Sannyasi & Sannyasa by Swami Dayananda Saraswati

December 13, 2005

Namaste

I compiled this article from the web a year ago. This was transcribed

from a lecture by Swami Dayananda Saraswati about the two lifestyles

advocated in the Gita, namely Karma Yoga and Sannyasa Yoga. Enjoy

reading it. Om.

The two-fold commitment

The third chapter of Bhagavad Gita opens with the question of Arjuna,

"If in your opinion, O Janardhana, knowledge is superior to action,

why then, O Kesava, do you engage me in this terrible action?" If

knowledge is superior to action, if knowledge alone is going to

deliver the goods as far as attainment of sreyas of the limitless is

concerned, why are you asking me to perform action? And the action, I

am asked to perform, is not an ordinary action; it is a terrible

action, the action in the battle-field involving a great deal of

destruction and suffering.

There are reasons why such a question should arise in the mind of

Arjuna, Lord Krishna unfolded the nature of atma or the Self in such

verses as, "He who knows the Self which is indestructible, changeless,

without birth and free from modifications; how is such a person to

slay or cause another to slay?" (B.G. II-21). The Self is free from

any modificatin; is is free from the limitations of time and space. It

is akarta or actionless; it neither performs action nor does it cause

anyone to perform it. The knower of the Self is indeed the self and so

the wise man also does not perform action in spite of appearing to

perform it. Action is not denied here; it is the kartrtva formed by

the body and the wise man is not identified with the body; he k nows

himself to be the actionless Self. So the knowledge of the actionless

Self is freedom from action.

Further, in answer to Arjuna's question as to who a wise man is, the

Lord said that the wise man is the one who has given up all the

desires and who is satisfied in the Self alone by the Self. (B.G.

II-55). He is happy for no reason because the Self is ha ppiness. The

description of the wise man was summed up by this statement, "The wise

man is the one who has abandoned all the desires and is free from any

longing". (B.G. II-71). This is generally understood to mean that the

one who wants sreyas or the limitless happiness must give up all the

desires. And action cannot be undertaken without a desire. So

performance of karma means entertaining desires and hence one can

never hope to be a wise man as long as one has to perform actions.

But Arjuna had been told, "You have the adhikara or choice in

performing action". (B.G. II-47). Although this is a statement that

applies to everyone in general, the undertone is that it specifically

applies to Arjuna. Arjuna took it to be an instruction that he was fit

for action alone, that the Lord was asking him to perform action.

Arjuna understands that knowledge releases one from bondage while

action binds. Action brings in its wake the result which becomes the

seed for another action. Thus one gets trapped in the chain of

action-result-action. So Arjuna is naturally confused, "With these

seemingly contradictory words, you are, O Lord, as though confusing

me. Please tell me one thing by which I can attain sreyas". (B.G.

III-2). Arjuna does no t accuse the Lord of confusing him; he rather

admits his own inability to understand the purport of what the Lord

wanted to convey. "O Lord, you are praising one thing viz., knowledge

and asking me to do another thing viz., performance of action. Please

d ecide and tell me the one thing that would be the best means for

sreyas".

The reason why Arjuna asks for one of the two is that the two viz.,

knowledge and action, cannot be simultaneously pursued by one person.

Pursuit of knowledge is the discovery of the Self that is akarta and

so involves the renunciation of the sense of doership. Pursuit of

action, on the other hand involves the sense of doership and so the

two pursuits are opposite in nature and are meant for two different

adhikaries or seekers. One would also think that since the two

pursuits are opposite in nature -one involves nivrtti or disengagement

and the other involves pravrtti or engagement - they would yield

different results. Action gives rise to result which becomes the seed

for new action and thus the cycle of action-reaction-action would b e

perpetuated. Knowledge on the other hand, is associated with sannyasa,

or renunciation and it wuld make one free from action. Therefore

Arjuna seems to say, "Please ascertain my qualification and keeping in

mind the fact that I want only the s reyas, please tell me the one

thing"

Although Arjuna asks for advise, the Lord teaches him about the nature

of action and renunciation, because the student must understand the

whole scheme and act according to his or her own understanding. The

teacher teaches and the student must decide the c ourse of action

based on his or her own understanding. And so the Lord answers, "In

the beginning of the creation, sinless one, the two-fold commitment

was given by Me in this world; the pursuit of knowledge for the

sankhyas or the contemplative ones and the pursuit of action for the

yogis or the active ones".

