०७

SEVEN Proper Conduct 1. Now I will explain the rules of proper conduct. Manu writes in this connection: A sage should live without fire or house and enter a village to obtain food. He should remain disinterested, not acquisitive, and mentally composed. [MDh 6.43] 2. A begging bowl, dwelling at the foot of a tree, ragged clothes, a solitary life, and equanimity toward all-these are the marks of a renouncer.1 [MDh 6.44] 3. Let him long neither for death nor for life and await his appointed time, as a servant awaits his wages. [MDh 6.45] 4. He should place his foot on the ground after determining its purity by inspection. He should drink water that has been purified with a cloth strainer. He should speak words that are pure because true. And he should conduct himself with a pure heart. [MDh 6.46] 5. Let him bear insults patiently and never treat anyone with contempt. Let him, moreover, never quarrel with anyone just for the sake of this body. [MDh 6.47] 6. Toward a man who is angry at him let him not show anger in return; let him say kind words to those who revile him. In connection with any of the seven doors,2 moreover, let him not speak an untrue word. [MDh 6.48] 7. Finding joy in activities pertaining to his inner self, he should sit in meditation, free from concerns and desires, and go about alone during the day for the sake of bodily comforts.3 [MDh 6.49] 1. Manu uses the term moksa (lit., “liberation”) as a technical term for the order of life (aśrama) devoted to liberation, namely renunciation (see Ch. 2.5). The term “mukta” (lit., “liberated”) thus refers to one who has renounced. The most appropriate translations of these two terms, therefore, are “renunciation” and “renouncer.” For a more detailed discussion of Manu’s use of this term, see Olivelle 1993, 137-42.

  1. The identity of the seven doors is uncertain, and the commentators of Manu offer a variety of interpretations. The seven are most likely the five senses, together with the mind and the intellect; see Ch. 5.40-41.

  2. I interpret the elliptic phrase “sukhārtham” as search for bodily comforts, such as food. The reason ascetics go about during the day is to beg for food, and the 126 7. Proper Conduct 8. He should never seek to obtain almsfood by interpreting portents and omens, by practicing astrology or palmistry, by giving advice, or by participating in debates. [MDh 6.50] 9. Let him not visit a house crowded with hermits, Brahmins, birds, or dogs, or even with other mendicants. [MDh 6.51] 10. He should always disdain food given with a great show of respect, for when he accepts such food, even a liberated ascetic slips into bondage. [MDh 5.58] 11. By eating little and by living in an isolated place he should restrain his senses as they are being drawn by sensual things. [MDh 6.59] 12. By bringing his senses under control, by eradicating love and hate, and by not causing harm to any creature, he becomes fit for immortality. [MDh 6.60] 13. Let him reflect on the diverse destinies of people resulting from evil deeds, their descent into hell, and their suffering in Yama’s abode. [MDh 6.61] 14. Let him reflect on how they are separated from the ones they love and united with the ones they hate and on how they are overtaken by old age and oppressed by disease. [MDh 6.62] 15. Let him reflect on how they depart from this body and start a new life in a womb and on how this inner self migrates through untold millions of wombs. [MDh 6.63] 16. Let him reflect on how the embodied souls are subjected to suffering on account of sins and how they experience unending happiness by pursuing righteous goals. [MDh 6.64] 17. Let him reflect on the subtle nature of his inner self through yogic concentration and on how it takes birth in the most excellent of bodies, as well as in the vilest. [MDh 6.65] 18. Viṣṇu: Respect and disrespect-these two produce joy and anger in people, but in promoting the success of those engaged in yogic practice, their effects are exactly the opposite.4 19. Respect and disrespect-they call these two poison and ambrosia. Of the two, disrespect is ambrosia, while respect is deadly poison.

  3. The same author states further on: 127 very next verse deals with begging. The editions of MDh read “iha” (“in this world”) for “diva,” and most commentators of Manu take the phrase to mean the desire to attain the bliss of final liberation.

  4. This and the following verses ascribed to Visṇu are found in the forty-first chapter of the Markandeya Purāṇa.

.128 Rules and Regulations of Brahmanical Asceticism Let a yogin, his mind concentrated, behave in such a way that people would scorn and despise him, taking care not to cause harm to the practices of good men.

