SURRENDER, LOVE, COMPASSION, SANNYAS🔗

Sannyas is saying 'yes' to Existence. Saying 'yes' is surrender. Saying 'yes' is love and compassion.

The human mind is trained to always say 'no'. Saying 'no' boosts the ego. 'Yes' makes the ego vulnerable, so the mind continues to say 'no.' Sannyas is saying 'yes' to Existence. Existence created you. It is waiting to express its divine play through you. By saying 'yes,' you allow the divine play to happen through you. When the divine play happens, things happen exactly according to the flow of Existence. Then, everything becomes auspiciousness!

In the effort to say 'yes,' you start softening. Sannyas is about becoming soft. As long as you say 'no,' you remain hard. When you make an effort to say 'yes,' you start softening. When you make a conscious decision to say 'yes,' it starts. That is where the master plays a role. Sannyas is saying 'yes' to the master without asking for an explanation. When you start trusting the master completely, sannyas starts happening in you. Somewhere you get the click that the master knows better than you. Then you start letting go of your hold over your mind and start holding the hands of the master. The master's hands are always stretched out, but you were not ready to hold them. Once the 'yes' starts happening, you hold his hands. She wrote to him saying, 'I am so touched by your poem. Please come home, meet my parents, and ask them if you can marry me.'

The poet was surprised. He wrote back to her, 'That was a poem of love from my heart that I wanted to sing to a few souls. It was nothing more than that!'

She replied, 'You are a hypocrite. Because of you, I will never again entertain a poet in my life.'

The problem is, everything happens with the reason of the intellect. Love has been reduced to mere lust for the other person’s body. That is the problem. Real love is an expression of the overflowing energy that starts happening in you when you start saying 'yes' to Existence.

The famous poet Kabir says that when love possesses you, don’t even think twice. Just dive into it. If you start thinking, it is like arranging your pillows when deep sleep of rest has come to your eyes. He says, ‘Even though the head itself must be given, why should you weep over it!’

The master waits many lives for you. But you have to say ‘yes’. Remember, the master is a gentleman. He gives you the freedom to remain in bondage. He waits. Once you say yes,’ he takes you in his arms. The master is the only one who can show you the power of love.

An enlightened being’s love and compassion is boundless. Sannyas is living like an enlightened being. It is living enlightenment.

A sannyasi is one who is established in love and compassion in the inner world, while being established in concentration and precision in the outer world. A real sannyasi has the precision of a sword. When he closes his eyes, the outer world is no more. When he opens his eyes, his work is perfection – perfection not only in work, but in relationships also! He is a father, a mother, a brother and a friend, all at the same time.

He moves, guided by inner intelligence. That is why he is in the present moment all the time. He responds to the moment. That is the ultimate sense of responsibility – responding to the moment spontaneously. True love and compassion are spontaneous responses to the moment. That is why they surface irrespective of people or situations.

A small story:

One man went to a Zen monastery and told the master, ‘Master, I wish to practice Zen for the rest of my life but I have never stuck with anything for very long. I

The greatest quality of a sannyasi is his immense trust in Existence. Society trains you to always protect yourself from everything. That is the problem. You are made to believe Existence is the enemy from which you have to protect yourself. You apply the same rule and protect yourself from the master also. The master happens in your life with just one intention – to destroy your ego and allow the attitude of sannyas to flower in you.

Sannyas is nothing but finding out exactly where you are going wrong. That exact place is known as nothing but the ego. If you understand this, you will simply open up to the master and allow him to strike the ego. You will simply drop all your defenses and open up. Being closed to the master's presence is like closing your nose with your fingers when there is a fragrant breeze blowing. When you open up to him with trust, you will see miracles happen all around you.

Trust has amazing power. It works beyond logic. Anything that works beyond logic is the direct truth. It never fails. When you trust the master, when you surrender to the master, you are giving him the responsibility of you. He never fails! It does not mean you can surrender to him and then do foolish things. No! The first thing to realize is that when real surrender happens, it will never prompt you to do foolish things. Only surrender in the name of surrender will attempt to do foolish things. Real surrender is a consciousness, not a concept for trial.

