Sannyas is the Ultimate Gamble🔗

Our ability to be in tune with others and Existence depends entirely upon how we conduct ourselves. It depends on the priorities we choose in life. What if we do not choose? What if we accept things as they happen to us?

It is time to talk about renunciation. Renunciation is not running away from life. Renunciation is flowing with life without resistance. The Sanskrit word sannyas refers to this state of trust with Existence that allows us to let go all other things in life.

There is a beautiful story from the life of Buddha: After enlightenment, Buddha visited many places preaching his dhamma or teachings, and initiating people into spiritual life.

On his way, he entered Kapilavastu, his birth place. He walked on the streets with his disciples, wearing the saffron robe.

Everyone watched him with great wonder. Buddha's wife, Yashodhara, heard the noise in the street and asked what it was. Her maids told her that it was none other than her own husband who had returned as the Buddha, the enlightened soul. She did not go to meet him. Instead, she called for her son Rahul. Rahul was born the night that Buddha left home in search of enlightenment.

She asked Rahul, "Do you see that radiant figure there who holds a begging bowl and yet looks like a king? He is your father. Go and ask him for your inheritance. " The young boy ran downstairs and pushed his way through to where Buddha stood. He fell at Buddha's feet and boldly repeated what his mother had told him. Buddha lifted him up gently with a smile and looked at him. He simply removed the gold hemmed cloth the boy was wearing and replaced it with a saffron one.

The boy, seven years of age, was given his inheritance. He was the first and only child allowed into the monastic order of the Buddha.

Someone asked me, If everything in life is evolving naturally by the process of evolution like monkey into man, and bad into good, would man not ultimately evolve into god? When then is the need for the meditation, sannyas...where then is the need for inspiration?'

I replied, ‘It took five thousand It took five thousand years for the monkey to become man, and it would take equally long for man to become god. If you are willing to wait that long, it is alright with me!’

On the other hand, you can decide to live consciously with a clear understanding about life, the laws and structure of the universe, and meditation. You can revolutionize the process of your evolution. The right revolution leads to evolution or enlightenment. That is sannyas, the greatest revolution of an individual. It is to live like a Paramahamsa, like an enlightened being.

Adi Shankara, the enlightened master from India, beautifully says in his work Vivekachoodamani: For all living creatures, a human birth is rare, and even rarer is to have a sattvic [goodness] attitude, and more so to have steadfastness on the path of spiritual activity as explained in the Vedas,,...

These words had a very powerful effect on the life of Swami Vivekananda, an enlightened master from India who lived thousands of years after Adi Shankara. When Swami Vivekananda was preparing for his law examination, these very words landed on him like a thunderbolt. He could not read further. He left his books and started running along the road. He was running to his master, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. While he was running, the truth of Adi Shankara's words was ringing in his very being. He thought to himself, 'I have gained all these three: I have been born as a human being. I have gained the desire for liberation. I have got a great master. then why am I still wasting my life?

Why am I still wasting my life?' Again and again, these words were haunting him. Swami Vivekananda went on to become enlightened and spread Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's mission worldwide.

Sannyas is the path for those who want to win over themselves, who want to be free of the clutches of jealousy, anger, stress and depression forever. People think sannyas is chosen by losers. No. Of course, sometimes those who don't know what to do with their lives take up sannyas. But that is not the spirit of sannyas.

Sannyas is the effort to become conscious for the first time, conscious of the mechanism that surrounds you as a human being. You are part of Existence. Existence moves with its own mechanism, with its own music. Falling in tune with it is the science of sannyas. Sannyas is a being level relationship, being in tune with the whole of Existence. That is the shortest path to success in life.

To hear the song of Existence, you need to start moving in the right space. To find that space, you need to first drop any other thing you know, and listen to the song with deep awareness. You will find it. In that space, life will flow like a river moving towards the sea. Any other path will take longer.

When life becomes a flowing river, it has to merge with the sea. There is no other way. Sannyas is the science of flowing with the natural course of Existence and finally merging with it.

The river heads only towards the sea. It does not stagnate anywhere. A sannyasi heads only towards his goal of enlightenment. He knows no distractions. The river flows blissfully, whatever be the things thrown into it on its way. So many things are thrown into the river — flowers, twigs, food, animals, birds, dead bodies, etc. But the river flows, not bothering about anything. Similarly, a sannyasi moves blissfully, untouched by anything that comes his way. The current pulls the river over its obstacles, and it gurgles with a constant music, moving towards the sea. The cosmic intelligence pulls the sannyasi over obstacles as he moves towards the ultimate goal. He knows not what obstacles are. For him, they are all stepping stones on the path to bliss.

One Zen master was asked, "What is Zen?" He replied, "Walk on!"

Zen Buddhism beautifully says, life is like the river that flows and fills each form, and bursts its own limitations to expand its capacity. This is the essence of life, and sannyas. Sannyas is learning in action as life moves, not philosophizing. It is a force, not a dogma. For a real sannyasi, life simply moves in the right direction. The learning happens during the movement, not as a separate thing.

Sannyas is nothing but straightaway practicing the truths every passing moment. There is enough philosophy in the world but no one to follow it. Sannyas is simply a conscious decision to live the truth immediately in your life.

A Zen master tells his disciple very beautifully, Studying the truth as a philosophy is just collecting preaching material. Remember that unless you practice constantly, your light of truth may go out.’

Practice is nothing but continuously flowing in the right direction without stagnating. Even in stagnation there will be movement around the obstacle-trying to find the flow again. There is no stopping.

