Page:Ramakrishna - His Life and Sayings.djvu/21

Rh reverend or honourable, but it has also been accepted as a technical term, applied to a class of men who in the ancient language of India are well known to us by their name of Saznysin. Sa^zny^sin means literally one who has laid down or surrendered everything, that is, one who has abandoned all worldly affections and desires. 'He is to be known as a Saflmy&sin,' we read in the Bhagavad-giti V, 3, 'who does not hate and does not

love anything/

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The Four Stages of Life.

The life of a Brahman was, according to the Laws of Manu, divided into four periods or A^ramas, that of a pupil or Brahmarin, that of a householder or GWhastha, of an ascetic or V&naprastha, and of a hermit or Yati 1. The first and second stages are clear enough; they represent the scholastic and the married stages of a man's life, the former regulated by the strictest rules as to obedience, chastity, and study, the second devoted to all the duties of a married man, including the duty of performing sacrifices, both public and private. The names of ascetic and hermit for the third and fourth stages are of course approximate renderings only; not having the thing, we have not got the name. But the chief difference between the two seems to be that in the third stage the Brahman still keeps to his dwelling in the forest outside his village, and may even be accompanied there by his wife, see his children, and keep up his sacred 11 Mum VI, 87.

B 1