It had always been thought that the highest achievement in asceticism was to subsist only on leaves that fall naturally from the trees; but even that she spurned. The leaves remained on the ground. Hence, the name "Aparna", which those who know history gave to this gently-speaking lady: A-parna, that is to say, "the one who refuses even leaves".
Though her body was as delicate as the stem of the lotus, she submitted it to all these exhausting ordeals day after day and night after night, thereby going much further than anchorites with hardened frames.
