expected to become more and more
detached from self-indulgence as he
progressed through life. A brahmin’s
life was to end in SAMNYÄSA, total
renunciation. Those who had renounc-
ed enjoyed high social status. Apart
from reducing one’s wants to a mini-
mum and practising sexual continence
(BRAHMACARYA), samnyäsisdeveloped a
great variety of forms of tapas, ranging
from different forms of abstention from
food and drink and other sense gratifi-
cations, to lying on a bed of nails, stand-
ing for prolonged periods in water,
looking into the sun, lifting an arm up
till it withered. One of the more wide-
spread forms of self- mortification was
the ‘Five-fires-practice’ (pañcägni
tapas): the ascetic sat in the centre of a
square which was formed by four blaz-
ing fires, with the sun overhead as the
fifth fire. Renunciation was held to be
the precondition for higher spiritual
development, and the practice of asceti-
cism in one form or other is expected of
every Hindu.ashes (bhasma)
Sacred ashes play a great role in
Hinduism. ŸAIVITESbesmear their bod-
ies with ashes. The famous SATHYASAI
BABA creates and distributes ashes
which are said to be efficacious in
healing all kinds of diseases of body and
mind.ashram See ÄŸRAMA(1).äÿirväda (‘blessing’, ‘benediction’)
A ritual performed in temples on visitors
by the officiating priests.asmitä (‘I-ness’, egoism)
One of the forms of AVIDYÄ, which has
to be eradicated before one can
make spiritual progress. (See also
AHAMKÄRA.)aspøÿya (‘untouchable’)
A class of people ranking below the
ŸÜDRAS. Physical contact of any kind
was supposed to pollute members of the
three upper castes ritually. They were
not allowed to use common facilities in
villages such as wells and had to live in
a separate area outside the villages.
They often earned their living by per-
forming dirty and degrading work such
as removing carcasses, preparing
corpses for cremation, removing night
soil from latrines. Mahatma GANDHI
fought for their rehabilitation; he called
them Harijan, ‘God’s people’, and tried
to educate and integrate them. The
Indian constitution of 1950 abolished
untouchability and made it punishable
to disadvantage people on this ground.
Measures to grant them more access to
positions in public service and to
schools have met with much resistance,
often violent, in recent years.äÿrama (1) (‘work place’), also
ashram
Monastery, abode of as ascetics. Äÿramas
have played an important role in Indian
history. Epics and Puräæas report the vis-
its of their main protagonists to the äÿra-
mas of famous sages. The Mahäbhärata
offers a veritable guidebook of such
places, and it became fashionable for reli-
gious teachers to visit the most famous of
these. The äÿramatradition is still alive in
India. Mahatma GANDHI founded an
äÿramato train his co-workers, and it is
quite common today for Hindus to spend
some time in an äÿrama, performing reli-
gious exercises.äÿrama (2)
Stage in life, of which according to the
VARŒÄŸRAMA DHARMA there are four:
BRAHMACARYA(early youth), GARHASTHYA
(life of householder), VÄNAPRASTHA(life
in forest), and SAMNYÄSA(life of renun-
ciation, homelessness).ashes 28Encyclo - Letter A 10/2/03 9:37 am Page 28