Sannyas is a consciousness that flowers in groups of people in the pres-ence of the master. Over the years, sannyas has always happened in groups. All the great masters have ordained groups of sannyasins. When a group of people start dissolving in love, when a group of people start melting, sannyas starts happening. Suddenly, so much beauty radiates. Suddenly, Existence appears to be profoundly mystical and beautiful. The power of coincidence becomes a way of life. Tremendous energy starts flowing. For no reason, life looks tremendously beautiful. Everything seems to be perfect. There is an inexplicable feeling of blossoming all round.

It is not that Existence has become more beautiful. Existence is always the same. You have started responding to it, that's all. Your own human qualities have been enriched tremendously. That is sannyas! When you start responding to Existence with enriched qualities, when you start melting into Existence, when you start yearning for it, sannyas starts happening to you.

When sannyas happens, you automatically add more beauty to Existence. You become a creator. People think sannyas is renouncing creativity. No! Sannyas is moving one step closer to god, and god is the ultimate creator. The very energy of sannyas is creation. This is a little known fact about sannyas. have no regrets. The seed has been sown. Once a sannyasi, always a sannyasi. It will happen again at the right time. That time may be the final time.

Sannyas is a decision taken by intelligent people. When life comes to the boiling point, to a peak of depression, to a point where you feel the outer world is of no use, when there is nothing further that can be done to help your situa-tion, there are three choices you can make.

The first choice you could make is suicide. Suicide appears to be imme-diate freedom but actually it creates terrible suffering. People think that suicide takes courage. Courage is a beautiful word wrongly used here. Do you need courage to rub chili powder in your own eyes? No! It is simple foolishness. In the same way, it does not require courage to commit suicide. It is simply foolish-ness. There is nothing courageous about it.

Understand the science behind suicide. Suppose your normal life span this birth is ninety years of age and you commit suicide when you are forty-five. For the remaining forty-five years, you have to wait as a spirit. Only at the end of ninety years can you choose the next body to take birth. These forty-five years will be the worst hell you can ever experience. It will be worse than the struggle that happened when you were in the body. Suicide is not the relief you think it is.

The second choice is to resort to some sort of addiction, like drugs or alcohol, and slowly poison the system until it dies. This is equally foolish because you are knowingly abusing the body.

The third and most intelligent path is to look into yourself. When the outer world seems to be over in your mind, the time has come to look inwards. Sannyas happens when you decide to look in and introspect. Sannyas is the alchemy of transforming your entire lifestyle, directing your whole energy towards enlightenment. When the first thought to look in comes, when the first thought to embrace spirituality happens, the intelligent one takes the jump into sannyas. Sannyas is the shortcut.

A small story:

A fifty year old student of enlightenment approached a Zen master and said, 'I have been doing spiritual studies since I was a small boy. I have learnt that even the grass and trees can become enlightened. This seems very strange to me.'

The master asked, 'Of what use is it to discuss how grass and trees become enlightened? The question is how you can become enlightened. Have you ever considered that?' who are so inspired, who are bold enough, who are courageous enough to take up this path of seeking. However, they don't even give themselves a chance to explore because of their parents.

Parents simply fall into the regular way of life, living to satisfy other people's ego, and bringing up children. Very rarely, a few souls get the inspiration and courage to explore. Try to understand that I am not asking you to train your kids or force your kids to become swamis. No! I am saying that if at all they feel that click towards sannyas, do not stand in their way. You will be blessed if you do not stand in their way.

Have the intelligence to see the path the child has chosen. He has chosen the ultimate path. Even if he cries and struggles and becomes a failure, there is nothing wrong – if that is your fear. I might have been a failure in my previous ten births. That is why this time I am successful! Understand, when the struggle is for sannyas, even if enlightenment does not happen, it is not a failure. It is a great success because you lived with integrity and that too in the conscious field. In the conscious field, Existence watches over you completely. You are taken care of at every step. So understand that any exploration, any research, any adven-ture in the conscious field should be encouraged, allowed, and supported.

I feel eternally grateful to my parents for not standing in the way.

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