An Order of Renunciates
Sannyāsa is the life, way and traditions of those who have irrevocably renounced duties and obligations of the householder path, including personal property, wealth, ambitions, social position and family ties, in favor of the full-time monastic quest for divine awakening, Self Realization and spiritual upliftment of humanity. Traditionally, and in our order, this dharma is available to men under age twenty-five who meet certain strict qualifications. Some orders are more lenient and accept men into sannyāsa after age twenty-five. The rules pertaining to homeless anchorites are, for obvious reasons, more lenient. Other orders will accept widowers, and a few initiate women, though Hindu custom prefers that women who wish to follow the monastic path take simple vows of brahmacharya and not take sannyāsa.
Women in today’s liberal Hindu orders who do take sannyāsa should wear white. Women donning orange robes is a new, very new, fashion. My perception over the past decades is that this generally does not work out well in the long run. Those women of history who have been recognized and honored as celibate seekers, as great souls, even as gurus, have worn the color white. This was then and is still the order of the day and will be far into the future for many very good esoteric reasons.
The householder naturally comes into the sannyāsa āśrama, stage of withdrawal, at age seventy-two, having lived through life’s three prior stages: student (brahmacharya), householder (gṛihastha) and elder advisor (vāṇaprastha). This fourth stage is a time of turning inward, devoting oneself more fully to worship, introspection, scriptural study and meditation. This step for householder men and women may be ritually acknowledged in a home blessing but is not in any way construed as sannyāsa dīkshā, which is a monastic initiation. While traditions vary, after commencing the fourth stage of life, the elder husband and wife, now as brother and sister, turn more fully to religious pursuits while continuing their associations with the family, though they may seek accommodations that offer more privacy for their meditations and worship.
An elder man whose wife has passed on and whose children are grown may upon reaching age seventy-two take up the mendicant life fully and then diligently pursue his spiritual sādhana in a state of genuine renunciation and not in the midst of his relatives. This is expressed in sūtra 210: “Śiva’s unmarried men and widowers may renounce the world after age seventy-two, severing all ties with their community and living as unordained, self-declared sannyāsins among the holy monks of India.” Sannyāsins who were formerly married are not generally afforded the same respect as sannyāsins who never entered the family dharma.
Though it is sometimes done, it must be noted that it is against dharma for a householder to abandon his wife and children on the pretext of renouncing the world. Becoming a self-declared sannyāsin after age seventy-two is also not traditional, for one who has been divorced and whose former spouse is still living. Marriage is a lifetime commitment, and once taken cannot be rescinded.
NANDINATHA SŪTRA 332: REMAINING APART FROM THE UNQUALIFIED
Śiva’s monastics restrain their support for sannyāsins in saffron robes who are married, who have personal income, live with birth family, deny or dilute Hinduism, have left their guru or are known philanderers. Aum.