41. Don't renounce for the wrong reason🔗

Listen: Renouncing out of fantasy or fear is not renunciation. Many times, people practice renunciation just because they don't know how to handle the responsibilities of life.

I have seen in the Himalayas, some so-called yogis who leave behind everything and come and settle down in a small temple and live on bhiksha, begging alms for food. It looks like a life of true renunciation. Each of them has their own corner in the temple, their own 'spot' where they sit and beg alms. But the funny thing is – they become attached to that spot! Nobody else can sit in their spot. They starting fighting for that spot; they never allow anyone else to sit in that spot.

These people have left behind their wealth, their property, their house, their family – everything. But now they are fighting for 2'x2' spot! What does this show? They did not renounce the worldly things because they didn't want them; they renounced them out of the fear of responsibility.

Same way, I remember a sadhu called 'Kamandalu Baba' who had renounced everything and come away to the Himalayas with just one copper kamandalu (water pot). But then he got so attached to that water pot! He would wash, wash, wash the water pot the whole day and keep it shining. The kamandalu had become his brand.

This is perverted ownership and perverted renunciation – owning without taking ownership and renouncing without practicing renunciation.

There are two kinds of fear which lead to renunciation: one, you are afraid that if you have something you need to maintain it; second, you are afraid that you may get attached to it and start suffering if you lose it someday. Renouncing for both reasons is not renunciation.

I have one more story for you about this kind of renunciation:

A guy goes into a bar and orders three separate shot glasses of Irish whisky.

He places the glasses side by side on the counter and drinks all three himself.

He does this day after day after day.

One day the bartender finally says, 'You know, I can put all three of those shots into one glass for you.'

The guy says, 'No. I prefer it this way. See, I have two brothers abroad whom I love very much. The other two glasses here makes me feel that I am drinking one for each of them. I feel all three of us are sitting here together.'

And the guy continues to come in day after day, and he does the same thing. The bartender also continues to set up three glasses for him.

One day, the guy comes with a long face and says, 'Give me just two shots today.'

The bartender is shocked. He thinks something bad has happened.

He asks, 'What happened? Did something happen to one of your brothers?'

‘Oh, no, no’, the guy says, 'They are okay. It is just that I decided to quit drinking.'

Understand, all our renunciation is more or less like this!

If you renounce something for the wrong reason, please be very clear that you will surely be enjoying it in some other way. That is what Sri Krishna calls beautifully calls mithyacharya – the hypocrisy of renouncing something physically but enjoying the same thing in some other form.

Please understand, renunciation that has happened because of vikalpa is not yoga. Even though they live as if they are yogis, such people never achieve yoga.

What desires have I given up because I felt I did not know how to handle the fulfillment of the desire?