brahmacaryaṁ samāpya gṛhī bhavet, gṛhī bhūtvā vanī bhavet, vanī bhūtvā pravrajet, yadi vetarathā brahmacaryād eva pravrajet gṛhād vā vanād vā | atha punar avratī vā vratī snātako vāsnātako votsannāgnir anagniko vā, yad ahar eva virajyet tad ahar eva pravrajet |
(Jābāla Upaniṣad: 4; cited in Govinda-bhāṣya on Vedānta-sūtra 3.4.49)
“After completing brahmacarya, one may become a householder. After having become a householder, one may become a vanaprastha. After having become a vanaprastha, one may roam [i.e., become a sannyāsī], yet after brahmacarya itself one may roam, or after household life, or after vanaprastha. Furthermore, be one a non-student or student [i.e., one who has never gone to school to be trained in brahmacarya or one who is presently in school observing brahmacarya], be one a graduate or a non-graduate [i.e., a graduate of brahmacarya or not], and be one of extinguished fire or no fire [i.e., be one someone who has ceased to maintain the sacred fire sustained in homes by couples after marriage because one’s wife has expired or one has left one’s wife, or be one someone who has never married and thus never maintained the sacred fire], on the very day one may [i.e., should happen to] become detached, on that very day one may roam [i.e., one should leave and take sannyāsa].”
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