A sannyasi continuously moves with the intelligence of Existence with an attitude of surrender. By surrender, I don’t mean inaction. I mean action with an attitude of surrender. There is no stopping. He lives in the moment, spontaneously and according to the need of the moment, which is what is called fluidity.

Sannyas has always been wrongly associated with renunciation. You don’t have to renounce anything. You just need to understand that you are a temporary custodian of some wealth, which is a part of Existence, just as you are as well. Then you won’t need to renounce because you never possessed anything in the first place! Even if you have to part with wealth, you will not feel that you are giving away or losing your possessions. The problem starts with the attitude of possessing, with the feeling of ‘mine’.

Neither does a sannyasi need to renounce the world nor does a samsari need to be afraid of renouncing. Just the plain understanding that Existence gives and takes at the right moment is enough. Then you know that what is happening is the right thing for the moment and life is flowing as it should. This creates a mental gap between you and your wealth and that gap is called renunciation! It is just a gap, a break in the attitude of possessing, nothing else. It has been wrongly used in the context of sannyas. A small story: Two monks were traveling together. One of them strongly believed in acquiring wealth. He practiced spirituality through it. The other strongly followed the path of renunciation. They were discussing the two ways of life. As they were discussing, it became nighttime and they reached a river that they had to cross.

The one who believed in renunciation did not have money with him. He said, "We don’t have money to cross the river. Let us spend the night here and someone will take us across the river tomorrow morning. "

The other one replied, "That is not possible. We will be eaten by wild animals if we spend the night here. I have money with me. Let us pay the boatman and cross the river. " Once they crossed the river safely, he asked his companion, "Now do you understand the value of money? Ifl too had been a man o[renunciation, what would have happened to us?"

The first one re plied, "It was your renunciation that brought us across safely. You parted with your money to cross the river!"

Renouncing is ‘having’ without the idea of having, and ‘parting’ without the idea of parting. Otherwise, by merely renouncing outer wealth, you will not gain anything. You will only feel the pain of sacrificing the ‘mine’. Sannyas is not escaping from the ‘mine’. It is going beyond the ‘mine’. And that is possible only through a proper understanding. If you renounce with understanding, it is okay. Otherwise, the ‘mine’ will simply persist wherever you go. Not only that, if you renounce with the

idea that you are renouncing 'yours', it becomes the right action but for the wrong reason! By merely renouncing outer wealth, you can never be a sannyasi. Sannyas is a change in the inner mental setup, not a change in the outer material setup. Renouncing outer wealth to be a sannyasi is like doing the right action but for the wrong reason.

Wealth and sannyas are not mutually exclusive. In fact, sannyas is the art and science of creating wealth flawlessly.

If you read the vedic scriptures you will see that they always talk only about the abundance of life. They never teach escaping from it. They teach loosening the attachment over possessions, not renouncing or hating it. Sannyas is seeing the vast abundance of life as one whole, and therefore not being attached to your own small possessions. It is knowing that wealth is also a manifestation of Existence and not the essence of life itself. Sannyas is not suicide. It is life. Sannyas is living in tremendous beauty, both inside and outside you.

Understand, outer beauty and wealth are not enemies to the path of sannyasi. They are complementary. Sannyas adds inner wealth and beauty to your outer wealth and beauty. It gives us the intelligence to handle the outer wealth and beauty without any suffering related to it.

Samsar literally means the 'world' or the 'path'. It refers to the worldly life that causes endless cycles of birth and death.

There are two ways to move in any path: either with baggage and people or by yourself. In the first case, you may have to wait for a long time. In the second case, you can reach even this very minute.

Sannyas is the decision not to carry any baggage while moving. You can have everything, but you don't have to carry it. When you don't carry anything, Existence brings to you what you need for the moment. That is sannyas!

There is a beautiful story from the life of Buddha. . . Buddha's disciples gathered around him one day and asked him to teach them the essence of sannyas. He told them a small story One man was living on an island by himself. Suddenly he got the feeling it was time to move from the island. He did not have a boat. So he made one with some twigs, branches, leaves and whatever he could find. It was a difficult journey but somehow he crossed and reached the other side.

Buddha asked the disciples, After reaching the other side, should the man keep the boat or discard it?'

The disciples came out with different answers. Buddha continued, "The man of sannyas discards the boat knowing that he will be provided for as needed in the future. The man of samsar keeps it so that his effort doesn't go waste if he wants to journey back!"

A sannyasi walks with his thought on Existence. A samsari walks with his thoughts on how to exist. A sannyasi uses the boat to cross the ocean of life. A samsari carries the boat even beyond the time it is needed, not knowing he can drop it. That is the difference. There is nothing right or wrong in this. It is just two different ways to live. Let me explain sannyas in the context of karma because sannyas is the shortcut to exhausting karma.

Karma is nothing but the unfulfilled actions of your past that pull you again and again to take birth to fulfill them. It is the very cause of the cycle of birth and death. It makes you take birth again and again in this world until it is exhausted.

There are three types of karma sanchita', prarabdha and agamya,,. Sanchita' karma is your entire bank balance of unfulfilled actions {karma) accumulated over many lives. Prarabdha karma is that portion of sanch ita that you bring and come to exhaust in this one birth. Every time you take birth, you bring with you a small portion of sanchita as your prarabdha to exhaust. It includes all your unfulfilled desires, lust, anger, fear, and such things. The third or agamya,, karma is the new karma that you create in this birth because of new, unfulfilled actions. Ultimately, these three things need to be done in order to exhaust all karma completely. First, the new agamya' should not get created because it only adds to the bank balance or the sanchita at the end of the lifetime. Second, the prarabdha with which you came should get exhausted, or fulfilled, in this life completely without a trace. Third, the volume of the sanchita itself should somehow be burnt so that the number of times you take birth reduces. This happens by fulfilling the prarabdha without accumulating the agamya in a lifetime.

