47

47. But on account of the existence (of knowledge) in all, there is winding up with the householder.

As knowledge belongs to the members of all āśramas it belongs to the householder also, and for this reason the Upanishad winds up with the latter. This winding up therefore is meant to illustrate the duties (not of the householder only, but) of the members of all āśramas. Analogously in the text under discussion (Br̥. Up. III, 5) the clause ‘A Brāhmaṇa having risen above the desire for sons, the desire for wealth, and the desire for worlds, wanders about as a mendicant,’ intimates duties belonging exclusively to the condition of the wandering beggar, and then the subsequent clause ’therefore let a Brāhmaṇa having done with learning,’ &c., enjoins pāṇḍitya, bālya, and mauna (not as incumbent on the pārivrājaka only, but) as illustrating the duties of all āśramas.–This the next Sūtra explicitly declares.