"You said that sannyāsa was the liberator of all karmas. Now you say again that the sannyāsin is one that should be in the observance of his āśrama (order of life). (How to reconcile the two?)" To which the Grandfather replied thus: "To the jīva possessing the body, there are three avasṭhās—the waking, the dreaming, and the dreamless sleeping with ṭurya (the fourth). Those beings of Purushas that are subject to these avasṭhās follow the observances, incidental to them, of karma, jñāna and vairāgya." Nāraḍa said: "O Lord, if so, what are the differences of different orders of sannyāsa? And what are the differences of their observances? Please tell us truly."

Therefore the differences of sannyāsas, and the differences of observances were related for the sake of Nāraḍa by Brahmā, after assenting to his (Nāraḍa's) question thus:—

"Truly sannyāsa is of one kind only. On account of ajñāna, inability and non-performance of karmas (of persons), it is divided into three and then into four, thus: vairāgya-sannyāsa, jñāna-sannyāsa, jñānavairāgya-sannyāsa and karma-sannyāsa.

[paragraph continues] The vairāgya-sannyāsin is one who becomes an ascetic after being in a vicious condition of lust, etc., and then, becomes disgusted with the objects through his former good karmas. A jñāna-sannyāsin is one who becomes an ascetic with the four means of salvation, after controlling the organs through book-wisdom, and becoming familiar with the experiences of the world of virtue and vice, after abandoning anger, jealousy, envy, ahaṅkāra and all sannyāsa productive of identification, after giving up the three vāsanās of the body, books and world, which are of the form of desires for women, wealth and earth, and after thinking that the whole of the universe should be given up, like vomited food. A jñānavairāgya-sannyāsin is one who becomes an ascetic as nature made him, after practising and enjoying all, and having the body alone remaining, through jñāna and vairāgya, in the realisation of the Reality. A karma-sannyāsin is one who, though he has no vairāgya, becomes an ascetic by regularly passing from one āśrama to another, from the celibate, to the householder and then to the forester. A vairāgya-sannyāsin is one who becomes an ascetic from the celibate order (directly), being as nature made him.