History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c46.2

v3.c46.2

*Sannyāsa.*—(the order of ascetics). That the Chān. Up. was well aware of the three āśramas of student-hood, householder and forest hermit has been shown above (p. 420). It is somewhat doubtful whether the Chān. Up. regarded sannyāsa as the fourth and the last stage in a man's life when ideally planned. It merely states that 'one that holds fast by the realization of *brahman* attains immortality'. But it appears that a stage of the abandonment of worldly riches, a life of begging and contemplation of the Absolute and its realization had been known to the earliest Upaniṣads like the Bṛhadāraṇyaka. Whether it was the fourth stage or whether it could be reached even in the stage of brahmacarya or of a house-holder is left in doubt so far as the older Upaniṣads are concerned. The Jābālopaniṣad (4) has been quoted above (p. 421) to show that it gave an option either to regard sannyāsa as the 4th stage in a man's life or to resort to it immediately after any of the first two āśramas.