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reached in the Buddha's time, as set forth by a naked ascetic in a Dialogue he had with Gotama." This professor of self-torture enumerates twenty-two methods of self-mortification in respect of food, and thirteen in respect of clothing, and among these the ascetic may make his choice. And he keeps his body under in other ways:
“He is a plucker-out-of-hair-and-beard' (destroying by a painful process the possibility of pride in mere beauty of appearance)-or he is a 'stander-up' (rejecting the use of a seat)-or he is a 'croucher-down-onthe-heels' (moving about painfully by jumps)-or he is a “bed-of-thorns-man’ (putting thorns or iron spikes under the skin on which he sleeps)-or he sleeps on a plank, or on the bare ground, or always on the same side-or he is 'clad-in-dust' (smearing his naked body with oil and standing where dust clouds blow, he lets dust and dirt adhere to his body).”
Later on, in the epic for instance, the list grows longer, the penances harder, the self-torture more revolting. But from this time onwards, down to quite modern times, this tapas, self-mortification, is a permanent idea and practice in the religious life of India. As is well known it is not confined to India. Tennyson, in the monologue of St. Simeon Stylites, has given us a powerful analysis of the sort of feelings that lay at the root of this superstition in the West. But the theological views that give the tone to the Christian saint's self-revelation are very
Rh. D. Dialogues of the Buddha, 1. pp. 226-232.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