If the prarabdha is exhausted in the right way, agamya will not get created. The same intelligence that properly exhausts the prarabdha will take care of not creating new agamya. The sanchita itself can be exhausted only by the grace of an enlightened master. Now understand clearly: if the fantasy of your prarabdha is greater than your intelligence, then samsar (marriage) is the path for you. If the fantasy of your prarabdha is lesser than your intelligence, then sannyas is the path for you! In the path of sannyas, your intelligence wins over your prarabdha and brings it to control and exhaust it. In the path of samsar, life teaches you in different ways and you exhaust your prarabdha through millions of births.

In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras', there is an eightfold path to enlightenment. All eight parts have to be followed simultaneously. Three of the parts are pratyahara, dharana and dhyana. Pratyahara is drawing the mind inwards, away from the five senses. The next is dharana, the merging of the mind with the inner Self. The third is dhyana, meditation.

Withdrawing the mind from the five senses itself can happen only when the mind merges with the inner Self! For example, you can release the foot from the lower rung of the ladder only after establishing yourself in the higher rung, is it not? You can let go of the lower branch of the tree only after clinging to the higher branch. We all think that only after renouncing worldly attachments, we can attain god. No! The truth is, only after attaining god can you really shake off the worldly things.

Only after you experience Nithyananda or eternal bliss, you can shake off mithyananda or worldly fantasies.

If you can become aware of and hold on more firmly to the higher rung you may let go of the lower rung more easily. That awareness is called sannyas. It is the process of understanding and moving to the higher rung and leaving the lower rung. As you move, renunciation happens as a byproduct. Because you realize that to climb higher you don't need anything but yourself! Anything you take with you is only going to make it more difficult to climb.

A samsari moves to pursue his fantasies. He goes to places to see the beauty of Existence. A sannyasi sees everything around him as already divine and beautiful! He is fantasized by what he sees! When the samsari starts turning inward, he becomes a sannyasi. Until he finds the burning need for that, it is better for him to continue with what he is doing. For a sannyasi, the mind is happy all the time. What he gets is what he wants. He is always living in the mood of grateful and welcome acceptance. For a samsari, the mind is occupied with too many conflicts. He keeps trying to get what he wants. With intelligence, the samsari can awaken to the truth, that what he is getting is what he needs for that moment and for his ultimate fulfillment.

The samsari is concerned with material things and living life in a limited way. The sannyasi is concerned about death — death of all that is not him, which is his ego, possessiveness, lust, anger, fear, jealousy and discontent. He knows he is something beyond all this. His whole quest is to find this, because once he finds it, he has found the higher rung of the ladder and he can leave the lower rung where the constant push and pull of all these emotions and material things reside.

Sannyas is the search to answer the question ‘Who am I?’ A sannyasi puts his whole energy into discovering the answer to this question. If people ask you, ‘Who are you?’ you will generally reply, ‘I am so-and- so’s son, I am an engineer, I am a professor.’ But those words describe who you are in your relationships with the world. If there were no world, then who are you?

The great enlightened masters who founded the world religions have said repeatedly, "Aham Brahmasmi meaning, ‘I am That’ in the Hindu tradition, or ‘Be still and know that I am god’ in the Christian tradition, or Anal-Haq meaning ‘I am the Truth’ in the Islam tradition. Experiencing that you are god is the purpose of human life.

Once this purpose is experienced, the inner bliss that all these great masters talk about starts happening. Then you understand that the outer world is a beautiful stage where the divine play is happening. There is ultimate freedom from all worldly difficulties. You do, and yet you don’t do, you speak and yet you don’t speak. You cry and yet you don’t cry. Your inner Self remains untouched. You are in ‘eternal bliss’ — nithya ananda. The problem is that people generally think sannyas is a hindrance to worldly life. They think sannyas is seriousness. No! Sannyas is a certain quality for living life to its optimum. Seriousness will never help one live life to its full potential. Only sincerity and laughter will help. Laughter is the greatest spiritual quality.

A master was seated with his disciples. He was in an expansive mood and his disciples decided to ask him about the various stages he passed through to reach the Divine. The master beautifully started explaining...

"God held me by the hand and first took me to the Land of Action. I stayed there for several years. Then god returned and took me to the Land of Sorrow. I fell into deep sorrows but eventually went beyond them. I felt happy. Then, suddenly I found that god put me in the Land of Love. I went through burning emotions and %und myself cleansed thoroughly. Then, he took me to the Land o[ Silence. There I learned the mysteries of life and death." The disciples asked, "Was that the final stage of your quest?" The master said, "No. One day god said, Today I will take you to my very heart... and he led me to the Land of Laughter." Sannyas is your very energy. How can it be a hindrance to anything? Not only that, with the energy o sannyas, you are always young. With the energy of sannyas, you are ready for the challenges of life.

People ask me, ‘Why can’t we continue in samsar and live with the consciousness of a sannyasi?’’ You see, the nature of man is such that unless a conscious decision is taken, it is difficult to bring about a permanent transformation in the consciousness. Sannyas is a conscious decision to transform the consciousness. Sannyas is a conscious decision. That is why sannyas needs to be taken. With a conscious decision, there is continued awareness. Continued awareness decreases the chance of slipping back. Without it, there is nothing binding one to keep on the path. It becomes easy to slip.

