Śaṅkaraon Brahma Sūtra 3.4.32

Under Sutra 26 it has been proved that the works enjoined on the ^i-ramas are means of knowledge. Now we will consider whether those works have to be performed also by him who does not desire final release and therefore takes his stand on his a.yrama merely without wishing for knowledge.—Here the purvapakshin maintains that as the works incumbent on the furamas are enjoined as means of knowledge by the passage, ‘ Him the Br^hma;/as seek to know by the study of the Veda’ &c., the works of permanent obligation are not to be performed by him who, not desirous of knowledge, wishes for some other fruit. Or else they are to be performed by him also ; but then they cannot be means of knowledge, since it would be contradictory to attribute to them a permanent and a non-permanent connexion ^. Against this conclusion the Sutrakara remarks that the works of permanent obligation are to be performed by him only who, not desirous of release, takes his stand on the ajramas merely, because they are enjoined by texts such ‘ as long as his life lasts he is to offer the agnihotra.’ For to such texts no excessive weight must be ascribed. The next Siitra replies to the objection raised above in the words, ‘ but then they cannot be means of knowledge.’