History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c46.45

v3.c46.45

The Jābālopaniṣad²¹⁵⁶ (6) describes the state of paramahaṁsas at great length. They are sages like Saṁvartaka, Āruṇi, Śvetaketu, Durvāsas, Ṛbhu, Nidāgha, Jaḍabharata, Dattātreya, Raivataka; they do not exhibit any visible signs of their order or any visible rules of conduct; though they are really not mad they behave like one mad; they go out for alms only for keeping body and soul together; they are unaffected by acquisition or absence (of alms), they have no house but wander about and stay in a temple or on a heap of grass, on an ant-hill, or at the foot of a tree or on a river bank or in a cave, they have attachment for nothing, they are centred in contemplation of the One Spirit. According to Sūtasaṁhitā (II. 6. 3-10) it is only haṁsa and paramahaṁsa that give up śikhā and the sacred thread.