With sannyas, you will continue to do what you are doing but in a much better way. With sannyas, you start watching everything. You become a witness. Because of this witnessing, a gap is created between you and the other person. That gap is misunderstood as renunciation’. If you notice, the gap was not there earlier. Each one was suffocating the other. Now the gap is there. The gap is not a gap of distance but a gap of awareness.

Shiva says beautifully in the Tantra', 'A man who has abandoned the woman in him, in his inner mind, is a sannyasi, even if he is still in the family.' On the contrary, if thoughts of a woman persist in a sannyasi s mind, he cannot be called a sannyasi. This is the scale to measure if a man is a sannyasi.

In Buddha's teaching, The Four Noble Truths, the second truth deals with the cause of suffering. He beautifully says that suffering is because of the demands we make on life every moment. It is like asking a banana tree to bear mangoes! We will understand this habit only when we bring in awareness.

Not only that, when you watch, you start seeing exactly how transactions are happening in relationships. You see how expectations are driving the whole thing. You see the ulterior motives in everything.

There is a little-known truth about a sannyasi, that a sannyasi takes responsibility for the whole of Existence. He doesn't know the difference between his family and the rest of the world. All are the same. He wishes for the liberation of anyone who comes his way. On the other hand, a samsari takes responsibility for one family or maybe for a few organizations. This taking of responsibility is always towards a definite cause. It is either to accumulate the credit of serving, to fulfill some obligation, or to co-exist easily with the people around him.

The nature of a sannyasi s responsibility is completely different. For him, the whole world is his family. There is no obligation driving him. Responsibility happens completely out of the quality of his inner space. Also, a samsari can rest after fulfilling every duty at that stage in life. A sannyasi continuously works, because people are constantly in need of truths in their life.

A sannyasi is established in rich relationships. People think sannyasis run away from relationships. A young girl asked me while I was addressing a college gathering, 'Was it failure in love that caused you to become a sannyasi? ' I told her, 'It was success in love that caused me to become a sannyasi!' Actually, sannyas is what softens you into real love; love towards not just one person but towards the whole of Existence.

Ordinary love comes with a reason, or with lust. Real love knows no reason. It is just a causeless overflowing energy towards everything in Existence.

In reality, sannyas is living like a king. Sannyas is the beginning of a kingly life because when you have cleaned yourself of all your suffering, then you have gained everything you can ever gain! You gain far more than mere wealth can give you.

A sannyasi recognizes the unending abundance of Existence. His vision is oceanic. He is not stuck in narrow perceptions. He perceives the whole of Existence as one. He feels part of the whole. That is why he is rich. A rich man who feels he owns a few acres is not really the rich one. The man who feels the abundance of Existence is really the rich one.

Understand that the very word 'rich' has been misinterpreted. How can a person who is enjoying just a few bungalows be rich? He cannot be! The rich person is the one who is enjoying everything around

him continuously. His richness is the richness of the whole Existence. He enjoys everything with no attachment to anything.

The word ‘penance’ means nothing but integrating yourself, making yourself a single entity. You may ask, ‘Are we not like that now?’ If you look closely, you will see that we exist as different entities, never as one. There is everything else in our life except integration.

If you look deeply inside, you will understand that there are hundreds of voices continuously talking inside you. The moment the mind says, ‘Let us do this, the very next moment the thought will arise, ‘No. Let us not do it!’ After thinking of the side effects and after effects, the mind starts oscillating. Integrating the fragmented parts of the mind is the very essence of life. Integrating the feelings and the mind, integrating your face and your mind, ensuring that your face shows the same thing as what your mind thinks, is the essence of life.

If you study the lives of great masters and try to search for one basic essence in all of their lives, you will find that it is not knowledge or devotion. It is integrity! What they believed in, they lived. That’s all! Their integrity was solid. They were ready to lose even their very lives, but not their integrity.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’, the great enlightened master from India, used to move around on the streets just singing devotional songs. He never bothered about what others said about him. What he felt, he expressed. To be like this requires a deep sense of sacrifice. It takes courage to sacrifice anything to live with integrity!

That is why anything that these great masters did in their lives always culminated in eternal auspiciousness! Everything they did was an effort to integrate themselves with deep sincerity and devotion. The intense effort to integrate oneself completely is what is called penance. Penance always ends in auspiciousness. There will be innumerable things happening in your life all the time. Enduring all those things and intensifying your integrity with them is called penance. On the other hand, if you allow life’s happenings to shake you, then you land in disgrace. What way you wish to go is up to you.

Adi Shankara was a great enlightened master from India. As a young boy, he was caught in a dilemma when he wanted to pursue the path of sannyas. He wanted to leave home with the permission of his mother but she was unwilling to let go of him.

One day, he went to bathe in the river. Suddenly, his mother heard him crying out loud for help. She ran out and saw that a crocodile had caught his leg. He was struggling to be free.

Suddenly, by a flash of thought, he cried to her "Mother, if you give me permission to become a sannyasi, I will be freed from this crocodile now to continue with my life." The mother was surprised and asked how. He explained, "According to the Vedas, if I enter a new ashrama' or stage of life, it is equal to being born again. So, if you give me permission to enter into sannyas, then maybe god will give me a fresh lease on life!"

The mother was totally helpless. She quickly made up her mind. It was better to have her son as a sannyasi than see him dead. She agreed. Immediately the crocodile released the grip! Adi Shankara

ran to his mother with great joy. He had lived the truth he sought at that moment... and it worked. See, there are three things:

The first two are easy to follow. But the third, living the Truth all the time, is difficult. It is very rare. Sannyas is the courage to live what we think is the Truth. We give importance to speaking the Truth. But living the Truth is most important. If you start living your Truth, your respect for yourself will increase. That is the beauty of it.

