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The Traditional Approaches to Renunciation
I have had long discussions with Master on one condition most religions
seem to prescribe: to give away all wealth and property before embarking
on a religious way of life. Some even prescribe total renunciation of
the family, and adoption of asceticism. Master is quite definite that
such prescriptions are unnecessary, and some may even go against Nature.
He said, "What is wrong with wealth as long as it is rightly earned?
When a man works he is entitled to the fruit of his labour. Yes! There
is a right way of using wealth, as there are innumerable wrong ways.
Wealth is only a power. And all power is good so long as it is used
constructively for the good of humanity. Every person has a right to
earn money lawfully. I see nothing wrong in it. But we must not be attached
to wealth. It must not become the aim. Our Goal must always be fixed,
and there must be no straying from it. Anything may come on the way,
but we must go on and on towards our goal. You must treat wealth like
a river. Take as much of it as you need, and then use the rest for the
benefit of your brothers and sisters. That is the right way.
Now look here! They say you must leave your family and children and
run away to the jungle, or to the Himalayas. What is the use? It is
not easy to do it. It is against Nature. It is also a cowardly act as
you are running away from your duties and responsibilities. When you
are in the jungle, your thoughts will be only of the home and family.
How can you do tapasya under such conditions? Then what is the
correct way? I am telling you, it is better to bring the jungle into
your home, rather than carry your home into the jungle. How is this
to be done? Really speaking it is quite simple. Think that in your own
home you are only a guest. You will find all problems evaporate. Treat
your wife and children as trust property entrusted to you by God. They
are not yours. They are not your wife and not your children, but they
are under your trust, under your care. You understand this? All sense
of possession must go. It is only when you think 'this thing is mine'
that loss also comes. When it is in trust you can administer it objectively
and very correctly. You will be able to do for them what they need,
what is necessary. Really speaking you learn correct performance of
duty only in the family environment. Lalaji used to say that the grihastha
life is the most important training ground, for it is here that we learn
true charity, true love, true renunciation. Only in the life of the
householder do we learn to think of others before we think of ourselves.
So it is very important. And I tell you it is really very easy. Just
divert the mind!"
Master continued, "Really speaking, I have not much opinion about
sanyasa. Yes, there are a few genuine sanyasis who have
adopted that way of life out of a true and genuine spirit of renunciation
and longing for the Divine. But the majority are only those who have
run away from the responsibilities of life and are living off society.
Some of them are quite bad too in their ways of life and moral behaviour.
But our people have been taught to revere them, and many suffer for
it." According to Master, the ancient traditional ways of renunciation
of wealth and family can be exceedingly harmful spiritually and can
block an abhyasi's spiritual progress, sometimes through several lives.
Once a person has accepted certain responsibilities like wife, children
etc., he is duty-bound to discharge these responsibilities, and Master
indeed teaches that to run away from home and family is a sign often
of cowardice and selfishness. So under the Sahaj Marg system there is
no place for this traditional interpretation of renunciation. What then
does Master teach? He says we must cultivate an attitude of "non-attachment
attachment," that is, we perform our duties, discharge our obligations
in all spheres of our existence, while remaining unattached to all these.
The Raja Rishis like Janaka are stated to be examples of this
ideal of human living.
Master's most important teaching is that to 'give up' creates strain
and enormous tensions. So we are not required to 'give up' but to create
an attachment to higher values and purposes, when automatically and
naturally the unnecessary things of life drop off. That is, detachment
has to be created by developing attachment in a different direction.
When we attach ourselves to the Divine, the world falls off. We are
no longer part of it, though of it. We are in it, living in it. This
may be the condition of 'the living dead' that Master refers to. We
are alive while we are really dead to this existence.
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