The Recluse.

ASCETICS OR ASCETICISM 

Looks synonymous with RECLUSE. 

RECLUSE however is cognate (सजाति / सज्ञात) of the Sanskrit word परिश्लिष् / परिक्लिश् pointing out a RECLUSE is one who keeps striving for or keeping away from the society, while the word ASCETIC is a cognate (सज्ञात / सजाति) of the Sanskrit word अव-शयति meaning asleep or just has no relation whatsoever with the society or the mundane. 

This is like the word NEGOTIATE which is the cognate (सज्ञात / सजाति), even a direct derivative of the Sanskrit word निगच्छति meaning to deal with so as to gain / attain some desired benefit. This way, an ASCETIC is one, who practices or has attained the purpose ultimate.

Another equivalent word for the RECLUSE or the ASCETIC in Sanskrit is संन्यस्त / संन्यासी which in English becomes vest / invest or dispose off rightly everything that belongs to the world. No doubt, this means a  संन्यासी / MENDICANT is one who has no interest whatsoever in the affairs if the world. Again, this includes his body as well, because he has realized that he is not the body which is but a composition of the 5 gross elements viz., the Earth, the Ether, the Fire, the Water, and the Air only.

It is the consciousness associated with this whole organism that makes it sentient and the vital breath (प्राण) that starts the biological clock in the heart. 

The vital breath (प्राण) and the consciousness both are the subtle elements that imbue the organism with life. This life is again but the Life, the REALITY, which is all and everything. 

The same Life, vital breath and consciousness together cause a false sense of the individuality that soon owing to intellect (and memory associated and generated hey the intellect takes the form of ego, or the person / personal sense of existence.

An aspiring ASCETIC is thus one who practices to become ADEPT (अर्हत्) though has so far not broken the shackles of ignorance, because his sense of having a separate existence different and other than ATMAN / BRAHMAN (आत्मा,  परमात्मा, ब्रह्मन्) is intact.

A Mendicant may be an aspiring ASCETIC or one who has carefully cast aside the world and the mundane concerns and has given his whole attention to the need of attainment of the REAL that is the ultimate meaning and purpose (श्रेयस्) of Life.

This is how the four pursuits (पुरुषार्थ) of life have been pointed out in scriptures. 

AN ASCETIC may or may not have gone through scriptures, yet the GURU in him is watching him from the times immemorial and keeps pushing him towards this goal supreme.

This is how ASCETICISM prevails from the ancient times and though not necessarily kind of a religion, governs the spiritual life of all and everyone.

Another Sanskrit word for ASCETIC is :

अवधूत 

That is one having washed of impurities if mind and soul, though may not of the body, just because body itself is treated an impurity which is truly a bundle of filth and dirt only. Though could he cleaned repeatedly, in the end it has to he discarded.

The word also hints at another Sanskrit word अवधान meaning ATTENTION (ध्यान) which is but a ray of AWARENESS (चित् / चैतन्य).

Thus attention is always about a living entity,  while AWARENESS is the very Life itself. 

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