Sutiksna, the sage, asked the sage Agastya:

O sage, kindly enlighten me on this problem of liberation - which one of the two is conducive to liberation, work or knowledge?

Agastya replied:

Verily, birds are able to fly with their two wings: even so both work and knowledge together lead to the supreme goal of liberation. Not indeed work alone nor indeed knowledge alone can lead to liberation: but, both of them together form the means to liberation. Listen: I shall narrate to you a legend in answer to your question. There once lived a holy man named Karunya who was the son of Agnivesya. Having mastered the holy scriptures and understood their purport, the young man became apathetic to life. Seeing this, Agnivesya demanded why Karunya had abandoned the due performance of his daily duties. To which Karunya replied: "Do not the scriptures declare on the one hand that one should fulfill scriptural injunctions till the end of one's life and on the other that immortality can be realised only by the abandonment of all action? Caught between these two doctrines, what shall I do, O my guru and father?" Having said this, the young man remained silent.