When you integrate and live the Truth, you drop hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is pretending to be what you are not. Hypocrisy is hiding in many places so people can't see who you really are. The fragments in you dominate over each other and make you hypocritical. When you fight with your own fragments and win, you are a dheera, a courageous one! It is easy to fight with others and win. When you fight with others and win, you are a veera, a warrior. But fighting with yourself requires more courage. You don't fight unless you are tired of yourself. Only when you are tired, you accept that you need to start the fight.

Once you integrate, for the first time, you know who you really are. All the masks drop. You are ready to expose yourself in relationships. You become more authentic. You suddenly realize that you were missing things because of you! Sannyas is all about becoming more authentic. When I say authentic, I mean that you will radiate your individuality instead of your personality. With fragments, you are a personality. With integrity, you are individuality. Individuality is seeing your authenticity through your own eyes. Personality is a built-up image in the eyes of society. The master's work is to create a space in you where you don't have to guard your personality, where you can be free, where just understanding can cause transformation.

Buddha used to tell his disciples, 'Count your life only after you have taken sannyas. '' Someone asked me if taking the vow of brahmacharya or sannyas will lead to enlightenment. Whether taking the vow leads to enlightenment or not is secondary. But if you observe the vows strictly for one month, successfully, the respect you have for yourself will tremendously increase. That is enough! It is called asatya sadhana or doing the seemingly impossible task successfully. It is making you do whatever your mind says you cannot do! Techniques like fire-walking are in this category. Ordinarily, the mind will say that you cannot walk on a fire bed. Once you do it, the respect you have for yourself will increase! Then you will come into integrity.

Integrity needs to be understood in two ways.

The first part is integrating the fighting parts of the mind into one. See, the very life gets wasted in the oscillation of the mind. If you can follow any one path, you will attain it. For example, let us suppose there are two paths to reach Bangalore. One path is 30 kilometers while the other is 30,000 kilometers. You are oscillating between these two paths not knowing which to choose. If you choose any one path and proceed, you will reach Bangalore.

But if you keep oscillating, if you go on one path for half hour, and then change your mind and go on the other path for the next half hour, what will happen? You will never reach Bangalore! At least if you decide and take the 30,000-kilometer path, you will reach Bangalore, even if it takes you one year! But if you keep oscillating between these two paths, even if it takes thirty years, you will not reach Bangalore.

Even if the chosen path is wrong, the one who moves with integrity automatically comes to the correct path. He achieves what needs to be achieved. There are only two types of people on planet

earth — those who live with integrity and those who live without integrity, that’s all! The scale to measure a person is not the path on which he went but whether he lived with integrity or not.

Integrity is the strength to live your belief, come what may. Second, not getting diluted by external influences is also integrity. It is the ability to not alter our integrity or dilute ourselves due to inner confusions or outer influences. The person who lives with integrity, even if he dies on the train platform, will die with the satisfaction that he lived completely. The person who lives without integrity, even if he dies in the best hospital, will die with dissatisfaction. The scale to measure the quality of a person’s life is to see how much he lived in tune with what he felt was life. For example, if he is an atheist, if he lived as a strong atheist and died as a strong atheist, there is nothing wrong. He will attain! That very strength, when it goes deeper and deeper in him and searches, will show him the truth! Integrating the mind is the essence of life. Decide you will always say and do only what you feel is right. Then, you will come to tremendous clarity and conviction in the inner and outer worlds.

Swami Vivekananda recounts in his life that his master, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa™, died leaving him the responsibility of the mission. At the same time, Swami Vivekananda’s father died leaving behind a family of utter poverty. Swami Vivekananda was the only hope for his family. He stood between saving his family and saving the world. No one recognized the mission he spoke of. He says beautifully, ‘Who will sympathize with the imaginations of a boy?’ He was, after all, a young boy!

He describes those few days as ‘unimaginable hell’. He was with a small group of boys, with no money, with only one thing: the integrity to live the life they believed in, the life taught by their master. Ten years later, he says, ‘Ten years ago, I could not get one hundred people to celebrate master’s birth anniversary. Today there are fifty thousand!’ Sannyas is taking a strong decision not to allow the unconscious to hinder the consciousness and to establish consciousness firmly on the master and his words.

Swami Vivekananda was questioned as to how he could desert his family at that time. He beautifully replied, I believed that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s teachings could rationalize India and many foreign races. With that belief came the realization that it is better that a few persons suffer than for such ideas to die out of the world. What if a mother or two brothers die? It is a sacrifice. Let it be done. No great thing can be done without sacrifice. The heart must be plucked and the bleeding heart placed upon the altar.

Then, great things are done!’ Such was his integrity. Not only that, those who said that Swami Vivekananda deserted his family do not know the correct facts. He continued to fulfill his duty by giving them the bare minimum requirements. He also went to the court of law to attend to some legal issues they faced.

A small story: During the civil wars in Japan, an invading army entered a town and took control of the whole town. Before the army arrived in one particular village, everyone fled except a Zen master.

Curious about this master the general went to the temple to see what kind of a man the master was. The master did not even acknowledge the general. The general became very angry when he was not treated in the usual respectful way to which he was accustomed. He took out his sword and shouted, "You fool! Don’t you realize you are standing before a man who could run you through without blinking an eye?"

The master remained calm and asked, "And do you realize that you are standing before a man who can be run through without blinking an eye?"

With the strength of integrity comes utter freedom and bliss. With freedom and bliss there is no fear in the inner or outer world!

