One of the four stages of ब्रह्मिनिचल् life. The four stages are ब्रह्मचर्य (Religious student), गार्हस्थ्य (householder), वानप्रस्थ (Forest-dweller) and सन्न्यास (hermit or sage). (For further details see under Āśrama)

Duties of a hermit

मनु has ordained that one should perform सन्न्यास (renunciation) at the fourth stage of life renouncing every tie with the world. After becoming a hermit he should travel daily alone. He should enter villages only for food. He should have renounced wealth. He should not acquire any wealth. He should be a sage filled with knowledge. He should have a skull as the pot for taking alms. He should sleep under trees. He should wear poor cloth and should be solitary. He should consider everybody as equal. Having become a hermit he should not delight in death or life.

A hermit should put every step looking straight down to the earth. He should drink water filtered by cloth. Words and deeds should be pure and true. The shells of water-gourd (pumpkin), wooden pots and earthen pots are the वैष्णव sign of hermits. A hermit should beg for food daily from houses where no smoke comes out, where pestle is placed and where there is no charcoal, and after all have taken food and the pot for preparing food is placed upside down.

It is said that the food got by hermits by begging is of five types. They are माधूकर (collected alms), असंकॢप्त (unlimited), प्राक्प्रणीत (prepared much earlier), अयाचितम् (got by not begging) and तात्कालिक (for the time being). In whichever stage of life he may be, he should be staunch in that stage and should perform the duties with honesty.

If by ignorance a hermit engaged himself in killing animals by day or night, to remove the impurity and get purity, he should bathe and perform six प्राणायामस् (restraints of the breath) daily. The hermit should discard his body made of five elements.

The signs of duty are, resolution, forbearance, selfrestraint, not robbing, cleansing, control of sense-organs, modesty, knowledge, truth, not resorting to anger, and so on. Hermits are of four grades, such as कुटीचक , बहूदक , हंस and परमहंस , the last-mentioned being the noblest grade. The hermit who wears one or three दण्डस् (rod) will be freed from ties of birth and death.

The five यमस् or restraints are not killing ( अहिंसा ), truth, not stealing, celibacy and not receiving. The five नियमस् or religious duties are cleansing, joy or contentedness, penance, self-study and meditation on God. The sitting postures suitable for hermits are पद्मासन etc. (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 161) .