A Sannyasi's Conduct

Ishvara said

Mahadevi, out of affection for you and since you asked, I will now tell the sannyasi's daily rites. The ascetic must rise at Brahma muhurta and think of the guru seated on the thousand-petalled white lotus in his head, who looks like pure crystal, has two eyes and the boon and fearlessness gestures. With virtuous feeling he thinks of Shiva's beautiful form within himself and in that feeling worships him in order with perfumes and other things. With hands cupped he bows to the guru, saying: Mahadeva, whatever I do from morning to evening and from evening to morning is only your worship. Having made this pledge he receives the guru's permission. Seated, he controls himself, conquers his senses and restrains his breath. He meditates on the six centres from muladhara to Brahmarandhra and in the middle thinks of me, the embodiment of being-consciousness-bliss, full of all energy, bright as a crore flashes of lightning. This is the attribute-free supreme brahman, Sadashiva, undecaying. He will experience the identity "Soham". Then he emerges and goes some distance as he wishes. He covers head and nose with cloth, spreads some grass on the ground and cleans his body. On rising he holds his organ and goes to water, gathers water carefully and cleans himself properly. Washing hands and feet, he utters Aum and rinses twice. He faces north and is silent while cleaning his teeth, which except on the new moon and eleventh is always done with grass and leaves. Then he rinses his mouth twelve times, rinses twice again and cleans his loins with mud and water. With mud he bathes when the sun rises. At bathing and at sandhya he remembers me and the guru. There is no need to describe this in detail here; it can be found elsewhere. Joining his hands in the conch gesture he utters Pranava and sprinkles his head with water twelve, six or three times. At the bank he washes his loincloth and rinses twice. Reciting Pranava he sprinkles water on his garment and wipes his body, face first, then head, then every other part, standing beside his guru. He then wears a fresh loincloth with the knot on the left and smears his body with ash.

Daughter of the mountain, I will tell the rules for this. After rinsing twice he recites the Sadyojata mantra and applies the ash, utters the mantra to Agni and touches his body. With the water mantra he mixes the ash with water. Mentally uttering the water mantra and "ma nastoke" he divides it into two balls. One of these is divided into five and the ash applied to head, face, chest, private parts and feet, from Ishana to Sadya, chanting their mantras. Then, uttering Pranava, water is sprinkled and the hands and whole body washed, and the other ball is used to apply the Tripundra on the head, chanting the "tryayusham" mantra and the mantra to Tryambaka. With Pranava and a mantra to Shiva it is applied to the chest, shoulders, arms, joints and back in order. He washes his hands and rinses twice by the rules. A learned person recites the five-syllable mantra and remembers his guru, and, following the stated procedure, does breath-control six times. He takes water in his right hand, covers it with his left, touches his navel, chants Pranava twelve times, sprinkles his head three times and drinks the water three times. Controlling his mind he meditates on Aumkara Ishvara, supreme, stationed in the middle of the solar disc, full of every energy, with eight arms and four faces and a wonderful half-female form, with all wonderful qualities and every ornament. After meditating so he offers arghya three times by the rules, does japa a hundred and eight times and offers water oblations twelve times. He rinses again and does breath-control three times, then goes to the place of worship remembering Shiva. At the door he washes his feet, silent, rinses twice and enters properly, right foot first. Inside the pavilion an intelligent person draws a mandala in due order.