History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c46.156

v3.c46.156

After this review of the stage of saṁnyāsa we see that asceticism presents several aspects viz. fasting or at least reducing the intake of food, abstention from meat and drink and pleasures of sense, total absence of sexual gratification and suppression of the sexual emotion, vow of silence, sleeping on bare ground, nakedness or making use of minimum clothing, contempt for the world and its riches. The Hindu Scriptures however do not enjoin self-infliction of pain or flagellation that was indulged in by monks in the early centuries of Christianity. Asceticism in the several forms indicated above is a feature common to all religions. It is the fashion to assert that Indians²²²¹ have the highest regard for asceticism and that the men whose memories they cherish as ideals of human conduct are ascetics. This statement is only partially true. Christ also taught abandonment of worldly ties and the spurning of riches as the best for entering the Kingdom of Heaven (vide Matthew 19. 21, Luke 14. 26 and 33, St. John 2. 15-16). It is only during the last three or four hundred years that Western peoples have given up much of what was thought for centuries to be the main teaching of Christ and regard successful men of action or politicians or men of martial exploits as their ideals and heroes. In India also martial glory has often raised men to the position of heroes or *avatāras*, but only when they delivered their countrymen from the tyranny and persecution of evil men or foreigners. Paraśurāma, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa are *avatāras* because they fought against tyranny and barbarity and not because they brought as large a slice of the earth under their domination as possible for purposes of exploitation or vainglory. Martial exploits for self-aggrandisement or for domination for domination's sake have never evoked great enthusiasm in India. Shivaji, the great hero of the Marathas, was paid almost divine honours even during his life-time not for his martial exploits, but for his having freed the Marathas and other peoples from Moslem tyranny, persecution, religious intolerance and fanaticism.