BRAHMIN SANNYASIS 523
The sannyasi is superior to the vanaprastha, inasmuch as the latter does not wholly renounce the world, being still connected with it to a certain extent by family ties; whilst the sannyasi imposes upon himself the painful sacrifice of leaving his wife and children. Like the vanaprastha he submits to severe privations, and furthermore takes a vow of poverty and resigns himself to living entirely on alms.
Every Brahmin, before becoming a sannyasi, must have been a grahastha; that is to say, he must have been married and have acquitted himself of the ' great debt to his ancestors,' the first and most indispensable of duties in the eyes of a Hindu, that of perpetuating his species.
There are, however, a few examples of Brahmins who have become sannyasis while still young and unmarried.
There are also, it is true, many penitents who have always been celibates; but they do not belong to the Brahmin
caste.
A Brahmin is not allowed to become a sannyasi in a
moment of remorse or from a sudden feeling of enthusiasm.
His decision must be the result of calm and deliberate selfexamination and reflection, and must be based on a sense
of disgust for the world and its pleasures, and on an ardent desire to attain spiritual perfection. He must feel himself capable of complete severance from all earthly affairs. If he experiences the slightest inclination or longing for those things which the rest of mankind struggle for, he will
thereby lose all the benefits of his life of penance.
When a Brahmin who aspires to the state of sannyasi has duly reflected on the step he is about to take, he calls
together all the leading Brahmins of the neighbourhood,
existence, when lie is sometimes called a sannyasi, one who has given ' up the world '; sometimes a yati, one who has suppressed ' his passions ':
Let him remain without fire, without habitation; let him resort once a day to the town for food, regardless of hardships, resolute, keeping
a vow of silence, fixing his mind in meditation.
With hair, nails, and beard well clipped, carrying a bowl, a staff, and a pitcher, let him wander about continually, intent on meditation and avoiding injury to any being.
In this manner, having little by little abandoned all worldly attachments, and freed himself from all concern about pairs of opposites, he obtains absorption into the universal Spirit. Ed.