obtain in the next world fruits that
correspond with their own righteous acts in this life. By walking along
the high road constituted by the duties of domesticity, men acquire happy
ends by attaining to the region of Prajapati or Vrihaspati or of him of a
hundred sacrifices. I can give thee thousands and thousands of
instructions. Know, however, that the puissant cleanser (viz.,
Righteousness), keeps all foolish persons in the Dark.[1728] Thou hast
passed four and twenty years. Thou art now full five and twenty years of
age. Thy years are passing away. Do thou begin to lay thy store of
righteousness. The Destroyer that dwells within error and heedlessness
will very soon deprive thy senses of their respective powers. Do thou
before that consummation is brought about, hasten to observe thy duties,
relying on thy body alone.[1729] When it is thy duty to go along that
road in which thyself only shalt be in front and thyself only in the
rear, what need then hast thou with either thy body or thy spouse and
children?[1730] When men have to go individually and without companions
to the region of Yama, it is plain that in view of such a situation of
terror, thou shouldst seek to acquire that one only treasure (viz.,
Righteousness or Yogasamadhi). The puissant Yama, regardless of the
afflictions of others, snatches away the friends and relatives of one's
race by the very roots. There is no one that can resist him. Do thou,
therefore, seek to acquire a stock of righteousness. I impart to thee
these lessons, O son, that are all agreeable with the scriptures I
follow. Do thou observe them by acting according to their import. He who
supports his body by following the duties laid down for his own order,
and who makes gifts for earning whatever fruits may attach to such acts,
becomes freed from the consequences that are born of ignorance and
error.[1731] The knowledge which a man of righteous deeds acquires from
Vedic declarations leads to omniscience. That omniscience is identical
with the science of the highest object of human acquisition (viz.,
Emanci