Shirk

life to achieve moksha: release from the cycle of rebirth and blending with the universal spiritual realm of Brahman. Women, for instance, need to be reborn as males before they can attempt it. Restrictions are put in the way of Brahmins seeking to shirk their family responsibilities by frivolously entering on the sannyasi path. However, it is naturally tempting for poverty-stricken men to become fake sannyasis for the sake of the alms they will collect. Hence supposed sannyasis of unknown character

the same time there seemed also to be a flicker of madness in them. He was dressed in an old, completely ragged black frock coat, which had shed all its buttons. Only one still somehow hung on, and this one he kept buttoned, obviously not wishing to shirk convention. From under his nankeen waistcoat a shirtfront stuck out, all crumpled, soiled, and stained. His face had been shaved in official style, but a good while ago, so that thick, blue-gray bristles were beginning to show on it. And there was