World Renunciation

1. General features

a. Action leads to rebirth and suffering

b. Detachment from action, or even non-action, leads to spiritual emancipation

c. Complete detachment, and therefore spiritual emancipation can be achieved through asceticism and methods of making consciousness focused and concentrated > awareness of consciousness as distinct from the multiple, physical world

2. Asceticism performed to cultivate inner heat (tapas) in order to attain liberation. Severe penances. Practice of yoga

3. Orthodox renunciation: alone or in small itinerant groups, homeless except during the monsoon, dress in ochre robe or go naked

4. Ritual of renunciation: from ritual to non-ritual state, action to non-action. Takes fire into himself, gives up old clothes, offers sacred thread into the fire.

a. Waistband, loincloth and ochre robe, staff, water pot and begging bowl. Some remain naked

5. Later orders:

a. Sadhus (good men) and sadhvis (good women): live life alone on edges of society, by sacred rivers, wild places such as mountainous areas or cremation grounds

b. Ochre robes, naked, covered with ash, shaven heads, matted hair

c. Some joint communities of renouncers in hermitages (ashrams) or monasteries

d. Some focused on particular deities like Siva or Vishnu