Sannyasa
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Sannyasa, sometimes spelled Sanyasa or Sanyasi, is life of renunciation and the fourth stage within the Hindu system of four life stages known as Ashramas, with the first three being Brahmacharya, Grihastha (householder) and Vanaprastha. Sannyasa is traditionally conceptualized for men or women in late years of their life, but young brahmacharis have had the choice to skip the householder and retirement stages, renounce worldly and materialistic pursuits and dedicate their lives to spiritual pursuits.
A Hindu Sannyasi. In ancient and medieval literature, they are usually associated with forests and remote hermitages in their spiritual, literary and philosophical pursuits.
A Hindu monk walking during sunrise in a mango garden in Dinajpur, Bangladesh
Photograph of a Sanyasi ascetic, albumen print, by Captain W.W. Hooper & Surgeon G. Western, Hyderabad, ca.1865
Asceticism
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Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their practices or continue to be part of their society, but typically adopt a frugal lifestyle, characterised by the renunciation of material possessions and physical pleasures, and also spend time fasting while concentrating on the practice of religion or reflection upon spiritual matters, which is thought by some to allow the practitioner's core of consciousness to expand and connect with the infinite universal consciousness. Some individuals have also attempted an ascetic lifestyle to free themselves from addictions to things such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, entertainment, sex, food, etc.
A Sufi Muslim ascetic (fakir) in Bengal during the 1860s
Chassidei Ashkenaz were a Jewish mystical and ascetic movement in medieval Germany.
The Buddha as an ascetic. Gandhara, 2nd–3rd century CE. British Museum