Renunciation is Bliss

Attachment is the prime cause of mental agitation and sorrow. When you are attached to material objects, to wealth you are riddled with worry and anxiety. Anxiety to procure more and more. And worry about preserving or losing it. Thus a newly fixed carpet in your house, a china you value or any such prized possession can cause mental agitation, suffering and sorrow if you are attached to it. Similarly a boy attached to a girl, a mother attached to her child would cause the mind to be disturbed. When you are driving your personal, expensive car on a rough and rugged road your heart throbs. Whereas the same ride in a hired car becomes enjoyable! Thus when you are detached you enjoy the world. That explains why you enjoy a tragic movie, a horror movie.

The law of life is crystal clear - Attach you lose, detach you gain. None seems to be aware of it. Much less follows it. It means that if you cling on to any material form, selfishly attach to a person or object, you shall go through suffering and sorrow. Either something terrible happens to that relationship or you lose the object of your desire. Whereas, when you live a life of mental detachment, in a state of renunciation, you will find objects and beings reaching you. As Swami Rama Tirtha has proclaimed: "The way to gain anything is to lose it."

Renunciation paves the way to prosperity and peace in life. The more you renounce, the more peaceful you are, the more the world courts you. Leave the world alone, you gain it. You run after it, you lose it. The phenomenon of colour illustrates this truth. Physics explains the principle underlying perception of colour. Light consists of seven vibgyoric colours. You see an object only when it is bathed in light. By the light it reflects. A rose appears red because it reflects red colour only. It absorbs the other six colours and rejects red. Strange as it may sound, the rose is red because it gives away red.

The mental state of renunciation is an essential prerequisite for practising concentration and meditation. You need to first free yourself from your mental bondage to the world. The mind is riddled with desires. The unfulfilled desires cause the mind to be agitated, disturbed. Such a mind remains enmeshed in the affairs of the world. It cannot rise to the subtler realm of contemplation and meditation. You need a calm and composed mind to do that. And the way to achieve that state is through reduction of desires.

The divine Self is lost in spiritual ignorance. The mass of desires veils the Self. You cannot recognize your true Self through this veil of desires. Just as you cannot see your reflection in a pond filled with moss. The green mantle covers it completely. There are two ways to see your reflection in the pond. The simple, easy way is to plunge your fingers into the water and push the moss aside. The moss separates forthwith, giving you a glimpse of the reflection in the clear water beneath. But, before you can register the sight, the moss reunites, masking the reflection once again. This way of recognizing your Self is futile.

The effective way is by removing the moss gradually. The moss is cleared little by little, becoming thinner and thinner. Ironically, you gain no glimpse of the reflection yet. But with sustained effort, the moss is rendered so thin that it separates for good. You then see your reflection in the clear water below. Similarly, you need to clear the mass of desires in the lake of your mind. This is achieved through the daily study and reflection on spiritual literature. As you gain more knowledge, the veil of ignorance becomes thinner, and the mass of desires reduces. Thus, by your determined, sustained effort, the veil of ignorance splits to let you realize the divine Self within.