When sannyas happens, the moment is right …🔗

A small story:

One day a young man approached Socrates^\*, the Greek philosopher, and said, ‘O great Socrates*, I come to you for knowledge.’ Socrates* took the man to the sea and pressed his head down into the water for a few seconds.

When he released him, the man came up gasping for breath. Socrates asked him to repeat what he wanted. The man said, ‘I want knowledge.’

Socrates put him under the water again, this time for a longer period. Then he released him and asked, ‘What do you want?’ The man replied, ‘Knowledge’.

Socrates repeated this a few times.

After a few times, Socrates asked again, ‘What do you want?’ The man gasped, ‘Air. I want air!’

Socrates said, ‘Good. When you want knowledge as much as you wanted air, you shall have it.’

Sannyas is a deep urge that rises from within you. It is a deep yearning. Even if the longing is not completely consistent over time and space, it is alright. You can take the jump. It may not become consistent. But becoming consistent is not the criterion needed. When it takes root, that alone is enough. You are ready. Once you jump in, everything takes care of itself.

One man was walking towards the Himalayan mountains in the winter months. An old man saw him and asked, ‘It is so cold in the mountains. Are you sure you can make it?’ The man replied, ‘My heart is already there. So it is easy for the rest of me to reach there.’

The initiation itself will trigger the process. The outer adornments of sannyas will take care of the inner adornment. That is why, with the initiation, a new name and saffron clothing are given. They will do most of the job for you. They will keep the awareness alive every moment.

But if you start analyzing the decision to take the jump, you will miss it. Sannyas is linked to your energy. Just by seeing your energy, I can tell you are ready for sannyas! You cannot analyze energy with logic. Energy is beyond logic. When you take sannyas, the moment is right, that’s all. Even if you drop it later, 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 situation, there are three choices you can make.

The first choice you could make is suicide. Suicide appears to be immediate 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 foolishness. 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 as 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 studying spiritual studies since I was a small boy. I have learnt that even the grass and trees will 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?’

The old man answered, ‘I never thought of it in that way.’

The master said, ‘Then go home and think it over.’

Sannyas is a focused appointment with yourself. It is a conscious commitment to yourself that you are going to destroy ‘all that you are not’, and cleanse yourself completely.

Once you make the commitment, your seeing, hearing, talking and feeling will start being different. The same things will cause a new understanding in you. That is what commitment to sannyas does to you. Sannyas is going to be the only solution for the future, because it is the only thing that teaches you to be established in yourself and yet learn to act in the outer world in a playful, joyful, ecstatic way. Sannyas allows you to play any number

of roles without identifying with any of them. It keeps you in continuous excitement and ecstasy all the time. It makes you experience the very essence of taking birth on planet earth.

A true mother is one who lets go of her child when the time is right. A mother who is too possessive of her child should probably hesitate to give birth in the first place! Even giving birth is a form of letting go because she is allowing the child to leave her body! Only a mother who is ready to allow the next level of explosion to happen, a mother who is ready to let go, can only be a real mother.

If you are possessive, if you feel sad just thinking about separating from the child, then you should not even give birth to the child! You should continuously feed him through the umbilical cord. The umbilical cord connection should be continuously kept alive! Just as the child grows physically only after you deliver him into the outside world after nine months, likewise, he can grow psychologically only if you allow him to break from you.

Physical disconnection is birth. Psychological disconnection is sannyas.

In that way I am very fortunate. When I went and told my mother that I wanted to leave home for sannyas, it was late at night, around eleven o'clock. I went to the temple, spent some time as usual, and came home at my regular time. I opened the door with my key and walked in. I wore wooden sandals, nor-mally worn by wandering ascetics. They made a loud noise on that granite floor! My mother's usual custom was to wake up, prepare the food of my choice, and serve me the moment I entered. If I had finished my dinner at the temple, I would tell her and both of us would go to sleep.

That particular night, she got up and was about to prepare food. I called her and told her, 'I have decided that I am leaving home for sannyas. You can give me food tonight, even though I have already eaten. I will eat now because tomorrow I will be leaving.'

It was a very casual announcement from my side. Of course, she was shocked, but she did not say anything. One thing is that all of my family knew from the beginning that talking and trying to convince me to do otherwise would never work. They knew that before saying anything, I would be very clear about it inside. Only after knowing what to do would I say it out loud. When I say something, it means it is going to be done - that's all!

Tears started pouring from her eyes. I looked at her and asked, 'What do you mean by crying? Do you mean that I should not go?'

She shook her head and said, 'No, I am not saying you should not go. I am crying because I am not able to control myself. I am not able to accept it. I can't say that you cannot go.'

She knew all along that one day this would happen. One day or the other I would leave. It was predicted in my horoscope. The beauty of it was, she never said 'No!' Not only did she not tell me I couldn't go, she broke the news to my father as well. My father thought she had shouted at me and created some problem and that was the reason I had decided to go. He asked her, 'Did you shout at him? Did you create any problem?'

My mother said, 'No, I did not shout or say anything. He came of his own accord and told me this.' Then my father calmed down.

It was a straight and simple declaration. My father came to me, sat down and asked, ‘Swami, your mother is saying a few things as your words. Are these things true?’

Funnily, they used to call me 'Swami' even in those days!

I told him, ‘Yes. I have decided to leave home to pursue sannyas and become enlightened.’

It was a shock to him. But he saw that I was very clear, balanced, cool and relaxed. He made only one statement. He said, ‘If you fall sick, please inform us. We want to take care of you.’ That’s all. He simply said, ‘If you ever fall sick anywhere during your travels, please inform us. We want to take care of you. That is the only thing we want, nothing else. Otherwise, do what you want.’

My parents never stood in my way. Understand: any relationship, including the parental relationship, is a healthy relationship, only when the person is ready to allow the next phase to happen. I have seen thousands of youngsters 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 adventure in the conscious field should be encouraged, allowed, and supported.

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