  1. Once again the same author states: He should engage in that essential activity by which he will attain liberation, for other rites in numerous ways create obstacles on the path of yoga. 22. Abandoning all rites that are either voluntary or forbidden, let him practice just the obligatory rites.

  2. Yama: If one man rubs sandalwood paste on his right arm, while another cuts off his left, he should look upon them with equal eyes.

  3. This should always be his disposition in the face of pleasant and unpleasant things. Under all circumstances, whether desirable or disagreeable, he should always remain the same.

  4. He should be the same to friend and foe, to the good and to the bad; freed from attachments, he should remain the same in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain.

  5. He is neither elated when he is praised nor angered when he is abused. A man who is the same when he is loved or hated is a sage without desire for anything.

  6. When a man is neither elated nor dejected at anything he might hear, touch, see, taste, or smell, he should be regarded as one who has vanquished his senses.

  7. He should not be fickle in anything he does, whether it be with his hands, feet, eyes, or speech. That is the mark of a cultivated man.

  8. The same author likewise states: Food that is pure, that comes from a pure source, and that is not especially savory produces a pure mind, while impure food produces an impure mind.

  9. The body is a lump of flesh and blood, a pile of marrow, fat, and bones. Equipped with hair and nails, it contains fat and other kinds of filth.

31-32. Enveloped by skin and filled with urine and feces, it stinks. An abode for the winds and a vessel of impurities, the body is without substance, like a picture on a wall or foam on water. Containing both perishable and imperishable parts, it is a place for collecting love and hate.

33-34. The body is like a fort with a single column, nine gates, and three pillars. It is constructed with the five elements. Joys are its ramparts; the 5. Winds constitute one of the three bodily humors, the other two being bile and phlegm.7. Proper Conduct mind is its mighty ruler. The ten senses are the soldiers who surround it, diseases are the wild beasts that infest it, and the potent sense objects are the powerful provinces that attack it, as it is being ruled by the intellect.6 35. The body is the painful abode of disease, subject to old age and sorrow. Let a man abandon this impure and impermanent dwelling place of elements.

  1. Bathing, silent prayer, meditation, purification, light meals-only a man who performs these five will become liberated.

  2. He should engage in the daily practice of listening to the Purāṇas with devotion, for by listening to the Purānas even a fool acquires devotion.

  3. Devotion that continues uninterrupted brings release. Therefore, one should recite the Puranas. By reciting them a sage attains the state of the supreme Brahman.

  4. Vasistha: A wandering ascetic should set out after giving a promise of safety to all creatures [VaDh 10.1]. Now they also cite these verses: When a sage goes about after giving a promise of safety to all creatures, he too will have nothing ever to fear from any creature. [VaDh 10.2] 40. But if he takes to the ascetic life without giving a promise of safety to all creatures, he kills creatures born and yet to be born, as he does also when he accepts gifts. [VaDh 10.3] 41. The single syllable OM is the highest Brahman, and the control of breath is the highest austerity. Eating almsfood is better than fasting, and compassion is superior to giving gifts. [VaDh 10.5] 42. Likewise, the same authors state later on: He keeps his emblem and his conduct concealed. Although sane, he assumes the appearance of a madman. Now, they also cite these verses: Liberation is not possible for individuals who are passionately devoted to grammar, who delight in captivating people’s hearts, who are preoccupied with food and clothing, or who are fond of lovely houses. [VaDh 10.18-20] 43. He should never study, or speak, or even listen. No one but a man who is already equipped with these qualities is an ascetic.

  5. If, after assuming the ascetic life, a man fails to live according to its rules, the king should brand him with the mark of a dog’s foot and expel him from the kingdom.

129 6. Some of these analogies are easy to follow. The single column is probably the spine; the nine gates are the openings of the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, anus, and urinary canal; and the three pillars the three strands of goodness, energy, and dark- ness.

130 Rules and Regulations of Brahmanical Asceticism 45. Further on, he states: They expound teachings and acquire disciples for profit and adulation. These and other similar tricks, great in number, are used by false ascetics. 46. Meditation, purification, mendicancy, living always in solitudethese are the four activities of a mendicant, and there is no fifth.

