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Vishnu-smriti (Vishnu sutra / Vaishnava Dharmasâstra)
The Hermit
XCIV.1
1. A householder, when he sees his skin has become wrinkled and his hair turned grey, must go to live in a forest.
2. Or (he must do so) when he sees the son of his son.
3. Let him (before going into the forest) entrust the care of his wife to his sons, or let her accompany him.
4. Let him keep the sacred fires in his new abode as before.
5. He must not omit to perform the five sacrifices, but (he must perform them) with (fruits, herbs, or roots) growing wild.2
6. He must not relinquish the private recitation of the Veda.3
7. He must preserve his chastity.
8. He must wear a dress made of skins or bark.
9. He must suffer the hairs of his head, of his beard, and of his body, and his nails to grow.
10. He must bathe at morning. noon, and evening.
11. He must either collect provisions, after the manner of the pigeon, for a month, or he must collect them for a year.4
12. He who has collected provisions for a year, must throw away what he has collected on the day of full moon in the month Âsvina.
13. Or an hermit may bring food from a village, placing it in a dish made of leaves, or in a single leaf, or in his hand, or in a potsherd, and eat eight mouthfuls of it.
XCV.5
1. An hermit must dry up his frame by the practice of austerities.
2. In summer he must expose himself to five fires.
3. During the season of the rains he must sleep in the open air.
4. In winter he must wear wet clothes.
5. He must eat at night.
6. He may eat after having fasted entirely for one day, or for two days, or for three days.6
7. He may eat flowers.
8. He may eat fruits.
9. He may eat vegetables.
10. He may eat leaves.
11. He may eat roots.
12. Or he may eat boiled barley once at the close of a half-month.
13. Or he may eat according to the rules of the Kândrâyana.7
14. He shall break his food with stones.
15. Or he shall use his teeth as a pestle.
16. This whole world of deities and of men has devotion for its root, devotion for its middle, devotion for its end, and is supported by devotion.
17. What is hard to follow8, hard to reach, remote, or hard to do, all that may be accomplished by devotion; since there is nothing that may not be effected by devotion.
Footnote
1. 1, 2. M. VI, 2.--3, 4. M. VI, 3, 4; Y. III, 4; Âpast. II, 9, 22, 8, 9.--5. M. VI, 5, 16; Y. III, 46; Gaut. III, 29.--6. M. VI. 8; Y. III, 48.--7. M. VI. 26; Y. III, 45; Âpast. II, 9, 21, 19.--8. M. VI, 6; Âpast. II, 9, 22, 1; Gaut. VI, 34.--9, 10. M. VI, 6; Y. III, 46, 48.--9, 11. Gaut III, 34, 35.--11. M. VI, 18; Y. III, 47.--12. M. VI, 15; Y. III, 47; Âpast. II, 9, 22, 24.--13. M. VI. 28; Y. III, 55. 'The duties of a householder having been declared, he now goes on to expound the duties of an hermit.' (Nand.)
2. See LIX, 20 seq.
3. The use of the particle ka implies, according to Nand., that the practice of distributing gifts should likewise be continued.
4. The particle vâ here refers, according to Nand., to a third alternative mentioned by Manu (VI, 18), that he should gather provisions sufficient for six months.
5. 1. M. VI, 24.--2-4. M. VI, 23; Y. III, 52.--5, 6. M. VI, 19; Y. III, 50.--7-11. M. VI, 5, 21; Y. III, 46; Âpast. II, 9, 22, 2; Gaut. III, 26.--12, 13. M. VI, 20; Y. III, 50.--14, 15. M. VI, 17; Y. III, 49.--16, 17. M. XI, 235, 239.
6. Nand. considers the particle vâ to refer to the precept of Yâgñavalkya (III, 50), that the fast may also extend over a half-month or an entire month.
7. The particle vâ, according to Nand., implies that he may also perform Krikkhras, as ordained -by Yâgñavalkya (III, 50). Regarding the Kândrâyana, see XLVII.
8. 'Duskara has been translated according to the usual acceptation of this term. Nand. interprets it by 'hard to understand.' This proverb is also found Subhâshitârnava 109, Vriddhakânakhya's Proverbs XVII, 3. See Böhtlingk, Ind. Sprüche, 5265.
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