The very goal of life is enlightenment. You may have other goals, but knowingly or unknowingly, they are just different names that we give to the goal of enlightenment. In the same way, whatever else you may seek, what you actually seek is sannyas itself. But you don't know it. That is the problem!

You may think your goals are to have more money and more relationships. The truth is that even the one who searches for money actually searches only for enlightenment! See, there are only two things. One is money, and the other is name and fame. Name and fame mean nothing but to have more relationships. Whatever experience you feel you are going to get through money or relationships, you will only get through enlightenment!

That is why the soul never rests until enlightenment happens. No amount of money satisfies the soul. No relationship satisfies the soul. When money and relationships don't give satisfaction, it is called the 'depression of success'. This is what happens after reaching the peak of our career. People come to me and say, 'I have achieved all that I wanted to achieve, but what for I wanted to achieve, I have not achieved. I feel incomplete.' Understand that this is the call of your being that seeks no other goal except enlightenment. The response to it is sannyas.

Not properly understanding the goal of life is the root cause of all problems. Sannyas is recognizing the goal properly and integrating to achieve it. Whatever goal you may be running behind in your life, be it money or relationship or whatever, your end goal is only bliss. There is no other separate goal in life!

There are only two types of people. One group knows the word bliss or 'enlightenment', and the path to it. They live their life according to that. The other group does not know the word or the path, so it comes around in circles. That's all! The former is sannyasi, the latter is samsari.

You have achieved the human body which gives you the highest possible to take the jump in consciousness. The glass is already reflecting the sunlight. Now all that the glass needs to do is to see the source of the reflection. That's all! Merging with the Source is what I call enlightenment. It is merging of the individual consciousness with the cosmic consciousness.

If this happens, then the goal of life, the purpose for which the glass was created, is achieved. Then, even if the glass breaks, there is no problem. But without achieving that, if the glass is broken, it is the greatest loss ever.

If the human body perishes before enlightenment, there cannot be a greater loss than that. Sannyas is the means to this achievement. Sannyas is not the end of life. It is the beginning of life. Sannyas is moving towards enlightenment, the only and permanent purpose of life.

If the purpose of life itself is enlightenment, where are we stuck right now? In what areas of our lives are we moving in the wrong direction? Understand that the problem is in recognizing the correct goal. If the goal is right, you have achieved it. If your goal is right, it means you are already living it.

Conditioning is the reason that you miss the goal. When you are born, you came as a free bird, a Paramahamsa or the supreme swan, to flit and fly blissfully around and enjoy the whole of existence. But after coming, not only did you fly around, but unknowingly you also landed on planet earth. That was the problem. There are many people waiting to catch birds that land! Society waits to fit you into the frame of country, religion, caste, community and creed.

You were a sweet soul when you landed on planet earth. You were not a Hindu, or an engineer or a worker. But understand that society wants engineers and workers. It is not bothered about your consciousness. Actually, neither your parents nor society are aware that there is something called consciousness. They themselves don't have that intelligence. They teach you what they were taught. That's all. Their conditioning is not a deliberate attempt to restrict or condition you.

Conditioning is the unwanted dowry that has been handed over for generations and lives, from person to person. First, there is parental conditioning. Then there is societal conditioning. Based on these two, you create certain ethics for yourself. This is the self-imposed conditioning, your own dharma", your own path of righteousness.

Because we create so many layers of conditioning, we are unable to see the truth directly. We are not able to perceive the goal directly. We are not able to live the goal directly. We are caught in the conditioning and forget who we truly are. The conditioning creates certain limitations in us, and we start thinking that the limitations are the real us. Even the clothes that we wear condition us to believe we are the clothes!

Many of the conditionings are created in society in order to peacefully co-exist. For example, for easy communication, many languages are taught. There is nothing wrong in learning a language, but taking it up as a conditioning and making the language your very life, and creating sorrow for yourself and others is wrong. That mental attitude is wrong. So many people have sacrificed their lives for the sake of language. If the conditioning were not there, so many deaths would not have happened! The very history of mankind would have been written differently. Conditioning is the reason for terrorism among human beings. Today, conditioning-based-divisions go right down to the level of belonging to specific political parties!

By taking sannyas, you are taking the first conscious step to drop the past and enter a new world. The past is familiar, so you like to carry it. The mind always likes familiar patterns. Also, society teaches you to carry the past so that it can put guilt and fear in you that are based upon the past incidents. The past is unwanted baggage. Sannyas is disconnecting from the past. When you disconnect from the past and move to a new future, initially, there is utter insecurity. Sannyas is utter insecurity. In utter insecurity, there is nothing else to hold on to, so you will find god!

Why do you think I give you a spiritual name? I give you a spiritual name to help you more easily disconnect from the past. The new name that I give you will constantly remind you of the psychological revolution that has happened in you, the new understanding that has happened in you. The name also indicates your individual spiritual path, according to your own innate nature, which will lead to the ultimate flowering of your consciousness. A sannyasi works for the present moment. He works to give his whole life to Existence and doesn't care about the results. The results take care of themselves. That is his way. He knows only the moment, nothing else. Therefore, he learns directly from Existence every moment. That is why he has no doctrine, no religion. He moves in synchronicity with the whole of Existence and learns through it.

There is a Sufi saying, ‘The Sufi is the child of the moment.’ In Sufi texts, every moment is called a breath. And the Sufis are called ‘the folks of the breaths, because they live in full awareness of every breath, of every instant. According to them, every moment, a new Self arrives. That is the spirit of Sannyas, it is being fresh every moment. A person of the moment learns from the moment. For him, Existence is his teacher.

