Chapter 58 - Code of Conduct for an Anchorite

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Vyāsa said:

1-4. Having thus remained in the householder’s stage during the second part of his life, he should, with his wife and (the sacred) fire, resort to the third stage of life. Or, having entrusted his wife to his sons, he should go to a forest after seeing the child of his child (i.e. the grandchild) and when his body has become infirm. He, observing a vow and being calm, should practise penance after having gone to a forest in the forenoon (of a day) in the bright half of a month in the auspicious uttarāyaṇa (i.e. the summer solstice). He should everyday fetch for his food pure roots and fruits. With that which is his food, he should please the manes and deities.

5-15. He should everyday please the guests, and after bath he should worship gods. Being calm and getting eight morsels of food from his house, he should eat them. He should have matted hair and should not cut off his nails and hair. He should always recite sacred texts and refrain from talking about anything else. He should maintain the sacred fire and perform the five sacrifices with the various things that are produced (there) or with vegetables or roots or fruits; he should be clothed in bark and being pure should bathe thrice (a day). He should be compassionate towards all beings and should avoid accepting (gifts). A twice-born should always perform the new moon and full moon sacrifices. He should perform the seasonal sacrifice and also offer an oblation of the first fruits at the end of the rainy season and perform the cāturmāsya sacrifices (performed every four months, i.e. at the beginning of Kārtika, Phālguna and Āṣāḍha). In the summer solstice and the winter solstice he should, in the proper order, perform sacrifices with products of the spring and the autumn seasons brought by himself, and should separately offer puroḍāśas and carūs. Having offered more auspicious oblations to deities and manes, he should eat the remaining, saline in taste and prepared by himself. He should avoid liquor and flesh and mushrooms growing on the ground. He should not eat fragrant or young grass, no. fruits of śleṣmātaka, no products of ploughed land nor that which is abandoned by others. Even when he is sick he should not eat flowers and fruits growing in villages. He should always wait upon fire with rites as laid down in the Vedas. He should not bear malice against any being; he should be free from the pairs of opposites; he should be fearless. He should not eat anything at night, and should engage himself in meditation at night.

16-26a. He should control his senses, curb his anger and should think over the true nature of Brahman. He should always observe celibacy and should not even resort to (i.e. cohabit with) his wife. That twice-born, who, after having gone to the forest copulates at his will with his wife, has his vow lost, and he has to atone for it. The foetus (i.e. the child) that is born there (i.e. due to this copulation) should not be touched by twice-borns. He is not entitled to (the study of) the Vedas; the same is (the rule applicable to the members born) in his family. Intent on muttering the Gāyatrī-hymn, he should always sleep on the (bare) ground. He should protect all creatures, and should always give gifts to the good. He should avoid censure, telling lies, sleep, idleness. He should maintain one (sacred) fire; should be without an abode; and should resort to the ground that is sprinkled with water. Being restrained, he should move with animals and live with them only. Being calm, he should sleep on a stone or sand. He should cleanse (i.e. finish his stock) instantly or within a month, or should have the stock lasting for six months or for a year. Having collected food according to his capacity by day, he should eat it at night. He should eat every fourth time or eighth time, or should avoid (food) according to the cāndrāyaṇa vow in the bright and the dark fortnights. He should eat boiled gruel of barley once in every fortnight. Or he should, conforming to the creed of an anchorite, subsist on the natural flowers, roots and fruits which are withered. He should roam about on the ground or stand on the fore-parts of his feet for a day.

26b-36. He should divert himself with (various) places and seats, and should never give up calmness. He should observe the vow of the five fires ^[1] in summer; should expose himself to the rain in rainy season; should put on wet clothes in winter. He should gradually increase his penance. He should bathe three times a day and should gratify his manes and deities. He should stand on one leg only, or should always drink the sun’s ray. Or he should move in the smoke of the five fires, or should move in the heat or drink Soma. In the bright half he should drink milk and in dark half cow-dung. Or he should eat withered leaves or should live by bodily mortification. He should always engage himself in practising abstract meditation, or should always recite the Rudra (-hymn). He should study the Atharvaśiras, and should be intent on studying the Upaniṣads. He should carefully observe the restraints and vows. He should use the hide of a black antelope; should have an upper garment and a white sacred thread. Having put on the fires, he should be intent on meditating on his soul. An ascetic, not keeping the fire, having no abode, should be intent on (getting) salvation. Moving among ascetic twice-borns or among householders or other twice-borns moving in the forest, he should beg alms. Or getting it from the village, he should, living in the forest, eat eight morsels. He should eat from a leaf-vessel or from his hand or from a piece (of a pot etc.). He should mutter various Upaniṣadic hymns for self-realization; he should mutter particular incantations, Gāyatrī-hymn and Rudrādhyāya also. He should set out on the great journey (death) and stop taking food. Or following the religious commandment of offering himself to Brahman, he should enter fire.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Pañcatapas—An ascetic who in summer practises penance sitting in the middle of four fires with the sun burning right over his head.