Nishta means a committed life-style. Two type of life-styles were told

by Me in the Vedas for two types of people. For the yogis meaning the

active ones or the house-holders, is the life of action performed with

the attitude of yoga. For the contemplative ones or the sannyasis is

the life of pursuit of knowledge.

The Contemplative Life

For the sannyasi, knowledge alone is the means and nothing else.

sannyasa taken for the pursuit of knowledge is called vividisha

sannyasa (vividisha-desire to know until the knowledge takes place).

Just because the person is a sann yasi in terms of an order, does not

mean he has knowledge. He does not have the knowledge as long as he

has the notion, "I am the doer". In this case, sannyasa means the

karma-sannyasa or the renunciation of action. It is the life -style

accepted by the society and sanctioned by the sruti or the Vedas. It

is an order, an asrama and therefore it is at par with other asramas

such as grhastha, vanaprastha, etc.

The sannyasi commits himself to knowledge and he is not interested in

anything else such as comfort, security etc.. He just wants to pursue

knowledge to gain liberation. A person with such a commitment can take

sannyasa; he can renounce acti on. There is a provision in our society

for such a person. He is not obliged to the family, nor is he obliged

to the society. He has been released from the obligation by the

family, society, etc.. The society supports him. Here, there is a

commitment and the commitment makes the person. Here is the person who

is saintly. The very colour of the cloth of a sannyasi is the colour

of the flame. Flame means light. Light means knowledge. He commits

himself to the pursuit of knowledge to the exclusion of everything

else. That is why, when a sannyasi is received, the following mantra

is usually chanted, "Not by action, nor by progeny, nor by wealth, but

by renunciation, some (mahatmas) reached immortality".

So sannyasa really means the renunciation of the three types of

desires commonly entertained by a man. One is the desire for wealth

and security. Another is the desire for progeny, family, etc.. And the

third is the desire for loka or the other wor ld which can be

fulfilled by performance of certain rituals, specified by the Veda. It

is by the renunciation of these three types of desires that one is

ready to pursue the knowledge of the Self that is immortality.

Knowledge is the only means to liberation or freedom, because bondage

is false and liberation is an accomplished fact. If bondage were real,

you cannot do anything about it. What is real, will never come to

extinguish itself and what is unreal, does not h ave a real existence.

If the bondage were real, you cannot do anything about it. What is

real, will never come to extinguish itself and what is unreal, does

not have a real existence. If the bondage were real, there is no way

of release from it, nor would it be a problem because a real thing

cannot create a problem. If the bondage is something inbetween, i.e.

neither real nor unreal, it must be purely due to ignorance and error

and so knowledge settles the issue. That is what Lord Krishna says in

the Gita and that is in conformity with the sruti which says, "That

Thou Art". You already are that which you are seeking. So there is no

choice in knowledge. So tyagena, by renunciation, really means by

knowledge. But knowledge is pssible only if the mind is free frm all

the other desires.

Commitment to knowledge means swadhyaya, learning and pravacana,

teaching. These are not really two things; they are one only. You

pursue knowledge for your own sake and later on, if some one

approaches yoou and seeks to know what it is all about, you can teach.

This is the contemplative life.

The Active Life

Suppose a person is not ready for the contemplative life -

contemplative life is not easy because you cannot become contemplative

by will. It is by disposition that you are contemplative. You cannot

command a contemplative mind because it is not a matter of will. It is

a matter of a certain maturity, a certain disposition and you don't

have a choice. You cannot choose to be a contemplative person; you can

desire to be one and that is a healthy desire. Everyone has to

discover a contemplative mind which in fact is to release the mind

from the hold of likes and dislikes. Every mind is held by likes and

dislikes, whether you like it or not. The mind cannot be contemplative

when either the likes or the dislikes are not fulfilled. What you want

should happen a nd what you do not want to happen should not happen.

But the destiny always has a knack of providing what you do not want

and of holding back what you want. It is not possible for you to

change your likes such that you like all that you get and dislike al l

that you do not get. Then you ahve no likes and dislikes; you already

are a sadhu and ready to become a sannyasi. But you do have likes and

dislikes and what you do not want comes to you and what you want does

not. So there is one thing to be don e by you and that is to adopt a

means by which the mind is released from the hold of likes and

dislikes so that it becomes contemplative.

The question is only with respect to the life-style. Are you going to

burn all your boats, becme a sannyasi and pursue the knowledge

exclusively or are you going to pursue knowledge along with what you

are doing now? Therefore lokesmin dvividha nishta: there are two

life-styles in the pursuit of freedom or liberation. The entire Veda

expounds these two types of life-styles. The Isavasya Upanishad, in

the very first mantra says, "All this, whatever exists in the world,

must be covered by the Lord. Protect (the knowledge) through

renunciation of the three desires. Do not covet anybody's wealth".