  1. A person would undertake the recitation of texts and the study of a lot of books only if he regards something in this world as a second reality besides himself 48. A twice-born man should depart for the ascetic life after he has deposited his sacred fire in himself. He should always be devoted to the recitation of the Vedas and intent on gaining the knowledge of the self. 49. After he has followed all the orders of life, overcome anger, and vanquished his senses, a twice-born man who has come to know the meaning of the Vedas will attain the world of Brahma. The rule of lifelong commitment is prescribed with regard to all the orders of life.7 50. Śātātapa: If an ascetic lapses after he has assumed the final duty, I cannot see a penance that would purify that slayer of the self.8 51. If, after he has become a wandering ascetic, a man becomes a householder once again, he will be reborn as a worm living in excrement for sixty thousand years.

  2. After he has formally declared in this world his intention to renounce, if a man does not carry out the rite of renunciation, he will sink into the depth of darkness, consumed by the fire of his false promise.

  3. If, after he has become a wandering ascetic, a man continues to engage in sexual activity, he will be reborn as a worm living in excrement for sixty thousand years.

  4. Then he will become a horrible mouse living in frightful abandoned houses. Soon he will reenter a womb9 and be reborn as a dog during twelve lifetimes.

  5. He will then become a vulture for twenty years and a pig for nine, after which he will be reborn as a tree full of thorns without flowers or fruits.

  6. The meaning appears to be that a person may legitimately decide to spend all his life following the duties of any one order of life. For this provision and for the history of the institution of the four orders of life (aśrama), see Olivelle 1993.

  7. “The final duty” refers to any lifelong vocation, such as perpetual studentship. In ascetic literature it often refers specifically to the renunciatory state that is both lifelong and final, because it is the last order of life. The expression atmahā, here translated as “slayer of the self,” can also mean a suicide.

  8. This may imply that becoming a mouse does not involve conception in a womb. Mice may have been imagined as spontaneously produced within piles of rubbish.

  9. Proper Conduct 56. Thereafter, he will becomes the stump of an Aśoka tree burnt by a forest fire, and he will remain without consciousness for one thousand years. 57. At the end of those one thousand years he will be born as a demonic Brahmin tormented by hunger and thirst, eating raw flesh, and drinking blood. He will gain release gradually from that state, but at the cost of his family’s destruction.

  10. A man who causes the apostasy of a renouncer, a man who admits a fallen man into renunciation, and a man who places obstacles on the path of renunciation-all these three the scriptures declare to be fallen.10 59. There are outcaste Canḍālas called Bindula, who wear the outward marks of wandering ascetics.11 Children born to them should be made to live with Caṇḍālas.

  11. Hārīta: After a man has performed the rite of renunciation with full knowledge and in the prescribed manner, if he again becomes a householder, he is indeed an apostate and is excluded from all religious activities.

  12. If a man forsakes the ascetic life to become a householder once again, he will be reborn as a worm living in excrement for sixty thousand years. 62. The text from here onward follows the reading of Śātātapa.12 An apostate kills ten generations of his ancestors before him and ten generations of his descendants after him, while those same generations are rescued by a twice-born ascetic who remains faithful to his vows.

  13. Therefore, an ascetic should make every effort to carry the triple staff. If he faithfully carries out the duties of an ascetic, he will not be born again on earth.

  14. The triple-staffed ascetic belongs to the highest of all the order’s of life. He should indeed be worshipped with devotion by people who follow the true path.

  15. A Brahmin who carries the emblem of the triple staff is Nārāyaṇa himself in visible form. When a man worships him, he thereby worships Visnu himself.

  16. An ascetic who carries the triple staff is an image of Viṣṇu. One should always worship him with a devout heart using the eight-syllable mantra containing the name of Nārāyaṇa [see Ch. 6.301 n. 65].

131 10. The meaning of “fallen” (patita) in this type of literature is always rather vague. In its strict legal sense, this term refers to a man who has fallen from his caste due to a serious sin or violation of caste rules. In a broader sense, it may refer to anyone guilty of a major crime or sin.

  1. The statement does not clearly identify these people. It may refer to people who claim to be ascetics but live with families. Many such groups of householder ascetics are recorded in Indian history. See Bouiller 1979; Derrett 1974.

  2. The author appears to omit a section of Hārīta’s passage that follows verbatim the text of Śātātapa given above; see Ch. 7.51.

132 1 Rules and Regulations of Brahmanical Asceticism 67-68. I have thus explained to you, O Brahmins, this eternal path of truth. But when the age of Kali comes, there will arise ascetics wearing vile emblems different from this. They will all be inflamed by the fire of Gautama. 13 In the Kali age, moreover, they will explain the meaning of the Veda in an entirely different way.

