Samnyasa Upanishads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation c5.s2.6

c5.s2.6

Schweitzer is wrong on both counts. First, world-denying ideals and ways of life were not "there from the very beginning" in India. They were not "self-originated" but arose at a particular time in history—probably around the sixth century B.C.E.—against the background of momentous socioeconomic changes along the Ganges valley. Second, world renunciation in India did not always remain "on good terms" with society-oriented ideologies. It took a long period of domestication for the renunciatory ideals to be incorporated into the fabric of mainstream religion, and even this incorporation, as the evidence of the Saṃnyāsa Upaniṣads themselves demonstrates, did not altogether erase their irresolvable conflict. The reality of Indian religions is more complex than Schweitzer's observations suggest.