Write a short note on objectives and duties of Sanyas Ashram.

Objectives of Sanyasa Ashram : Describing the fourth stage of life. Manusmriti prescribes – Having thus passed the third part part of a man’s natural term of life in the forest, he may live as an ascetic during the fourth part of his existence, after abandoning all attachments to worldly objects. The goal of this stage of life was liberation.

Duties of Sanyasin : Therefore it has been prescribed that the recluse should always wander alone without a companion.

He should be indifferent to everything, firm of purpose, mediating and concentrating his mind on Brahama. “He should be free of all desire, whether to live, or to die, and must wait for his appointed time “ as a servant waits for the payment of wages.” Though a recluse is aiming at liberation, a goal transcending ethics yet he treads the path of good.”

In the words of Manu Smriti : “ Let him put down his foot purified by his sight, let him drink water purified by straining with a cloth, let him utter speech purified by truth, let him keep his heart pure. Let him patiently bear hardships, let him not insult any body, and let him not become anybody’s enemy for the sake of this perishable body. Against an angry man let him not in return show anger.

The entire purpose of the prescription by Dharmashastras about this stage of life was to help in the achievement of liberation, to make an individual fit for immortality. Therefore it was proclaimed, “ A twice born man who becomes an ascetic after the successive performance of the above mentioned acts shakes off sin below and reaches the highest Brahman.

In this process the recluse, through a life of duty and discipline, contributed his share to the welfare of the community not in terms of Artha and Kama but in terms of Dharma.”

As Kewal Motwani rightly points out, the life of a Sannyasin was “ an example of fulfilment and a promise of future of all.”