  1. These naked ascetics are Buddhists in disguise, and they will revile the triple Veda. These dimwits will recite the Upanisads at night.

  2. “We are liberated!"-with this conviction, they will eat the food of Sūdras. In the age of Kali they will sway even those who are committed to the duties proper to them.

  3. There are many twice-born men who gain a living by the strategy of carrying a single staff. Because they have forsaken rites, they fall into the dreadful Raurava hell, 14 72. Therefore, let a wise man not talk with, or even look at, such ascetics. When someone looks at them, he is purified by looking at the sun.

fa 73. If a man feeds a twice-born ascetic who is naked or who is without a sacrificial string at a funerary repast, he thereby offers to his ancestors semen, urine, and excrement.

  1. If a man resorts to a single staff either because he has been talked into it or because of greed and afterward regains the spirit of detachment, he should carry a triple staff like a wise man.

  2. Parāśara: These two men go through the sun splitting its orb apart-a wandering ascetic who is absorbed in meditation and a soldier who goes fearlessly to death in battle.

  3. When it sees a twice-born man who has renounced, the sun swerves from its place, thinking, “This man will split my orb and proceed to the highest Brahman.” [see Ch. 4.16 n. 18] 77. Katyāyana: He should avoid love, hatred, and other such faults all his life. An ascetic who always lives in this manner will reach Brahman..

  4. Uśanas: Casting off all attachments, overcoming hatred, eating little, and subduing his senses, he should shut his doors [see Ch. 7.6 n. 2) with his intellect and turn his mind to meditation.

  5. This is clearly a reference to Buddhist ascetics, although Brahmanical ascetic literature of this period tends to conflate all types of non-Brahmanical ascetics into a single category.

  6. This verse touches on the medieval controversy between the Advaita ascetic tradition, which prescribed a single staff, and the Sri-Vaisnava ascetics, who carried triple staffs. The latter often accused the Advaitins of being Buddhists pretending to follow the Brahmanical law. On this controversy, see Olivelle 1986-87.

  7. Proper Conduct 133 79. Vyasa: Casting off all attachments and possessing the knowledge of all things, he should practice zealously all that I have taught before regarding the knowledge of the self.

  8. A man whose mind is set on the self should make every effort to shun worldly affairs. He should fervently recite the various Upanisads that bring about liberation.

  9. Apastamba: Next, the rules for a wandering ascetic. Immediately thereafter, 15 from the state of a vedic student, he departs as a wandering ascetic. For such a person they prescribe the following. A sage should live without fire or house, without comfort or protection. He speaks only at his daily vedic recitation. Gathering from a village just enough food to sustain his life, let him wander about without longing for anything in this world or the next. (ApDh 2.21.7-10] 82. Bṛhaspati: Householders observe the vow of celibacy by being faithful to their wives, whereas total abstinence is demanded of those who belong to the other three orders of life.

  10. Later on the same author states: He should not mingle with his relatives, children, friends, and the like, or with eminent men among the twice-born people, even when he meets them in a different region. Such mingling will undoubtedly lead to lust, hatred, and the like.

  11. The same author further states: An ascetic should not live permanently at a sacred bathing place or devote himself totally to fasting, study, or teaching.

  12. Śankha: If one man rubs sandalwood paste on one of his arms while another cuts off his other arm, he should not feel kindly toward the one and unkindly toward the other. With a friendly disposition and seeking the welfare of all creatures, he regards a clod, a stone, and a piece of gold as the same. 86. Likhita: He should not be fond of books that do not deal with spiritual matters or become an astrologer. He should not treat people who are sick, poisoned, or possessed, even if it is done for a religious reason.

  13. He should not gather a lot of disciples, broadcast his knowledge, or speak in Sanskrit, but should go about like a simpleton and a mute.

  14. This means he departs immediately after completing the period of studentship following vedic initiation. Regarding Apastamba’s view on the time for becoming an ascetic, see Olivelle 1993, 74-82.

134 1 Rules and Regulations of Brahmanical Asceticism 88. Later on the same author states: If, after he has renounced, a man observes the duties of an ascetic for three years, devoting himself continuously to yogic practice, he will attain liberation after death.

