अथ ह जनको वैदेहो याज्ञवल्क्यमुपसमेत्योवाच भगवन्संन्यासं ब्रूहीति । स होवाच याज्ञवल्क्यः । ब्रह्मचर्यं समाप्य गृही भवेत् । गृही भूत्वा वनी भवेत् । वनी भूत्वा प्रव्रजेत् । यदि वेतरथा ब्रह्मचर्यादेव प्रव्रजेद्गृहाद्वा वनाद्वा । अथ पुनरव्रती वा व्रती वा स्नातको वाऽस्नातको वा उत्सन्नाग्निरनग्निको वा यदहरेव विरजेत्तदहरेव प्रव्रजेत्
atha ha janako vaideho yājñavalkyamupasametyovāca bhagavansaṃnyāsaṃ brūhīti | sa hovāca yājñavalkyaḥ | brahmacaryaṃ samāpya gṛhī bhavet | gṛhī bhūtvā vanī bhavet | vanī bhūtvā pravrajet | yadi vetarathā brahmacaryādeva pravrajedgṛhādvā vanādvā | atha punaravratī vā vratī vā snātako vā'snātako vā utsannāgniranagniko vā yadahareva virajettadahareva pravrajet
Then Janaka of Videha, approaching Yājñavalkya, said: “Master, tell me of renunciation.” Yājñavalkya said: “Having completed studentship, let him become a householder; having become a householder, let him become a forest-dweller; having become a forest-dweller, let him go forth to wander. Or, if otherwise — let him go forth straight from studentship, or from the house, or from the forest. And again: with a vow or without a vow, bathed or unbathed, his fire lapsed or having no fire at all — on whatever day he grows dispassionate, on that very day let him go forth.”
244de3255c0c · publicado 29 jul 2026, 2:53:35 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The heart of the book, and the passage for which the Vedānta reads it.
The questioner is Janaka — king of Videha, at whose court Yājñavalkya held his disputations in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka.
First the usual order is set out: studentship, house, forest, wandering. Four estates, the āśramas, climbed step by step.
And then comes yadi vā itarathā — “or, if otherwise”.
With that single phrase the order is thrown open: one may go forth straight from studentship, or from the house, or from the forest.
Then all to whom this is permitted are listed, and the list deliberately spans the extremes: with a vow and without one, having taken the bath that closes one's studies and not having taken it, having lost the sacrificial fire and never having kindled it.
None of it matters. One thing matters, and it is said in words quoted ever since: yad ahar eva virajet tad ahar eva pravrajet — “on whatever day he grows dispassionate, on that very day let him go forth”.
Not when the rites are complete, not when the family permits, not in old age. On the day the world fades for you.
The verb virajet is literally “loses its colour”: the world does not become hateful — it becomes uncoloured. Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa cites this very paragraph in the Govinda-bhāṣya (3.4.49), where it is proved that knowledge does not wait upon the stages of life.