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Sannyasa, (Devanagari: संन्यास) sannyāsa is the renounced order of life within Hinduism. It is considered the topmost and final stage of the varna and ashram systems and is traditionally taken by men at or beyond the age of fifty years old or by young monks who wish to dedicate their entire life towards spiritual pursuits. One within the sanyass order is known as a sannyasi or sannyasin.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Lifestyle and goals 3 Application 4 Monasticism 5 Sannyasa Upanishads 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Saṃnyāsa in Sanskrit means "renunciation", "abandonment". It is a tripartite compound of saṃ- has "collective" meaning, ni- means "down" and āsa is from the root as, meaning "to throw" or "to put", so a literal translation would be "laying it all down".

The sannyasi lives without possessions, practises yoga meditation — or in other traditions, bhakti, or devotional meditation, with prayers to their chosen deity or God. The goal of the Hindu Sannsyasin is moksha (liberation), the conception of which also varies. For the devotion oriented traditions, liberation consists of union with the Divine, while for Yoga oriented traditions, liberation is the experience of the highest samadhi (enlightenment). For the Advaita tradition, liberation is the removal of all ignorance and realising oneself as one with the Supreme Brahman.

Within the Bhagavad Gita, sannyasa is described by Krishna as follows:

"The giving up of activities that are based on material desire is what great learned men call the renounced order of life [sannyasa]. And giving up the results of all activities is what the wise call renunciation [tyaga]." (18.2)^[1]

The term is generally used to denote a particular phase of life. In this phase of life, the person develops vairāgya, or a state of determination and detachment from material life. He renounces all worldly thoughts and desires, and spends the rest of his life in spiritual contemplation. It is the last in the four phases of a man, namely, brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, and finally sannyasa, as prescribed by Manusmriti for the Dwija castes, in the Hindu system of life. However, these four stages are not necessarily sequential, but on the other hand can not be reversed, in other sense they are progressive phases, one can skip one, two or three ashrams, but can never revert back to an earlier ashrama or phase. Various Hindu traditions allow for a man to renounce the material world from any of the first three stages of life.

Unlike monks in the Western world, whose lives are regulated by a monastery or an abbey and its rules, the Hindu sannyasin is a loner and a wanderer (parivrājaka). Hindu monasteries (mathas) never have a huge number of monks living under one roof. The monasteries exist primarily for educational purposes and have become centers of pilgrimage for the lay population. Ordination into any Hindu monastic order is purely at the discretion of the individual guru, who should himself be an ordained sannyasi within that order. Most traditional Hindu orders do not have women sannyasis, but this situation is undergoing changes in recent times.

Of the 108 Upanishads of the Muktika, 23 are considered Sannyasa Upanishads.^{[citation needed]} They are listed with their associated Veda (ṚV, SV, ŚYV, KYV, AV):

1. Brahma (KYV)
2. Jābāla (ŚYV)
3. Śvetāśvatara (KYV) "The Faces of God"
4. Āruṇeya (SV)
5. Garbha (KYV)
6. Paramahaṃsa (ŚYV)
7. Maitrāyaṇi (SV)
8. Maitreyi (SV)
9. Tejobindu (KYV)
10. Parivrāt (Nāradaparivrājaka) (AV)
11. Nirvāṇa (ṚV)
12. Advayatāraka (ŚYV)
13. Bhikṣu (SYV)
14. Turīyātīta (SYV)
15. Sannyāsa (SV)
16. Paramahaṃsaparivrājaka (AV)
17. Kuṇḍika (SV)
18. Parabrahma (AV)
19. Avadhūta (KYV)
20. Kaṭharudra (KYV)
21. Yājñavalkya (SYV)
22. Varāha (KYV)
23. Śāṭyāyani (SYV)

• Yogi
• Sadhu
• Gymnosophist
• Neo-sannyas

• Articles on aspects of Sannyasa, Vairagya, and Brahmacharya
• 'The Song of the Sannyasin', poem by Swami Vivekananda
• The Internal Meaning of Sannyasa

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