Sadhus

[S.A.M.]

In Hinduism, sadhu is a common term for an ascetic or practitioner of yoga (yogi) who has given up pursuit of the first three Hindu goals of life: kama (pleasure), artha (wealth and power) and even dharma (duty). The sadhu is solely dedicated to achieving moksha (liberation) through meditation and contemplation of God. Although the term Sadhu has its roots in Hinduism it is also used for followers of other religions, if they live a Sadhu life. There are Sadhus in Sikhism as well.

Vedic textual data suggest that asceticism in India - in forms similar to that practiced by sadhus today - dates back to 1500 BCE; the present-day sadhus of India likely represent the oldest continuous tradition of monastic mystical practice in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadhu

Khumbha Mela, a bathing festival held at the sites of Prayaga (Allahabad), Haridwar, Nasik, and Ujjain on a rotating basis every four years. At Prayag, where the Yamuna River joins the Ganga, that the largest number of human beings in history gathered-15 million on Februray 6, 1998. It is said that the nectar of immortality was spilled on these sites during an ancient battle between the gods and the demons. Therefore, millions of people descend on these sites to bathe at the auspicious moments, to socialize, and to celebrate. Here two Sadhus bathe in the foreground while lay people come from bathing in the background. The sadhus wear wooden chastity belts.

Naga sadhus march as brothers in spirit on their way back from bathing.

Other images of sadhus
http://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/sadhus/index.html#1

 

[lightgigantic]

sadhu could easily translate as "saintly person"

here is a descriptive list of the 28 symptoms of a sadhu

http://srimadbhagavatam.com/11/11/29-32/en

associating with a saintly person is the most integral activity in spiritual life

SB 10.84.11: Mere bodies of water are not the real sacred places of pilgrimage, nor are mere images of earth and stone the true worshipable deities. These purify one only after a long time, but saintly sages purify one immediately upon being seen.

SB 10.84.12: Neither the demigods controlling fire, the sun, the moon and the stars nor those in charge of earth, water, ether, air, speech and mind actually remove the sins of their worshipers, who continue to see in terms of dualities. But wise sages destroy one's sins when respectfully served for even a few moments.

SB 10.84.13: One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth — such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.

The opportunity to associate with such a saintly person is the greatest boon offerred by human life, although such a concept is difficult to appreciate from a conditioned perspective

CC Madhya 22.84: "'O my Lord! O infallible Supreme Person! When a person wandering throughout the universes becomes eligible for liberation from material existence, he gets an opportunity to associate with devotees. When he associates with devotees, his attraction for You is awakened. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the highest goal of the topmost devotees, and the Lord of the universe.'

Maybe about 80% of the difficulty in spiritual life is determining actually who or what a sadhus is - it requires a deal of scriptural knowledge otherwise one can be easily fooled by cheap tricks

 

[lightgigantic]

actually a lot of the info on the wiki site refers more to tyagi's (renouncers) (also a bit of tantric practice as well .... which is something else)as opposed to sadhus - you could argue that a tyagi is a particular type of sadhu however

sadhu is derived from the word sat

BG 17.26-27: The Absolute Truth is the objective of devotional sacrifice, and it is indicated by the word sat. The performer (sadhu) of such sacrifice is also called sat, as are all works of sacrifice, penance and charity which, true to the absolute nature, are performed to please the Supreme Person, O son of Pṛthā.

thus being a sadhu innvolves more than just renunciation (which by itself is simply the diametrical opposite of bhoga, enjoyment)

sadhu is the masculine
sadhvi is the feminine

can also be defined as virtuous

 

[spidergoat]

It beats working for a living.

 

[lightgigantic]

It beats working for a living.

work is still there, its just that it is not along the lines of working harder than an ass so one can have more enjoyments than a pig


BG 6.1 The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic, not he who lights no fire and performs no duty.

some sociologists argue that the first hippies where americans who came back from india influenced by the tyagi's (except they didn't renounce sex and drugs, which kind of made the whole endeavour a farce)

There are also evidences and examples of saintly householders too -

 

[S.A.M.]

work is still there, its just that it is not along the lines of working harder than an ass so one can have more enjoyments than a pig


BG 6.1 The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic, not he who lights no fire and performs no duty.

some sociologists argue that the first hippies where americans who came back from india influenced by the tyagi's (except they didn't renounce sex and drugs, which kind of made the whole endeavour a farce)

There are also evidences and examples of saintly householders too -

Weren't the earliest Indian philosophers ascetics?

