Renouncing the World: An Exploration of the Verses of Buddhist Nuns, Baul Women, and Women Mystics

Abstract

The paper attempts to explore the concept of renunciation and highlight its diverse meanings through selected verses of Buddhist nuns, Baul women, and women mystics. The theme of renunciation serves as a connecting thread across these narratives, linking them meaningfully across time and place without blurring their distinctiveness. An examination of the verses reveals many layers of the experience of renunciation, highlighting that the practice of renunciation can take unique forms and meanings for different women in diverse spiritual traditions. In societies where women’s religious roles are traditionally performed within the domain of the household, and women are socialized as primary caregivers within family settings, renunciants tread a tightrope between individual spiritual practice and renouncing family ties. The paper attempts to bring to the fore creative ways in which women renunciants carve their spiritual journeys, which illuminate some of the ways in which diverse spiritual and philosophical Asian traditions are in dialogue with each other.