When the great Sufi mystic Hasan, was dying, somebody asked, "Hasan, who was your master?" He said, "I had many masters. If I relate their names it will take months or even years, and it is too late now. I am going to die any time. I will tell you about three masters. The first one was a thief. Once I got lost in a desert, and when I reached a nearby village, it was late and everything was closed. At last I found a man who was trying to make a hole in the wall ofa house. I asked him where I could stay and spend the night. He said, "At this time of night it will be difficult. If you don’t mind staying with a thief, you are welcome to stay with me."

I stayed with this man for one month. Each night he would tell me, "Now I am going for my work. You take rest and pray for me." When he came back, I would ask him, "Did you get anything?" He would say, "Not tonight. But tomorrow, god willing, I will try again." He was always happy and hopeful never in a state of hopelessness!

When I was meditating for many years, and nothing was happening, many times the moment came when I was so desperate, so hopeless, that I thought I should stop all this nonsense. And sudden 1y I would remember the thief who would say every night, "God willing, tomorrow it is going to happen"

My second master was a dog. One day, I was going to the river to quench my thirst. A dog came and he was also thirsty. He looked into the river and saw another dog there, which was his own image. He became afraid. He would bark and run away, but his thirst was so much that he would come back. Finally, despite his fear, he jumped into the water and his own image disappeared. I realized that the message had come from god to me." one has to jump in spite of the fear. The third master was a small child. I went to a town where a child was carrying a lit candle. He was going to the mosque to put the candle there.

I asked the boy, "Have you lit the candle by yourself. “He said, "Yes. "Then I asked him, "There was a moment when the candle was unlit, and then there was a moment when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which the light came?"

The boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, "Now you have seen the light going. Where has it gone? You tell me!"

My ego was shattered and my whole knowledge was also shattered.

It is true that I had no master. That does not mean that I was not a disciple. I accepted the whole of Existence as my master. I trusted the clouds, the trees. I learned from every possible source.

Sannyas is the joyful awareness that the ‘moment’ is guiding you closer to your enlightenment. All you have to do is be vulnerable, that’s all.

Tomorrow also comes in the form of today. So why not focus on just today? When you are in the moment, there is no space for pain or suffering. Only when you live in the past or future, you create the space for suffering. When you live in the moment, you automatically create a space where everything is beautiful. Life itself becomes a romance with Existence! You resonate with the whole thing. You are in love with everything and everyone for no reason at all. That is sannyas. Then you don’t amass. You don’t fear. You don’t worry. Things happen around you like a beautiful dream.

A sannyasi is an eternal wanderer in spirit. Even if he is in one place, his spirit wanders without any pattern, touching so many things far away. He doesn’t care to accumulate anything. He gives away whatever comes his way. He receives much more than he needs. He lives like a king.

Sannyas is the understanding of the transient nature of everything. All desires, possessions, and emotions are moving and changing. Everything is changing and moving. Nothing is permanent. If you analyze your own desires, before a desire is fulfilled, it looks like a mountain, a huge goal. After being fulfilled, the same desire looks like a molehill. Before being fulfilled, it will seem like your very life. After fulfilling one desire, you simply move to the next desire! Understand that the process itself shows that desires are neither solid nor permanent. They are just changing fantasies of the mind.

Sannyas helps you see the temporary nature of desires. Slowly, desires stop getting created then all the energy that was locked up in desires is freely available to you. Automatically, your potential will take a jump. You are ready to do anything. Although you live in it, nothing in the material world really pulls you. Even if you see something beautiful, you don’t wish to possess it. You just enjoy it and move on. That’s all. That is sannyas. Sannyas works like a of wood that is used to burn the dead body and finally gets thrown in the same pyre. It burns out all the fantasies in you and finally give itself to the same fire. It is a tool.

Adi Shankara beautifully says in his famous song, Bhaja Govindam, Even when days and nights, winters and springs have gone, and life almost comes to an end, the grip of desire is still there! Desire has such a pull at the unconscious level that liberating oneself from it is the greatest liberation.

A small story: Once there lived a stone cutter. He was not satisfied with his position in life. One day he was passing through a wealthy merchant’s house. Through the gate which was open, he noticed many possessions and important visitors in the merchant’s house. He thought that the merchant must be very powerful. He became jealous and wished that he could be like the merchant.

To his great surprise, the stone cutter suddenly became the merchant, enjoying more luxuries and power that he had ever imagined.

One day, he was standing on the road when he saw a high official pass by. He was carried in a beautiful chair accompanied by attendants and escorted by soldiers beating gongs. Everyone, no matter how wealthy, has to bow down before the procession.

He thought, ‘How powerful that official is! I wish I could be a high official!’ Immediately, he became the high official and he carried everywhere in his beautiful chair. One day it was extremely hot, and he felt very uncomfortable in the sticky chair. He looked up at the sun. It was so bright and beautiful in the sky. He thought, ”How powerful the sun is! I wish that I could be the sun!”

He became the sun! And he enjoyed his powerful position over everything. One day, a huge black cloud moved between him and the earth, so that his light could no longer shine on everything below. He was surprised. He thought, ”How powerful that huge black storm cloud is! How I wish I could be a Cloud!

He became the storm cloud, flooding the fields and villages.

