Chapter 161 - Duties of an Ascetic (yati-dharma)

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Puṣkara said:

1. I shall describe the duties of an ascetic which confer knowledge and release (from cycles of birth and death). When one reaches the fourth part of his life, he should renounce contact (with men).

2-3. One should renounce on that very day when he gets disinterested (in worldly activities). A brahmin should leave the house after performing the Prājāpatya^[1] rite, worship of all gods along with the (appropriate) fee and invoking fires in one’s own self. One should move alone daily. One should resort (to the village) only for a morsel of food.

4-5. The ascetic should be indifferent and should not acquire wealth. A bowl, roots of a tree, tattered clothes and equanimity towards everything are the characteristics of a liberated soul. One should neither welcome death nor life.

6-8. One should await only the time just like a servant (waiting for) the command. One should set his foot (at a place) purified by his look, drink water purified with a cloth, utter words purified by truth, do (things) (that are considered to be) purified by the mind. A vessel made of gourd or wood or earth or burnt ashes (are the symbols) of an ascetic. An ascetic [i.e., yati] should seek alms daily (from the house) when the smoke has ceased, the pestle has been set aside, the charcoal has been put out, the inmates have eaten, the food vessel has been kept inverted after eating.

9. Begging is of five kinds—collected from different places like a bee, unintended (not already fixed), that has already been fixed, temporary (arranged just when the ascetics seek alms) and (food) made ready and brought (to him).

10. (The alms) may be (received) in the vessel in the hand or transferred from the vessel to the vessel. He has to examine the state of men (from whom alms are received) due to their discreditable conduct.

11. One should pursue righteousness entertaining purity of thought in whichever order of life he may be interested. He should treat all beings equally. The cause of righteousness does not lie in the symbol (associated with the different orders of life).

12. Although the fruit of the kataka tree purifies the water, the water cannot become pure by the mere mention of its name.

13. An honest person, eunuch, lame, blind and deaf person associated with the wicked on account of ignorance get liberated by pious men.

14. If an ascetic [i.e., yati] kills any being unknowingly during the day or night he should bathe for purification and do the prāṇāyāma six time

15-16. (The ascetic) should discard his body having bones as the pillar, united with sinews, besmeared with flesh and blood, covered with skin, full of foul smell of urine and feces, subject to old age and grief. (It is also) the abode of diseases and afflictions, emotional and non-eternal.

17. Firmness, forgiveness, self-restraint, not-stealing, purity, control of senses, modesty, learning, truthfulness and absence of anger are the ten characteristics of righteousness.

18. The ascetics are of four types—kuṭīcaka, bahūdaka, haṃsa and paramahaṃsa. Each succeeding one is superior.

19-26. An ascetic would be liberated, whether he is an ekadaṇḍin (holder ofone stave) or tridaṇḍin (holder of three long staves tied (together). Abstaining from killing, truthfulness, not stealing, celibate life, and non-possession of things are the five moral observances for an ascetic. Purity, gratifying, penance, study of vedic texts of one’s school and worship of the deity are the (five) self-imposed moral observances. The padmaka^[2] and others are the postures. The prāṇāyāma (the controlled breathing) is of two types—sagarbha and agarbha. The garbha type is that associated with the repetition and contemplation (of a sacred syllable) and agarbha is the opposite. Each one of these is again of three kinds—inhalation (filling), retention and exhalation (emptying). The breath is said to be filling as it fills up, retention as there is no movement, and emptying on account of emptying. It is also of three kinds on account of difference in the (period of) measure, such as twelve, twenty-four and thirty-six mātrā respectively. One mātrā is the time (taken) for (pronouncing) a short vowel. One should repeat syllables like the praṇava (oṃ) slowly. The pratyāhāra (restraining the organs) is (only) for those who repeat (sacred syllable). Dhyāna is the contemplation on god. The firmness of mind is the dhāraṇā. Samādhi is the state of continuous existence in brahman. This self is the supreme brahman (of the form of) truth, knowledge and bliss. I am that supreme brahman, effulgent self, the (lord) Vāmadeva (Śiva) liberated oṃ.

27-28. (I am) devoid of a body, sense organs, mind, intellect, life and ego. (I) free from (the states of) waking, dreaming and deep sleep, (and I) the brahman of the fourth (state). (I) eternally pure, realised, liberated, truth, bliss and without a second. I am the brahman, the supreme effulgence, undecaying (and) all-pervading lord Hari (Viṣṇu).

29. That person who (is in the) Sun, that I aṃ, the undivided, oṃ. (I am) one who is devoid of all beginnings, equal towards grief and pleasure and having forbearance.

30-31. A person would become brahman being pure in one’s thought and after having pierced the primordial egg. One should perform the vow of cāturmāsya^[3] on the full moon day of āṣāḍha (June-July). Then one should move out on the ninth day etc. One should have the shave at the junction of two seasons. The atonement for ascetics are contemplation, (doing) prāṇāyāma and (the practice of) yama, (moral observances).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Giving away the whole of one’s property before entering the life of an ascetic.

[2]:

The posture of sitting erect with crossed legs, the right foot resting on the left loin and the left foot on the right loin.

[3]:

A period of four months during which an ascetic has to stay at the same place.