Ascetic

In the most general sense, this word
denotes a person who has renounced
regular society and conventional social
life in a quest to seek religious
insight and to gain final liberation of the
soul (moksha). Such spiritual seekers
sometimes emphasize asceticism or
physical discipline, but this is not a
necessary element.
Ascetics can be organized into
different subgroups based upon
organizational affiliation or the
particular Hindu deity that they
worship. The Bairagis, Dashanami
Sanyasis, and Nathpanthis are all
well-defined ascetic organizations
into which one must undertake formal
initiation; the Bairagis are devotees
(bhakta) of the god Vishnu, and the
other two are devotees of Shiva.
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Ascetic
The sadhu (“straight”) is the other
major type of ascetic and the most difficult to define. Most sadhus are unaffiliated with any religious organization,
have undertaken no formal ascetic initiation, and fall outside the other groups’
sectarian boundaries. A sadhu is a solitary religious seeker, driven to attain
religious goals by doing whatever seems
best to him (or more rarely, to her).