Soon he found that he was being pushed away by some great force, and realized that it was the wind. He thought, "How powerful the wind is! I wish to become the wind!" He became the wind and powerfully blew over the roofs of houses and through forests. One day, he came across something that would not move, no matter how forcefully he blew against it. It was a huge and towering rock. He thought, "How p that rock is! I wish to become the rock! " Then he became the rock, more powerful than anything else on earth. But as he stood there, he heard the sound o[ a hammer pounding a chisel into the hard surface, and felt himself being changed. He thought, "What could be more powerful than a rock?'" He looked down and saw a stone cutter far below him! This story clearly illustrates how the mind always thinks that which has not yet been achieved is greater than that which has been achieved. The grass on the other side is always greener. But when we go to the other side, what happens? We feel the grass on the opposite side is greener! We jump from one thing to the other, from one desire to the next, from one point of view to the next, but we are seldom happy.

A Sannyasi is one who clearly sees that everything is changing all the time, and everything is beautiful just the way it is. He also knows that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. That is why he sets out first to clean his eyes. Eyes are the windows of the soul, so his work is at the core level. If you see the world through a red colored lens, everything appears red. If you see with a green colored lens, everything is green. If you see with clear eyes, everything looks clear and beautiful. Existence has always been beautiful, but we missed seeing it. Sannyas is the decision to see with clear eyes.

If life itself is changing all the time, then why are we trying to frame it? Buddha says in his Dhammapada‘, ‘Life is like a flash of lightning in the sky.’ Life is transient. Then what are we trying to do? We are trying to do an impossible job. Our job is to see, enjoy, and move on. If everything is a passing manifestation of Existence, then where is the scope for ego or fear or greed? Sannyas, as such, doesn’t change anything. Everything remains the same. But it changes the way you see things. Sannyas happens in you. Sannyas has nothing to do with the outer world. Sannyas is awakening the charioteer. Man’s body is like a chariot and his consciousness is the charioteer. The charioteer is fast asleep, and the chariot is moving according to the horses. The five horses are the five senses, each with its own different idea. Not one of them is the truth. They are just transient ideas!

Even in the most difficult times, a sannyasi remains with the awareness that life is a fleeting dream! He carries a completely different definition for success and failure. He doesn’t carry success or failure itself. A samsari on the other hand carries success and failure with him wherever he goes. There starts the problem.

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.

Then a space is created where love starts happening. Love happens only when you start saying ‘yes.’ By saying ‘yes, not only do you start loving, you allow the other person to love you as well. Then your inner space that was like a rock earlier, starts becoming like cotton! It becomes soaked with love. The love is not just towards one person or for any reason. It is an overflowing energy. It is towards the whole of Existence for no reason. You start communing with the trees, with everything around you. You feel that life is a song, the song of Existence of which you are a part. You are in a deeply resonant mood with everything and everyone around you, including yourself. Your actions simply become an outpouring of the joy and ecstasy that is enveloping you all the time.

A small story: A Zen master arrived at the meeting place of the Cambridge Buddhist Society. He found everyone dusting and cleaning the whole place in anticipation of his visit. They were surprised to see him because he was not supposed to arrive until the following day. He simply tied back the sleeves of his robe and joined the preparations. They could not believe that he wanted to help. He asked, ‘Why can’t I also prepare for the grand day of my arrival!’

When you are resonating with Existence, you enjoy everything, including yourself. You don’t see yourself as separate from anything else. You see no separate reason for anything. There are people who commune with nature but fail miserably when it comes to people. Then, even their communion with nature is not real communion. Feeling only for nature is not a scale by which to measure love.

People tell me that they are already communing with Existence. Trees and animals don’t create trouble for you. That is why you claim to commune with them! They keep quiet. You can simply express anything to them. You can thrust your feeling on them, pull it out, and feel good, that’s all. It is just an ego trip. The essence is in the ability to commune with the whole of Existence, even when faced with trouble! If you can create that space of love under those conditions, then you are communing.

A poet once wrote a love song and sent it to his friends. A few days later he received a letter from a lady to whom he had sent the poem.

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 always look for shortcuts to everything Is there a shortcut to enlightenment? " The master told him, "You are accepted into this monastery for two days. In these two days, you will be taught the shortcut to enlightenment. Is there anything that you like to do in particular?"

The man said, "Since I don't stick to anything for a long time, I am unable to tell what I like to do most. But I like to play chess" The master called for a young disciple who was supposed to be a good chess player. He asked the two of them to sit down and placed a chess board bet- ween them.

He then took out his sword and placed it in front of the two of them and said, "Both of you have to play. The moment one of you loses, the loser will have his head cut off."

They were shocked at the master's words! They started the game and played. They concentrated on the game like they had never done before. Initially, the young monk made good moves, and it looked like he was going to win. Then suddenly he made a mistake. The man took the opportunity and took over the game. Soon, he was clearly on the way to winning.

Suddenly, he looked at the young monk and thought with what dedication and devotion the monk lived his life with the master at that young age. Then he thought about his own life and how he had wasted it. Suddenly he decided, if at all anyone should die, it should be himself. He deliberately made a wrong move. The young monk saw that and took over the game again.

The master was watching the whole thing. At that point, he took the board away, and the coins fell in the air. He said, "Nobody wins. Nobody loses. The game is over. There are only two things needed for enlightenment, they are concentration and compassion. Today, you learned both. Stay with me and study the way you have played chess today. Enlightenment will be yours!"

Sannyas is bringing together concentration and compassion. With concentration, you never forget the goal of life, which is enlightenment. With compassion, you are ready to sacrifice your very life so that the other may reach the goal! When both are there, both you and the other will reach! That is the greatness of sannyas. That is the space of sannyas.

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 presence 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 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.

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 overtime 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 yo u 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 living birth is a form of letting go because she 1S 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, normally 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 sannyasis. 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.