  1. Therefore, a man should seek to attain sovereignty, the highest step of Viṣṇu. A twice-born man should enter the order devoted to liberation and seek to live in it for even a day.

  2. Sankha and Likhita state: An ascetic should subsist on almsfood and not be fond of sharing it with others. He should avoid begging from public sinners and from people fallen from their caste and live on humble and disparaged food. He should be satisfied with wearing just a loincloth. With his passions totally extinguished, he awaits his appointed time, constantly absorbed in meditation. Finding delight in himself, he is in the habit of living in secluded places. Free from deception, hypocrisy, and deceit, he never resides in the same village. Giving up the faults inherent in attachment, he should cultivate the habit of wandering. Adept at understanding the self and distinguishing it from other things, he should not be fond of staying in one place outside the rainy season. He should perform the purifications after voiding urine and excrement, as well as the ritual sipping, with water that has been drawn out.

  3. The same authors state further: When a man bears patiently the barbed words evil people may hurl at him and maintains a joyful spirit without getting angry, it constitutes his selfcontrol generated by his mind.

  4. When a man bears patiently cold, heat, and other such dualities, as well as attacks by evil people, the scriptures call it patience and forbear- ance.

  5. When a man has attained supreme wisdom and remains completely calm in the face of every event, whether it is desirable or undesirable, calamitous or propitious, he possesses tranquillity and self-control.

  6. When man possessing austerity, knowledge, self-control, and power does not get angry at barbed and cutting words hurled at him-that wise man will not be confounded in this world.

  7. If an ascetic with a gentle heart follows in this world the rules of the order devoted to liberation, he will soon cast off the bonds of rebirth and become fit for immortality.

  8. The same authors state further: Avoiding people who have fallen from their castes and keeping his senses, speech, and eyes under control, he should beg almsfood from the four 7. Proper Conduct classes. Among these, however, he should avoid people of each lower class when those belonging to a higher one are available. 16 97. Dakṣa the Elder: An ascetic comes to possess a staff by acquiring the staffs of speech, mind, and deed and not just because he carries a bamboo stick.17 98. The staff of speech is the practice of silence, the staff of mind is the control of breath, and the staff of deed is not injuring any living being. 99. Kapila: An ascetic should abstain from uttering words of greeting or blessing. He should neither build a house himself nor have one built for him. He should occupy one that is already built. Then, he should meditate on Brahman and keep his mind focused only on Brahman as he falls asleep. Or he may enter a temple free of heretics and somehow spend the night there, either keeping awake or sleeping. Then, sitting down, he should sip some water, control his breath three times, and sip again. At night he should sip water taken from a water pot placed on a wooden plank, while during the day he should use flowing water. He should not leave a holy place that is pleasant and has a lot of water or be exceedingly attached to such a place. He should not be given to explaining epic and puranic texts. 100. Later on the same author states: If he is unable to bear the cold, 18 he may light a fire using pieces of wood that have fallen on their own from trees and that do not harbor insects. There is no fault in his eating roots and fruit that do not contain larvae. Let him not hurt anything, whether it has consciousness or not, for little cause. There is no fault in his possessing such things as a water pot, a water strainer, and metal articles given to him on loan. Let him not get angry even when he is provoked or become elated even when he is flattered. Let him desire neither to die nor to live. He should not throw away a bowl that is not damaged by fire. After answering a call of nature, he should immediately, without waiting even a moment, go to a nearby place of water to purify himself and silently recite the appropriate prayers.19 Then he should turn his mind to Visṇu. He should not, however, show partiality to one god. He should give up a dwelling that is in close proximity to others and has patrons. He should not continue looking when he sees a pretty woman but shut his eyes. He should recite OM and not become alarmed.

135 16. This is an expanded translation of the pithy statement following similar provisions given elsewhere; cf. Ch. 6.105.

  1. The author plays on the dual meaning of the Sanskrit term “danda,” both staff and control or punishment; see Ch. 4.34 n. 30.

  2. Although cold is not mentioned, it appers to be implied.

  3. As I have indicated in the critical edition, the readings preserved in the manuscripts are all corrupt. The translation given here is, therefore, very tentative.

136 Rules and Regulations of Brahmanical Asceticism 101. The same author states further: An ascetic who seeks final bliss should vigilantly shut off all his senses, thereby erasing what he has perceived.