Whatever there is, is nothing but the Lord. Remove the superimposition

of the apparent quality and appreciate the Lord who is the self of all

beings. This is the truth to be discovered by enquiry - which will be

effective only if the mind is free from the desires of wealth,

comfort, progeny, etc. This mantra is meant for the sannyasi.

The second mantra is meant for a karma yogi. It says, "By performing

karma indeed should one desire to live for hundred years. For an

individual such as you (who wants to live thus) there is no other way

than this whereby karma may not bind you". Desire to live for a

hundred years includes other desires also. If one has the three-fold

desires of wealth, progeny and the other world, one shoould seek to

satisfy them by performing karma. And by karma is meant vihi takarma

or the actions enjoined by the scriptures.

The Vedas reveal a system of karma based on the person's station in

life (asrama) and his disposition (varna). The Vedas stand for the

knowledge that has come alongwith the creati;on. From what the words

that are revealed in the Vedas , we can see that the knowledge cannot

come frm anybody other than the Lord who has created this world. And

so we follow the rules for our own good.

Man is endowed with the faculty of choice. When choice is available,

direction should also be available. So the Vedas provide the direction

in the form of vihitakarma or enjoined actions which are also called

duty. Duty is usually what one is expec ted to do; it is born out of a

maturity, an appreciation of one's role in the scheme of things. It is

a mandate until it is understood. Since man has a faculty of choice,

he can disturb the order of nature. Other beings such as plants and

animals cannot d o that because they have no volition and so there is

always a harmony or a balance in their life. All that a man has to do

is not to disturb the harmony that is already there. This is indicated

by prohibited actions or nishiddhakarma.

The purpose of vihitakarma or duty is to make the man appreciate the

Lord, to make him alive to the cosmos. In performing duty, one is

conforming to the pattern and harmony of creation. Duties are meant to

make the man appreciate the pattern of creation, cultivate a proper

attitude towards life. When the mind becomes clear, one is able to see

the order. In the beginning, duty is in the form of an attitude but

finally, it becomes natural, it culminates into a nishta.

Nishta does not mean a path. It means commitment. You live a way of

life that is called nishta. Karmayoga is a nishta, it is a life

committed not merely to performing action but a life committed to

performing action as yoga. What makes karma a yoga? Yogah karmasu

kausalam - in performing action, the attitude of yoga or duty is the

skill. Action performed with the attitude of duty becomes yoga. While

performing the action, you do what is to be done, whether you like it

or not. Action is performed as enjoined and so the individual likes

and dislikes do not come into play. Your likes and dislikes might

prompt you to perform an action which is not proper. You refrain from

performing it because it is not proper. So performing vihitakarma and

avoiding nishiddhakarma becomes karmayoga.

There is another definition of karmayoga: samatvam yoga uchyate:

sameness of mind (towards success and failure) is called yoga. This is

the definition of yoga with respect to the result of action. It calls

for an attitude of sameness towards the result. When a result is

looked upon as success, attachment arises and when looked upon as

failure arses. In fact, there is no such thing as success and failure.

Every result is in accordance with the laws of action. Laws are not

made by me'; they are made by the Lord and so they can never go wrong.

Every result is a right result and there is no such thing as success

or failure. The more you appreciate the laws, the more you are in

harmony with the things around and you can find your place in the

scheme of things.

Action can never fail us; it only produces result. A given expectation

may said to have failed but I have not failed. That I have failed or

that the action has failed, is a wrong conclusion - only the

expectation has been wrong. So nobody has failed. It is only a matter

of wrong judgement because man is not omniscient and so he cannot have

the knowledge of all the factors that shape the results of the

actions. We must remumber that we have the freedom in choosing and

performing an actin and whatever result comes, is in accordance with

the laws governing the action. This attitude of taking the result as

it is, that is, maintaining an equanimity of the mind both in success

and failure is yoga.

Action can produce likes and dislikes only if the result is looked

upon as a success or failure. When the result is looked upon as a

function of the invariable laws of action, or what is even better, if

it is looked upon as the prasada or the grace of the Lord, no new

likes and dislikes are created. The existing likes and dislikes will

no doubt create desilres and produce actions, but new likes and

dislikes are avoided. With this attitude towards the result, the

action which is born of likes and dislikes becmes the means of

eliminating the very likes and dislikes. The mind becomes free from

the agitations of elation and depression. Such a mind is tranquil. It

is a contemplative mind.

