Very well written. This article is a great introduction to asceticism, which I took a semester class on in 2011. I wrote a thesis paper on how Gandhi in my eyes is an "atypical ascetic." I think you and others would find this research interesting. I will be posting that work I did in the coming days. Would you mind if I provided a link to this post in my introduction for part 1? I think my paper would resonate with people more if they could first understand a little bit more about asceticism.