ybrems
--First of all, monkhood was not a part of Hinduism.
--Hindu rishis were all householders. E.g. Vasishtha - Arundhati, atri - anasUya, kasyapa - aditi et al, jamadagni - rENuka, agastya - lOpAmudra, visvAmitra - mAdhavi et al, ... ...
--Though rishis (sages) had long beards, top-knots of hair-locks, there is little evidence to show that they wore saffron robes.
--Though mahAbharata had one reference of vidurA taking to monkhood in the fag end of the epic, there was no culture of monkhood with abdication of family.
--The sages had their own stages of renunciation on a continuum of 0 to infinity, it was within the framework of family-framework and when they performed penance, their wives used to be with them in the hermitage, co-operating in the process.
--RAvaNa was shown as wearing ochre robes in vAlmiki rAmAyaNa, when he visited rAma's hermitage at pancavaTi to abduct SItA. The idea in showing him wearing saffron robes might have been to show him as a despicable buddhist with evil designs.
Saffron robes and shaven heads seem to have started after hinduism had become a copycat of buddhism, unable to compete with it. Adi SankarAchArya might have been the first person to dress in saffron with shaven head. All the Shankara monasteries (like SringEri, dwAraka, pUri, badari, kanci etc.) seem to have continued the custom of shaven heads.
But the general tribe of mendicant tribe of monks pervading the sacred rivers and pilgrimage spots of India, has not apparently shifted to shaven heads. Probably because, frequent tonsuring and shaving of beards were expensive. Shaven heads with flowing beards were incompatible with one another.
From the 19th Century Swami vivEkAnanda to the 21st century kAkinADa monk have not shed their identity uniform of saffron color. Instead of the traditional Indian dresses of kurtas, lungis, dhotis and loin-cloths, they found saffron coats and suits more comfortable. It appears that the kAkinADa monk once went to mAnasa sarOvara. He was offered some warm clothing by the tour organisers on the hills, for protection from biting cold climate. This gentleman took some jeans and proceeded with the journey. In a recent TV channel interview, he justified wearing of the jeans on the ground that he would not have survived had he persisted with the monk's clothes. OK. But he has the audacity to justify his act stating that he wore SAFFRON COLORED JEANS. What difference will the color make?
The idea behind a monk wearing a loin cloth was that he should become indifferent to the vagaries of climate of heat and cold. Living with minimum clothing even in adverse weather was regarded as a token of his endurance. In fact, in Buddhist sacred books of tripiTakas, there were ceilings on the size of the loin-cloth to be worn both by male and female monks. Those who exceeded the ceilings were treated as in-disciplined. They were expected to have remorse and reparations.
Gone were the days when monks could not move from place to place when the lands were full of forests and swamps and in-penetrable with swollen rivulets during monsoons. The high-profile monks such as those of kanci, sringEri, kAkinAda, viSAkhapaTnam, move in air-conditioned vans and cars and fly in planes. Hence, there is no need of any four months sojourn.
Question: Why do you raise objections for this ritual?
Ans: These cAturmAsyas i.e. four months monsoon sojourns are very expensive. Who will pay for the maintenance of the entourage? Realtors and builders? Liquor traders? Financiers and money lenders? The expenses run into hundreds of thousands of rupees. For example, one realtor claimed that he arranged all the provisions for feeding 10,000 people at a camp. The point is, they do not pay from their pockets. They raise the prices of the houses, flats they build and the house-sites they sell.
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