When to renounce the world and take up sannyas

[Guest guest]

Namaste

 

The question has been asked : “When to renounce the world

and go as a sannyasi?” Aditya-ji asked this question and

very rightly Hariramji has answered in

 

http://www.escribe.com/culture/advaitin/m25882.html

 

that when a person has developed an intense dispassion

(=vairagya) for the mundane aspects of the world, he can

renounce the world.

 

I want to supplement this answer by going further into the

mind of the questioner, who is not alone in asking this

question. Very often, in spiritual discussions, after a few

steps of the spiritual ladder have been ascended (or, are

thought to have been ascended) we naturally confront

ourselves with this question. There are two myths here

which have to be dealt with.

 

Myth 1. Only by physically renouncing the world can we

obtaine moksha.

Myth 2. By continuing to be in the world, we are missing

on spirituality.

 

Myth 1 can be easily negated by reminding ourselves that

time and again the gita as well as other scriptures cry

from the housetops that it is not physical renunciation

that matters. Without mental renunciation, -- which is the

most difficult job – any amount of physical renunciation

will not help. Actually it will only be counter-productive.

 

 

Myth 2 can be negated by recalling that all our shastras

prescribe hundred and one regulations and disciplines for

our daily living as a householder with the intention of

preparing ourselves for the final renunciation, which may

or may not happen in this life. And these regulations would

not have been necessary if the shastras had thought that we

would be missing on spirituality by being in the world.

They repeatedly tell us to be not ‘of’ the world, though

we may be ‘in’ the world.

 

In this connection the key point to note is that sannyasa

is prescribed only for that one in a million, who has

already developed a total dispassion. Sannyasa is not a

training ground for ‘developing dispassion’! The training

ground is the ashrama of the grahasta and the ashrama of

the vanaprastha. Vanaprastha ashrama is the third stage in

each person’s life when one looks back in retrospect and

discovers that maybe there are other things in life which

should now be sought if they have not already been sought.

Few reach this stage of maturity early enough to make use

of it.

 

In an ideal society the majority of people should be

householders performing their different duties. Only a

minority should be monks, practising renunciation, both

internal and external. According to advaita, jnAna is

utterly incompatible with the performance of duties which

admit of the triple factors of doer, instrument of action

and result of action. Hence people have often sought what

they thought to be an easy way to the highest knowledge

through renunciation of worldly duties. But it is not such

an easy way. The easy way has been prescribed for

householders. It is the path of Bhakti. It is only

through devotion to the divine and through selfless service

to the world that one develops dispassion that ultimately

reaches such an intensity that one automatically finds

himself having renounced everything of the world. And that

is the time to renounce physically!

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

New on my website, particularly for beginners in Hindu philosophy:

Empire of the Mind:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/ManversusMind.html

 

Free will and Divine will - a dialogue:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/FWDW.html

[Guest guest]

Namaste' Profjvk, Thank you for your educational efforts on behalf

of novice student such as myself. I come to advaita from a western

point of view and do not have the requisite knowledge of

Shankaracharya,etc. But my understanding of nonduality seems to run

counter to your descriptions of what is required for the householder,

viz. that what must be done to achieve dispassion is only thru

devotion to the divine. It seems to me that this flouts the idea

of "not two" and must therefore be seen as merely an impediment to

true understanding. This seems also to me to be awfully close to the

Christian teaching that "None come to the Father but thru me".Clearly

these expressions of exclusivity are familiar to many traditions,

yet, I am awaiting the message that there are no paths to truth as

there is no destination at all. The idea of achieving complete

dispassion or of renunciation afterwards is itself merely a concept

in the phenomenal self,which is inclined to believe that it needs to

go somewhere, or be something, else. How can the belief in and

practice of any religious tradition be any thing more than a

temporary (although perhaps necessary for many) distraction from

apperceiving the ultimate reality?

 

Thank you for your time . Reid

In advaitin, "V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk>

> Namaste

>

> The question has been asked : "When to renounce the world

> and go as a sannyasi?"

>

>> According to advaita, jnAna is

> utterly incompatible with the performance of duties which

> admit of the triple factors of doer, instrument of action

> and result of action. Hence people have often sought what

> they thought to be an easy way to the highest knowledge

> through renunciation of worldly duties. But it is not such

> an easy way. The easy way has been prescribed for

> householders. It is the path of Bhakti. It is only

> through devotion to the divine and through selfless service

> to the world that one develops dispassion that ultimately

> reaches such an intensity that one automatically finds

> himself having renounced everything of the world. And that

> is the time to renounce physically!

>

> PraNAms to all advaitins.

> profvk

>

>

>

>

> Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

>

> New on my website, particularly for beginners in Hindu philosophy:

> Empire of the Mind:

> http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/ManversusMind.html

>

> Free will and Divine will - a dialogue:

> http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/FWDW.html