 

[lightgigantic]

Weren't the earliest Indian philosophers ascetics?

The vedic perspective of history doesn't tally with anthropologists,

This is the general view of contemporary scholars


1. The Aryans first entered India from the North West and subjugated the indigenous tribes around 4463 B.C.

2. The Battle of Kuruksetra took place in 1912 B.C. (3976 years ago),

3. The present Mahabharata is not the original Mahabharata written by Vedavyasa, but one put together by a later Vyasa,

4. The Ramayana achieved its present form sometime after the compilation of the Mahabharata in about 500 B.C.

5. The Puranas were written successively between 400 A.D. and 1000 A.D. The Markendeya Purana is the oldest and the Srimad Bhagavatam is the youngest.

6. The Srimad Bhagavatam is a southern text, likely written during the 10th century by some unknown respected person who had rightfully assumed the title of Vyasa.

They work with the 6 philosophies of what constitutes modern history in terms of the vedic age

Of the six orthodox philosophies of Vedic tradition—Sankhya, Yoga, Nyäya, Vaisesika, Mimämsä and Vedänta—only the Vedänta of Bädaräyana Vyäsa is free of error, and even that only as properly explained by the bona fide Vaisnava äcäryas. Each of the six schools, nonetheless, makes some practical contribution to Vedic education: atheistic Sänkhya explains the evolution of natural elements from subtle to gross, Patanjali's yoga describes the eightfold method of meditation, Nyäya sets forth the techniques of logic, Vaisesika considers the basic metaphysical categories of reality, and Mimämsä establishes the standard tools of scriptural interpretation.

(1) The Mīmāḿsaka philosophers, following the principles of Jaimini, stress fruitive activity and say that if there is a God, He must be under the laws of fruitive activity....
(2) Atheistic Sāńkhya philosophers like Kapila analyze the material elements very scrutinizingly and thereby come to the conclusion that material nature is the cause of everything.
(3) Nyāya philosophers like Gautama and Kaṇāda have accepted a combination of atoms as the original cause of the creation.
(4) Māyāvādī philosophers say that everything is an illusion. Headed by philosophers like Aṣṭāvakra, they stress the impersonal Brahman effulgence as the cause of everything.
(5) Philosophers following the precepts of Patañjali practice rāja-yoga.
(6) and Vyasadeva who gave the vedantic path

I don't know what anthropologists conceive of as the personal lifestyle of these figures - I know that Vyasadeva was a householder ascetic - meaning his residence was a remote hermitage -
I know that orthodox mayavadis (perhaps the one's that have had the biggest influence on the current picture of contemporary hindu practice) advocate that one must first come to the platform of the renounced order of life before being innvolved in any spiritual discussion of merit


According to the history of the vedas however the first living entity in the universe is Lord Brahma (a name for him is aja - the unborn, because he appeared directly from the body of Garbhodaksayi Visnu) -

maybe I will put together something about Brahma on the hindu god thread.

Anyway one of the tasks of Lord Brahma was to populate the universe - so 4 young boys (the 4 kumaras) emmanated from Brahma, being his first sons - Brahma was eager to have them prepared for house hold life but they didn't want to undergo the rigours and risks of married life so they defiantly refused . By their mystic potency maintained themselves as 6 year old boys so that their bodies would never be afflicted by the burning passions of puberty .


So either way you look at it vedic knowledge owes its distribution to ascetics - the idea is that a person who is not burdened with the necessities of family duties has more time to enter deeply into spiritual knowledge - this doesn't necessarily make them more spiritually advanced however although it does make them more learned and (hopefully) cultured - thus they are accommodated by society at large as mendicants