24. If a person has realized that he is the Atman non-different from the universal Self, what can he wish for, and to fulfil which desire need he torture his body (by various kinds of austerities) ?
25. A wise-man knowing this (truth) and thus a knower of Brahman shall have this consciousness. He shall not worry himself with many words; for it is only torturing language.
26. Having discerned the knowledge of Brahman he should wish to remain with dispassion (lit. with the innocence of the child); a sage has realized the Atman when he has the lore of Brahman and dispassion.
27. When all desires which cling to the heart have been shed, then the man becomes immortal and he enjoys the (bliss of) Brahman here (itself).
28. Then indeed, Oh Brahman, he who abandons this asceticism which is the highest spiritual life, becomes a child-murderer, a murderer of a Brahmana, a killer of an embryo, a great sinner. He, who abandons this steady life pertaining to Vishnu (i.e. the external and internal discipline in spiritual life), becomes a thief, a seducer of his preceptor’s wife, treacherous to a friend, ungrateful; he is denied all (auspicious) worlds. This has been declared in the Vedic verse – A thief, a drinker of spirituous liquor, a seducer of his preceptor’s wife and one treacherous to his friend get purified by expiation; (but) one who abandons the sign of Vishnu, external or internal, which he was possessing, will never be purified in spite of all his self-exertions.
29. Abandoning the sign of Vishnu-worship, external or internal, he who resorts to his stage of life or no (prescribed) stage at all, or returns (to his former way of living prior to renunciation) – to that great fool (and to people of his kind) there is no liberation seen even in tens of millions of eons.
30. Abandoning all other stages of life a wise man should live for long in the stage of life leading to liberation. There is no liberation possible to one who has fallen from the stage leading to final beatitude.
31. Having embraced asceticism, if one does not remain observing its laws, he is to be known as ‘fallen from grace’ (arudhachyuta) – such is the Vedic injunction.
32. Then indeed, Oh Brahmana, when (a wise man) has embraced this age old spiritual life pertaining to Vishnu and remains without transgressing it, he becomes self-controlled, worthy of being remembered as auspicious, a (true) knower of the world, a knower of the Vedanta, a knower of Brahman, omniscient, self-luminous; he becomes the supreme God Brahman, he redeems from (the misery of) worldly life his ancestors, relations by marriage, (other) kinsmen, associates and friends.
33. When a wise man renounces the world, those belonging to his family become blessed in this world, a hundred generations before him and three hundred generations after him.
34. The scripture says that a very pious mendicant monk redeems thirty generations of his family after him, thirty generations before him and thirty generations after those that follow (the first thirty).
35. The Vedic teaching is that the ancestors of (a wise man) are redeemed if he were to say that he has renounced even while his final breath remains in his throat (i.e. just before death).
36. Hence, Oh Brahmana, wise men have said that this age old lore of the Self, the discipline pertaining to Vishnu, shall not be expounded till one has oneself realized (the goal) and (that) not to one who has not studied the Veda, has not the conviction of the Self, has not freed himself from attachment, has not become pure, has not approached (to receive this of his own accord), and who has not made earnest efforts (to know them). This has been said in a Vedic verse (as well):
Once (Brahma-)Vidya approached (the god) Brahma and said: ‘Guard me, I am your treasure. Do not reveal me to one who is envious, crooked or crafty. Thus shall I be of potent strength’.
37. This discipline of the Atman pertaining to Vishnu (i.e. this lore to realize Brahman) shall be revealed to a person after a careful test as to whether he is of pure conduct, attentive, intelligent, observes celibacy and has approached (the Guru of his own accord for receiving instruction).
38. With those ascetics who have been taught (the scripture) by a Guru and who do not honour him in word, thought and deed, the Guru does not dine; similarly (good ascetics) do not eat the food (from houses where the ill-mannered receive alms). Such is the (injunction of the) scripture.
39. The Guru is the supreme righteousness (Dharma); the Guru alone is the sole means (of liberation). He who honours not his Guru who gives (initiation into) the single syllable (Om which is Brahman) has all his scriptural learning, penance and spiritual wisdom oozed out as water from an unbaked clay vessel.
40. He who has supreme faith in God and the same faith in his Guru is a knower of Brahman, who reaches supreme beatitude. Such is the teaching of the Veda. Thus (ends) the Upanishad.
Om ! That (Brahman) is infinite, and this (universe) is infinite.
The infinite proceeds from the infinite.
(Then) taking the infinitude of the infinite (universe),
It remains as the infinite (Brahman) alone.
Om ! Let there be Peace in me !
Let there be Peace in my environment !
Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
Here ends the Satyayaniyopanishad belonging to the Sukla-Yajur-Veda.
