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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XXL 



II. — Ren unci ation . 



The Vedanta is not taught indiscriminately to all, for, as 

 Vasishta says, " The study of the great books is fraught 

 with danger to persons of little understanding. It will breed 

 degrading folly in them, no other books will breed so much," — 

 an observation verified in the case of students who take to 

 idle, useless, and even vicious lives, pleading the principles of 

 the Vedanta. Hence , before admitting a pupil to these studies, 

 the teacher is enjoined to test his moral and spiritual fitness. 

 The pupil should be imbued with a sense of the impermanence 

 of life and the worthlessness of all worldly things, all desire 

 must have died in him for the so-called goods of this worlo^or the 

 next. He should be truly poor in spirit and hanker and thirst 

 after wisdom, in the pursuit of which he must be ready to give 

 up all else. Rama was the type of the qualified student, and 

 the chapter called Vairdgya prakaranam, or the Chapter of 

 Renunciation, describes his spiritual condition just before his 

 initiation. 



He was the heir to a great kingdom and had just returned 

 from a pilgrimage, which in those days, as now, apart from its 

 spiritual uses, is the popular form of travel in India and covers 

 the face of the land with happy troops of pilgrims of all grades, 

 ages, and sexes, for whose counterpart in England one must go 

 back to the time of Chaucer. Rama was transformed on his 

 return. His royal duties, the pleasures of the court and the 

 chase, became irksome to him ; he went through them 

 mechanically for a time, and finally gave them up altogether. 

 His religious duties, to which he had been devoted, had 

 no interest for him. He neglected food and sleep, sought 

 solitude and contemplation, and pined away until his attend- 

 ants were filled with anxiety and reported his condition to his 

 father who doted on him. The king sent for him and questioned 

 him with much concern, but could get no clue to his troubles. 

 Shortly afterwards the sage Visvamitra came on a visit to the 

 king in order to obtain the help of Rama against some wild 

 men who were molesting him in his forest retreat. With 

 great reluctance the king consented to part with his son for the 

 purpose. Rama being sent for comes to the king's presence 