Is Bhakti a Separate Path?

Now some say there are four paths: (i) jnana yoga or the path of

knowledge for the intellectual, (ii) bhakti yoga or the path of

devotion for the emotional, (iii) karma yoga or the path of action for

the active or the extrovert one, and (iv) hatha yoga or the path

involving physical restraint for the one who does not specifically

fall in the first three categories.

Of these, the jnana yoga and the karma yoga are clear. A jnana yogi or

a sannyasi is the one who is committed to knowledge and who has no

other obligation. A karma yogi is the one who performs actions

enjoined upon him in the spirit of duty. He is the one who bears the

brunt; he is the one who supports the people in the rest of the

asramas including the sannyasi.

Then what about bhakti yoga? Does a bhakta or a devotee perform

actions or not? Bhakti is not really a thing. You cannot say, "I want

to do bhakti". You can do something with bhakti or devotion. Lord

Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, "Whoever offers Me with devotion

(Bhaktya) a flower, a fruit or water ...". Offering is an action to be

performed with bhakti. There is no such thing as doing bhakti. You can

offer prostrations with devotion, and then it is allright, but

otherwise it only amounts to an exercise.

According to vedic tradition, every seeker is a bhakta or a devotee.

It is not thatn an abhakta or a non devotee becomes a sannyasi or a

karma yogi. A bhakta alone takes sannyasa or performs actions. bhakti

yoga is not a separate path. Bhakti is the attitude that goes with the

performance of action or with the pursuit of knowledge and that alone

makes them yogas.

Similarly, hatha yoga is not a separate yoga or path. There is such a

thing as exercise or asanas and everyone can perform them. A sannyasi

can do asanas; he can include asanas in his personal daily discipline

if he requires them. A karma yogi can also perform exercises. So hatha

yoga is not a separate path. There is only one path with two modes of

coommitments: lokesmin dvividha nishta.

Why not become a sannyasi?

Then a question naturally arises, "Why should I not become a

sannyasi?" This is what Arjuna asked Lord Krishna, "O Lord, you are

praising sannyasa or renunciation of action and again praising yoga or

performance of the action. Please tell me decisively which of the two

is better". (B.G. V-1). Arjuna means to say that he does not know what

he should do; whether he should perform action or renounce it. The

Lord replies, "He who sees sankhya (sannyasa) and yoga as one, really

sees".(B.G. V-5)

Now karma binds but karma yoga does not bind. karma yoga gives you a

contemplative mind which helps you gain knowledge.. So a karma yogi

also studies the scriptures. Arjuna himself was not a sannyasi and so

if a sannyasi alone is supposed to learn the scriptures, why should

the Lord teach Arjuna the seventeen chapters of the Gita?" And what

the Lord teaches is no different from what is taught in the

Upanishads. The Lord teaches the entire brahma vidya to Arjuna and

that would not have been taught had Arjuna not been fit to listen to

it. Therefore knowledge is open to all. The question is how much you

will understand. And that makes a lot of difference. And so it is

said, "One must listen to the scriptures after renunciation". One

should be able to leave everything and then listen to the scriptures.

But suppose you leave your wife and children and also your loans and

go to Rishikesh without a ticket: That is not sannyasa. You do not get

the benefit of sannyasa because you continue to think about your home.

You think of the child that must be crying and the wife who must be

cursing. You will, in your mind, see all this happening. How can you

be available to listen to the scriptures? That ils why Lord Krishna

says, "sannyasa, O mighty armed, is difficult to accomplish without

the disciplines of yoga". (B.G. V-6). The Lord does not say that

sannyasa is impossible but He says it is difficult without the yoga.

Let us say you want a flower because you want to offer one to Swamiji.

You go to the garden, find a bud on a plant and ask the bud to blossom

right away. You may take the bud and open it by your fingers, but

there would be no fragrance. It requires time for the bud to blossom

into a fragrant flower. Similarly, it takes time for the mind to

blossom into sannyasa. When a person is ready, everything is

beautiful; sannyasa is beautiful.

Then there may arise a question, "Swamiji, how do I know whether I am

ready for sannyasa or not?" You are not ready because otherwise this

question would not remain. Always give yourself a benefit of doubt

that you may not be ready. That is always good. While cooking the

food, you sometimes keep the pot on the stove for a little longer than

necessary just to make sure that it is cooked. It does not matter if

it is a little over-cooked, but if the food is under cooked, it can

create problems in the stomach. You don't lose anything by remaining a

karmayogi because the culmination of everything is in sannyasa.

