196 Part III: South Asia
Ascetic practice did have its strong allure and many people did—and still
do—renounce life in society, for despite its renunciation and its abstractions,
asceticism is ironically a highly active form of religion, a full-time vocation.
However, these ideas proved too abstract to be satisfying to the majority of the
people, who were not prepared to renounce life in society. Most people contin-
ued to be deeply imbedded in life and culture, enjoying its benefits, living pas-
sionately in the world. For people living complicated lives, devotion to a god
whose image (murti) can be seen, whose biography can be known, was much
preferred over a formless god that could only be grasped with metaphors.
The result was two possible goals of life: one could follow the Brahmanical
path of good work (i.e., keeping the rituals and observing dharma), thus lead-
ing to a good rebirth, which is the path of most humans; or one could take the
ascetic path of renunciation, seeking the end to rebirth in moksha (total annihi-
lation and absorption into Brahman). These two options have continued in the
Hindu-Buddhist traditions up to the present.The Proliferating Gods
Even as these philosophical views of the fate of the soul developed, in other
quarters the gods proliferated, and their stories were imagined, told, and retoldAn elderly ascetic (sadhu) sits in meditation on a cliff in the lower Himalayas. Such per-
sons are found all over India, easily identified by their ochre robes and matted locks,
engaged in practices going back to the first millennium B.C.E.