6 - The Beast and the Ascetic: The Wild in the Indian Religious Imagination

Summary

mṛgaiḥ saha parispandaḥ saṃvāsas tebhir eva ca |

tair eva sadṛéī vṛttiḥ pratyakṣaṃ svargalakṣaṇam ∥

Moving about with wild beasts,

And dwelling with them alone,

Living a life just theirs –

Clearly that's the way to heaven.

This extraordinary verse concludes Baudhāyana's description of both the holy householders (BDh 3.2.19) and the forest hermits (BDh 3.3.22). In many religions the pursuit of holiness has been associated with renunciation and fleeing from society. Living austere and often solitary lives in the wilderness, forest, or desert is viewed in many traditions as a sign of holiness. An extreme expression of this attitude is the practice of imitating the life style and behavior of wild animals.

The Desert Fathers of early Christianity are depicted as living like animals. According to a contemporary description, the monks in the Syrian desert “had one garment, went barefoot, mortified themselves, ate grass, legumes and roots, wandered about on the mountains like wild animals.…” “I looked,” says a monk describing his encounter with a Desert Father, “I saw a man afar off, who was very fearful. His hair was spread over his body like a leopard. … When he approached me, I was afraid. I climbed on a mountain peak, lest perhaps he was a mountain ass. … He said to me: ‘Onnophrius is my name and, behold, for sixty years I have been in the desert, walking in the mountains like the animals.’”