Yoga is a means to sannyasa

There is tyaga or renunciation in karma yoga also. There is

renunciation of karmaphala or the fruit of action which is in fact the

renunciation of likes and dislikes pertaining to karmaphala. In

vividisa sannyasa, there is the renunciation of kartrtva or the sense

of doership which is by the knowledge of the Self that is akarta or

nondoer by nature. You cannot give up doership because the one who

decides to give up the doership is the doer of the action of giving up

the action. The fact is the Self is free from action. You should know

this. This is a matter of knowing and that is called vidvat sannyasa

or the sannyasa characterised by knowledge. This is the sannyasa in

the real sense and so a sannyasi has also also to become a sannyasi!

A karma yogi gains that mind and thereby becomes a sannyasi, Even if

he does not become a sannyasi in terms of an order, he can become a

sannyasi in knowledge. And that is in order. That is Lord Krishna's

contention in the whole of Gita.

December 13, 2005

Namaste Kathirasanji.

Wonderful! Thanks for all your efforts in compiling this very

decisive post. I suggest that this post be appropriately captioned

and uploaded on to our Files Section for easy reference by all those

who have any doubts about sanyAsa and karma yoga.

PraNAms.

Madathil Nair

_______________

advaitin, K Kathirasan <brahmasatyam@g...>

wrote:

>

> Namaste

>

> I compiled this article from the web a year ago. This was

transcribed

> from a lecture by Swami Dayananda Saraswati about the two lifestyles

> advocated in the Gita, namely Karma Yoga and Sannyasa Yoga. Enjoy

> reading it. Om.

>

> The two-fold commitment

......

December 13, 2005

K Kathirasan <brahmasatyam wrote: Namaste

From

Sankarraman

There is some confusion about the idea that the sanyasahood is necessary for

the pursuit of knowledge, it requiring clarification whether the term knowledge

refers to the transcendental Self, beyond the pale of action involving duality

of actor and the fruit of action, or the intellectual path of self-enquiry as

against the performance of rituals, bakthi to a deity still involving duality,

meditation stil this being tainted by the identification of the body and the

mind with the Self. Mere Sanyasahood does not confer on one the transcendental

knowledge, unless the individual who passes for the sanyasi has wiped off his

metaphysical ignorance leading to the identification of the Self with the

non-self, and the consequent implication in the phenomenal world. Moreover, the

scriptures refer to by the term action certain rituals irrelevant to the modern

world, which even a brahmin does not perform, but has entered into a different

vista of life for bread winning. The term

action should be all-embracing to refer to the fact of man's unelightened

state demanding performance of certain activities which are necessary to put a

stop to the momentum of action that has been put into motion by virtue of the

beginning less ignorance, the performance of this activity being helpful in

there being no hang-over in life, so that the individual is ready to

understand truth in its pristine purity, the anthakaranas having been rendered

pellucid,having been steered clear of the gross. Sanyasahood, at best, in the

modern scenario, has to be interpreted as the action of an individual free from

the relative the onslaughts of karma, so that the individual, by virtue of the

fine karmas, is in a state to be free from the giant octopus of duty which saps

away his energy and time making him forget the divine purpose of life, and

enter into the by lanes of pleasures, this including also the mere

intellectual pursuit of the scriptural knowledge void of the much

needed practice, the sanyasi by virtue of his evolution being above this

thralldom. The terminologies of action and inaction can be understood ony by

the realization of something beyond thought, and these do not refer to being

given to excessive activity without inwardness or volitional abandonment of the

very same activities in search of something beyond. However, the seeker after

truth should not allow himself to be too much digressed into these intellectual

ideas, since both the sanyasi or the other individual are only ignorant of the

essential truth, while the former may be possessed of some more knowledge,

which is not essential to truth.

Sankarraman

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December 14, 2005

Namaste Sankararaman avargale,

I agree with you 100%. The Sannyasi does have an advantage as he does

not have the burden of Nitya Karmas (daily duties) which will keep him

away from avidya-kama-karma. Until he finds a Sad-vidvan, he is no

different from a samsari. Om Shanti.

Kathirasan

On 12/14/05, Ganesan Sankarraman <shnkaran wrote:

>

> K Kathirasan <brahmasatyam wrote: Namaste

> From

> Sankarraman

> There is some confusion about the idea that the sanyasahood is necessary for