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(17) Devotion to sacrifice, austerity and gift is also spoken of as 'Sat'; and even action in connection with these is called 'Sat.'

(17) This threefold austerity, practised by devout men with utmost faith, desiring no fruit, they call Sâttvic.

(1) Now the sacrifice which is acceptable to God is unswerving abstraction from the body and its passions. This is the really true piety. And is not, on this account, philosophy rightly called by Socrates the practice of Death? For he who neither employs his eyes in the exercise of thought, nor draws aught from his other senses, but with pure mind itself applies to objects, practises the true philosophy. This is, then, the import of the silence of five years prescribed by Pythagoras, which he enjoined on his disciples; that, abstracting themselves from the objects of sense, they might with the mind alone contemplate the Deity.

(17) Serenity of mind, good-heartedness, silence, self-control, purity of nature, — this is called the mental austerity.

(15) Ceasing from self-indulgence is conscious mastery over the thirst for sensuous pleasure here or hereafter.

(17) Whatever is sacrificed, given, or done, and whatever austerity is practised, without faith, it is called 'asat,' O Pârtha; it is naught here or hereafter.

(191) Abstinence is the prince of medicines, Abstinence is certainly the root of medicine; Practise abstinence, see how it invigorates thy soul! Accept this counsel and give ear thereto, That it may be to thee as an earring of gold! Nay, not a mere earring, but that thou mayest be a mine of gold, First, know creation is in various forms; In this variety of letters there seems disorder, In one aspect they are opposed, in another united; In one aspect capricious, in another serious.

(5) By truthfulness, indeed, by penance, right knowledge, and abstinence must that Self be gained; the Self whom spotless anchorites gain is pure, and like a light within the body.

(17) With 'Tat,' without aiming at the fruits, are the acts of sacrifice and austerity and the various acts of gift performed by the seekers of moksha.

(4) And others sacrifice all the functions of the senses and the functions of the vitality in the wisdom-kindled fire of the Yoga of Self-restraint.

(1) He desired: * Let me sacrifice further with a greater sacrifice (yajna)V He toitured himself. He practised austerity. When he had tortured himself and practised austerity, glory and vigor went forth. The glory and vigor, verily, are the vital breaths. So when the vital breaths departed, his body began to swell. His mind, indeed, was in his body (sarira).

(50) By absence of all self-indulgence at this point, when the seeds of bondage to sorrow are destroyed, pure spiritual being is attained.

(40) Through purity a withdrawal from one’s own bodily life, a ceasing from infatuation with the bodily life of others.

(184) The Awakened call patience the highest penance, long-suffering the highest Nirvâna; for he is not an anchorite (pravragita) who strikes others, he is not an ascetic (sramana) who insults others.

(17) The speech which causes no excitement and is true, as also pleasant and beneficial, and also the practice of sacred recitation, are said to form the austerity of speech.

(3) Now Kahola Kaushltakeya questioned him. * Yajna- valkya/ said he, ' explain to me him who is just the Brahma present and not beyond our ken, him who is the Soul in all things. ' He is your soul, which is in all things/ ' He who passes beyond hunger and thirst, beyond sorrow and delusion, beyond old age and death — Brahmans who know such a Soul overcome desire for sons, desire for wealth, desire for worlds, and live the life of mendicants. For desire for sons is desire for wealth, and desire for wealth is desire for worlds, for both these are merely desires. Therefore let a Brahman become disgusted with learning and desire to live as a child. When he has become disgusted both with the state of childhood and with learning, then he becomes an ascetic (muni). When he has become disgusted both with the non-ascetic state and with the ascetic state, then he becomes a Brahman/ us ' By what means would he become a Brahman? ' Aught else than this Soul (Atman) is wretched/ Thereupon Kahola Kaushitakeya held his peace.

(388) Because a man is rid of evil, therefore he is called Brâhmana; because he walks quietly, therefore he is called Samana; because he has sent away his own impurities, therefore he is called Pravragita (Pabbagita, a pilgrim).

(18) The Blessed Lord said:

Sages understand 'samnyâsa' to be the renouncement of interested works; the abandonment of the fruits of all works, the learned declare, is 'tyâga'.

(1) 'When the Father produced by intellect and austerity seven kinds of food' — truly by intellect and austerity the Father did produce them. ' One of his [foods] was common to all.' That of his which is common to all is the food that is eaten here. He who worships that, is not turned from evil, for it is mixed [i.e. common, not selected]. 'Of two he let the gods partake/ They arc the tmta (fire-sacrifice) and thtfra/mta (offering). For this reason one sacrifices and offers to the gods. People also say that these two are the new-moon and the full-moon sacrifices. Therefore one should not offer sacrifice [merely] to secure a wish first both men and animals live upon milk. Therefore they either make a new-bom babe lick butter or put it to the breast. Likewise they call a new-born calf 'one that does not eat grass ' what does not ' — for upon milk everything depends, both what breathes and what does not. This that people say, cBy offering with milk for a year one escapes the second death ' — one should know that this is not so, since on the very day that he makes the offering he who knows escapes the second death, for he offers all his food to the gods. eaten all the time?' Verily, the Person is imperishableness, for he produces this food again and again. ' He who knows this imperishableness ' — verily, a person is imperishableness, for by continuous meditation he produces this food as his work. Should he not do this, all the food would perish. ( He eats food with his mouth (pratlkd)' The prattka is the mouth. So he eats food with his mouth.

(17) Worshipping the Gods, the twice-born, teachers and wise men, — purity, straightforwardness, continence, and abstinence from injury are termed the bodily austerity.