132
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 4, Ch. 4]
PURPORT
The Vedic activities are so designed that the conditioned soul who has come to enjoy the material world may do so under direction so that at the end he becomes detached from such material enjoyment and is eligible to enter into the transcendental position. The four different social orders— brahmacārī ,  grhastha ,  vānaprastha  and  sannyāsa —gradually train a person to come to the platform of transcendental life. The activities and dress of a  grhastha  or householder are different from those of a  sannyāsī , one in the renounced order of life. It is impossible for one person to adopt both orders. A  sannyāsī  cannot act like a householder, nor can a householder act like a  sannyāsī , but above these two kinds of persons, one who engages in material activities and one who has renounced material activities, there is the person who is transcendental to both. Lord Śiva was in the transcendental position because, as stated before, he was always absorbed in the thought of Lord Vāsudeva within himself. Therefore neither the activities of the  grhastha  nor those of the  sannyāsī  in the renounced order can be applicable for him. He is in the  paramahaṁsa  stage, the highest perfectional stage of life. The transcendental position of Lord Śiva is also explained in  Bhagavad-gītā , Second Chapter, verses 52 and 53. It is stated there that when one fully engages in transcendental service of the Lord by performing activities without fruitive results, one is elevated to the transcendental position. At that time he has no obligation to follow the Vedic injunctions or the different rules and regulations of the  Vedas . When one is above the directions of the Vedic ritualistic injunctions for attaining different allurements and is fully absorbed in transcendental thought, which means thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in devotional service, that position is called  buddhi-yoga , or  samādhi , ecstasy. For a person who has attained this stage, neither the Vedic activities for realizing material enjoyment nor those for renunciation are applicable.
TEXT 21
मा वः पदव्यः पितरसदास्थिता
या यज्ञशालासु न धूमवर्त्मभिः ।
तदभ्रातृप्तैरसुभृद्धिरीडिता
अव्यक्तलिङ्गा अवधूतसेविताः ॥२१॥
mā vaḥ padavyaḥ pitar asmad-āsthitā  
 yā yajña-śālāsu na dhūma-vartmabhiḥ