  1. When a man is in the habit of singing songs of divine praise and is given to controlling his breath, then even the sins he may have committed during previous lifetimes cease to affect him at all.

  2. Kratu: Destroying living organisms, using a metal bowl, ejaculating semen, wearing white clothes, sleeping during the day, and speaking idly-these are the seven causes of an ascetic’s fall.

  3. He should avoid things that have been stored for a long time, as well. as activities such as hoarding. Grass, earth, wood, water, stone, leaves, roots, and fruit-he should not take them unless they are given to him, and even when they are given, he should not accumulate them.20 105. Male and female slaves, houses, carriages, cows, fields, grain, money, and gold:21 by accepting such forbidden things a man destroys two hundred generations of his family.

  4. Jābāli the Elder: An ascetic who is self-possessed should not attend receptions, ancestral rites, sacrifices, and events in honor of gods such as processions and festivals, as well as any kind of entertainment.

  5. Further on the same author states: An ascetic who is intent on giving gifts, as well as one who accumulates clothes and other such goods-both will end up in the putrid hell because of their stupidity.

  6. Dattatreya: If, after he has taken up the emblem of Visnu, a man foolishly abandons it, he will go to a hell that is fearsome, violent, narrow, and cruel. 109. Devala: These are the rules of an ascetic-to regard friend and foe alike; not to accumulate possessions; to practice celibacy; to behave in a pleasant manner; to keep himself pure; not to participate in occupations and arts; and to avoid jewels, money, grain, sensual enjoyments, social intercourse, jealousy, pride, duplicity, delusion, excitement, strife, astonishment, quarrels, fear, debate, and the like.

  7. This verse is elliptical and unclear, and the reading may be corrupt. Mine is a tentative translation.

  8. The meaning of the term “rasa” in this context is unclear. I have taken it to mean gold, because the list contains items commonly associated with wealth. The term can also mean, among other things, liquor or any sweet drink.

  9. Proper Conduct 110. An ascetic should beg every day from the houses of virtuous householders food and medicine in such amounts as not to leave a surplus for the next day.

  10. If an ascetic accepts for his own use an amount of food or medicine that is more than necessary for that day, he will go to hell.

  11. He should accept things that are necessary to carry out his duties from good people who follow an active mode of life. Even by mistake he should not accept anything from those who follow a nonactive mode of life, 22 113. Garga: After giving up the duties of every other type of life, a man should take up the duties of an ascetic. Should he lapse from the duties of an ascetic, he will not receive the reward of any duty he may have performed.

  12. Vasistha the Elder: He should avoid activities such as the following: plucking flowers or fruits, digging up roots, nipping the tips of leaves,23 eating honey or meat, and exchanging gifts.

  13. Medhātithi: His possessions consist of the following six articles: triple staff, water pot, sling, begging bowl, seat, and loincloth.

  14. As an ascetic would not accept urine and excrement, in the same way he should not accept these six things: movable and immovable property, seeds, metal utensils, poison, and weapons.

  15. As a man would carry out a sentence handed down by the king, in the same way an ascetic should carry out the following six things: begging almsfood, silent prayer, bathing, meditation, purification, and divine worship.

  16. As he would avoid the wife of another man, in the same way he should avoid the following: alchemy, judicial litigation, astrology, buying and selling, and all sorts of crafts.

  17. As he would not look at excrement, in the same way he should not look at these six: dances and similar shows, gambling, young women, friends, festive foods, and menstruating women.

  18. An ascetic should never live in these six types of places: royal courts, cities, trading posts, granaries, cattle farms, and houses.

137 22. Within the scheme of the four orders of life, householders belong to the first category and ascetics, and possibly also students, to the second. The position of hermits is unclear, for some sources permit begging from them, while others relate them closely with ascetic modes of life; see Ch. 6.150.

  1. The meaning of “agra” is not altogether clear. One manuscript reads “tṛṇāgra” (“tips of grass”). The sense may be the breaking of the tips of branches, leaves, and the like.

138 Rules and Regulations of Brahmanical Asceticism 121. These are the six causes of an ascetic’s fall: traveling at night, traveling in carriages, talking about women, greed, sleeping on beds, and wearing white clothes.

  1. An ascetic should never even think of these six: lust, hatred, pride, arrogance, hypocrisy, and malice toward others.

  2. These six are the causes of an ascetic’s bondage: residence, lack of a bowl, accumulation, gathering disciples, sleeping during the day, and idle speech.

