The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s6.7

c6.s6.7

It would seem to me that it is the renunciatory ideology that opens a way for the brahmin to enter into relation with the world without losing his purity. Having emancipated himself from the world, the renouncer can from his sphere of independence reenter into relation with the world, where he now enjoys unequalled prestige. Indeed, the renouncer can, and to the present day often does, exert considerable influence on the sphere of worldly life. The secret of his ascendency over life-in-the-world seems to lie in his impartiality. He is no longer a party to the affairs of the world because he is independent from it. "He who sees the self through the self in all beings, becomes equal-minded toward all (*sarvasamatām etya*) and attains the highest state",⁹² "he sees the same in all" (*sarvatra samadarśana*).⁹³ As we have seen, he has resumed the opposites in himself and has identified himself with the cosmos. He is by himself the whole world, or, as the epic has it: "He who by himself fills as it were the empty space, through whom the void is crowded with people, the gods consider a brahmin."⁹⁴ Thus, on reentering into relations with the world, he is safeguarded, in theory at least, against its corrupting impact. He is then in the world but not of it—on condition of maintaining under all circumstances his total disinterestedness.