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What Does Renunciation Truly Mean?
Those of you who would not subject to extreme pain must understand
that you cannot enjoy extreme pleasure, in no field of human existence.
Then we are at the midpoint as I repeat, gentle swings. No pleasure,
no pain, no danger, no frustration, but a benign, calm, fulfilled existence.
Then I begin to think of my Self. My problems in existence are over.
I know now I have a Self inside. I seek someone who can tell me what
it is. He says, "Sit and meditate. I cannot tell you what it is.
You have to perceive it, experience it in yourself." Through this
meditation I become aware that there is something in me, which is not
the me I thought I was. I begin to go more and more towards it. As I
go more and more towards the east, I am inevitably going more and more
away from the west. No need to renounce. By the fact of turning inwards,
I am turning away from the external. Automatically, the renunciation
that people have tried for centuries to achieve and failed, is in my
hands, is in my grasp. I renounce without renouncing, because I am walking
towards the right thing, the right goal - my inner Self. Why do I have
to be ascetic? Why do I have to renounce? Why do I have to give away?
There is often a misunderstanding about renunciation. And when we talk
of renunciation, people say, "But how can I go without car? How
can I do without a telephone?" In the spiritual language, renunciation
does not mean this rather mundane idea of renunciation. It means detaching
your mind and your attachment from these things. After all, neither
Christ nor Buddha renounced the world because they were still living
here on this planet. They did not die immediately. They had to live
long enough to teach other people, make followers, and at least help
some of them to achieve their own spiritual status. But if we study
their life we understand what renunciation really means. It means living
in a detached way. They were also eating and drinking. They had clothes,
but the minimum necessary for life.
Renunciation or non-attachment is no doubt an essential stage in realization
and we can never be free from the entanglements of Maya unless we cultivate
non-attachment. But it does not mean severing our connection with home,
the family and all worldly concerns and taking up the life of a religious
mendicant. I do not agree with those who hold the view that the only
means of cultivating non-attachment is to get away from home and family
and retire to a solitary corner discarding all worldly ties. Renunciation
effected by such forced means, is seldom found to be genuine, for it
is just possible that in spite of their apparent forced detachment from
the world, they may still inwardly be clinging to it. No doubt as a
householder we have to look after many things, we have to support our
family, we have to provide for the education of our children, we have
to look to their wants and necessities, we have to protect them from
heat and cold, from trouble and sickness and so on. For these necessities
we earn and possess money and property.
The real evil is only our undue attachment with things which we are
associated with. This is the main cause of our sufferings. But if we
are able to do everything in life thinking it to be our duty without
any feeling of attraction or repulsion, we are in a way free from worldly
ties and have renounced the world in the true sense although we possess
and make use of many things. Everything we possess shall, then, seem
to be a sacred trust from the Supreme Master, for the discharge of the
duties entrusted to us. Renunciation truly means non-attachment
with worldly objects and not the non-possession of things.
Thus a household life in which possession of things and worldly ties
are indispensable is no impediment in the way of renunciation and consequently
of realization, only if one is not unduly attached to the objects he
is connected with. There are numerous examples of saints having attained
the highest degree of perfection leading a household life all through.
Renunciation is in fact a condition or an inner state of mind, which
brings to our view the transitory and changing character of things and
creates a feeling of non-attachment with such objects. His eyes are
fixed every moment on Reality which is unchanging and eternal and he
is free from the feeling of attraction and repulsion. This is Vairagya(renunciation)
in the true sense of the term. When we have achieved this state of mind
we are free from desires. We feel contented with what is available to
us. The end of desires means the stopping of the formation of samskaras.
What remains now is only to undergo the effect(Bhog) of the previously
formed samskaras which are to be worked out during the course of our
life. Nature too helps us in the work by creating field for Bhog in
order to remove the impressions of our thoughts and actions from the
causal body. When these coverings melt away we begin to assume finer
forms of existence.
The man who is born in this world is sure to taste miseries. One cannot
escape these. When I see the world, I find it very troublesome. Some
are groaning with pain, a few are suffering from the loss of their dear
ones and a great number are anxious to achieve success at each step.
We try to get rid of these by going into penance, and rishis(sages)
have devoted themselves thoroughly to it. All that is born of attachment
is misery. Pleasure and pain both contribute to misery. There is no
remedy for overcoming these miseries except devoting ourselves towards
Godly thought of the purest nature.
We need not renounce the world and go for penance in the forest. Let
the material world and spiritual world go side by side, glittering equally.
One cannot be a loser in any way, if doing his household duties, he
brings himself up to the realisation of God as well. We should soar
with both wings if we want to succeed. It is a vague idea of the people
in general that God is to be searched for in the forests. My idea is
that He should be searched for in the heart. One is performing the household
duties and at the same time is equally busy with Godly devotion. You
may say that these two things are incompatible and are contradictory
to each other, but it is not the case. In the long run, Godly wisdom
begins to work and one does his duty from the mind beyond.
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