  3. When an ascetic spends more than one day in a village or five days in a city outside of the rainy season, that offense is called “residence.” 125. When a mendicant who subsists on almsfood fails to acquire even one of the prescribed types of bowls, it is called “lack of a bowl.” 126. When an ascetic takes an additional bowl, triple staff, or similar article for use in the future, it constitutes the “accumulation” of goods. 127. When an ascetic gathers disciples not out of compassion but for the services, profit, and honor they provide and the fame they would bring, it should be recognized as “gathering disciples.” 128. Because of its lucidity, knowledge is called day, while ignorance is. called night. When someone is negligent in those practices that produce knowledge, he is said to be a man who “sleeps during the day.” 129. Conversations relating to spiritual matters, asking for almsfood, divine praise, words of kindness, or asking the way-talking at times other than these is called “idle speech.” 130. When he possesses these six qualities, an ascetic surely is called tongueless, a eunuch, lame, blind, deaf, and stupid.

  4. When a man, as he eats, does not notice that one thing is tasty and another is not, or that one thing is hot and another is sweet, he is called a “tongueless” man.

  5. When a man remains as unmoved when he sees a sixteen-year-old young lady as when he sees a newborn girl or a hundred-year-old woman, he is called a “eunuch.” 133. When a man walks only to beg food and to answer nature’s calls and even then does not travel beyond a league, he is called “lame.” 134. When a wandering ascetic, as he stands or walks, does not look beyond six feet in front of him, unless there is some danger, he is said to be “blind.” 135. Upon hearing words that are kind or unkind, soothing or scathing, when a man remains as if he had not heard them, he is said to be “deaf.” 136. When in the presence of hostile people a mendicant remains silent and acts as if he were asleep, even though he has the full use of his faculties, he is said to be “stupid.“24 24. The Sanskrit term “mugdha” means both stupor and stupidity.7. Proper Conduct 137. A person who knows these ten sets of six, who is endowed with the highest faith, and who is totally devoted to the Supreme Self will be freed from both the gross and the subtle bodies.

  6. Jamadagni: The fool who plucks grains, breaks trees, creepers, or plants, or damages mobile or immobile creatures will go to hell.

  7. One who eats a full meal given by a single person, one who accepts food twice, one who obtains a livelihood through mendicancy, and one who accepts food three times25-these four types of ascetics undoubtedly fall.

140.Ascetics, vedic students, and widows should abstain from chewing betel leaves, from anointing their bodies with oil, and from eating out of brass plates.

  1. Liquor and betel leaves-these two are of equal strength. Therefore, an ascetic should make every effort to abstain from betel leaves.

  2. Śaunaka: Let him not broadcast his virtues. Let him not get angry even when he is provoked or become elated even when he is honored. He should bathe in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, submerging in the water like a stick. Likewise, he should not jump in or swim across a river. Let him not desire to live or to die. He should not travel at night or at dawn and dusk. He should abstain from chewing betel leaves and not long to eat twice or to anoint his body with oil. He should not attend receptions, ancestral rites, and sacrifices, as well as processions and festivals in honor of gods. He should also avoid friendly contact with hermits and householders in trading posts or at places of assembly.

  3. Paithīnasi: Let him neither rejoice when he is praised nor become angry when he is reviled. Discovering both to be the same through knowledge and austerity, let him live in total equanimity.

  4. Satyakāma: After giving up the duties of every other type of life, a man should take up the duties of the life devoted to liberation. Should he lapse from the duties of the life devoted to liberation, he should perform a purificatory rite.

139 25. The meanings of these four categories, especially the second and the fourth, are very unclear. The term “dviprati” is, to my knowledge, unknown elsewhere. Even the editor of M considers this corrupt. I have attempted to derive it from “prati vi,” meaning “to accept.” Likewise, the term “trisamgrahi” is unclear; I have taken it as referring to a man who accept food either three times from the same house or three times a day.

140 Rules and Regulations of Brahmanical Asceticism 145. He should not step on a spot that he has not inspected or travel along a road not pointed out by the sun.26 Let him not injure any living being in thought, word, or deed.

  1. That ends the seventh chapter, entitled “Proper Conduct,” of the Collection of Ascetic Laws.

  2. The meaning is that he should travel without a specific destination, along the way pointed out by the sun.