Renunciation

TRUE RENUNCIATION


There is a famous story which describes a devotee who asked a spiritual master, “Will you please help me? I’m disturbed. I want peace.” The Master smiled, “You said ‘I want peace’. First drop the ‘I’ and then drop the ‘want’ and see what are you left with.”

Renunciation is understood to mean the giving up of physical and material wants, the renunciation of attachments, and simultaneously the adoption of an austere life to gain peace. The conclusion then will be that the common man can never hope to attain peace so long as he retains the material life. Thus, even a mother cannot expect to gain peace if she continues to be concerned about the child’s needs. Either they must both abandon their attachments or they must reconcile themselves to an existence without peace. However the sage Ramana Maharshi denied that such a choice was necessary and that man had no need to head for the hills to be tranquil. By merely dropping the ego, the false self, with its accompanying obsessions, one gets into the zone of serenity.

It is man, among all creatures, that is capable of amazing creation and horrific destruction; can his restless, inventive brain be harnessed and directed towards peace? The sages say that renunciation founded on ‘vivek buddhi’( discriminating and enlightened understanding) leads to peace. If one separates the essential (the grain) from the non-essential (the chaff) one is left with a rich, meaningful existence. By merely giving up a car or a house or a family while dwelling on them in mind at all times, no peace is ever possible.

A man renounced his family and wealth so he could be at peace as a sanyasi. He joined a band of roaming sadhus, slept in the fields, ate the food he received as alms and meditated. One day he was gifted a very ancient, original shastra. He was delighted. He spent months studying the tattered pages of the valuable, rare book. One morning when he awoke he discovered that the sadhus had disappeared and taken his book with them. Desolate and bereft, he mourned the loss and wept copious tears. In effect, the good man had unconsciously transferred his attachment from his family to the book, he had not been able to remove the attachment. By replacing one love-object with another he was right where he had started from.

Sometimes devotees dependent on their guru find it difficult to even make routine decisions without gaining sanction from him. Anthony de Mello described a similar situation where the sage tells his slavish devotees, “Light is reflected on a wall. Why venerate the wall? Be attentive to the light.” Ramana Maharshi explained, “If you can feel the presence of the Master where you are, your doubts are readily overcome, for the Master’s part consists in removing the doubts of the seeker.” The blind attachment to the “physical guru” rather than the “spiritual guru” prevents the devotees from moving away from the wall and towards the light, away from the physical form of the guru and towards the spiritual message.

True renunciation begins when we attempt to root our defects; if we begin to eliminate and erode the power of our flaws in our lives we get freer and nearer to peace. Whe we renounce defects rather than responsibilities we are nearer to the goal. This results in a better life not merely for us but also for the family and society at large. It is essential to see that we are making no paradigm shift if we are giving up one set of objects and replacing them with another; the paradigm shift is in doing away with the rough edges, the negative habits, obsessions, our emotional immaturity and so on. Whether one is attached to the family, a pet, a book or a guru there is still no real change. It is still the same old lady in a new saree. It is our negative traits and habits that stand in the way of our own freedom; when we begin weeding them out, we will be left with a peaceful garden of colorful flowers.
A friend’s grandmother summed it up well with these words: “ I don’t mind if you can’t do anything good, but make sure you don’t do anything bad.”

Dattatreya

DATTATREYA AND HIS TWENTY-FOUR GURUS

Once when Dattatreya was roaming happily in the forest, he met king Yadu. The king curiously asked him what was the source of his joy and he asked him who his guru was. Dattayreya answered that the Atma alone was his guru and yet he had learned wisdom from 24 individual and therefore they too were his gurus. He then mentioned the twenty-four gurus and what he had learnt from each one of them:

1. Earth
2. Water
3. Air
4. Fire
5. Sky
6. Moon
7. Sun
8. Pigeon
9. Python
10. Ocean
11. Moth
12. Honey-gatherer
13. Bee
14. Elephant
15. Deer
16. Fish
17. Dancing girl Pingala
18. Raven
19. Child
20. Maiden
21. Serpent
22. Arrow-maker
23. Spider
24. Beetle

He then elaborated on what he had learnt from each one of them:

1.Earth: From the earth he learnt patience and doing good to others, it endures every injury and yet it does him good by producing crops and trees etc.

2.Water: Just as water cleanses others, he learnt that the sage must purify others that come into contact with him.

3.The air: Like the air one must move everywhere without getting attached to any one place; be non-attached and yet remain active.

4.Fire: like the fire the sage must glow with the splendour of his knowledge and tapas.

5. The sky: The air, the stars, the clouds etc all are contained in the sky and yet the sky is beyond them; similarly the atma is all-pervading and yet beyond.

6. The Moon: The moon is also changeless and yet appears to decrease and increase on account of the shadow of the earth upon the moon; similarly, the atma is changeless and perfect but it is only the limiting adjuncts( the upadhis, such as the bodies) that cast their shadow and give the appearance that the atma has changed etc.

7. The sun: like the sun when reflected in pots of water appears as so many different reflections, the Brahman also appears different because of the the Upadhis ( the bodies); in fact it is the same.

8. Pigeon: Dattatreya once saw a fowler spread a net to catch young birds. The mother pigeon, attached to her babies, followed into the net; the father pigeon, attached to the mother, also followed into the net; from this Dattatreya learnt that attachment is the cause of bondage.

9. The python: The python stays content with whatever food it gets and stays mostly in one place; like it, Dattatreya learnt that one must be unmindful of the food one manages to get and be content with whatever one has got.

10. Ocean: Like the ocean that remains unmoved even if hundreds of rivers fall into it, the wise man too must remain unmoved among all kinds of difficulties and troubles in life.

11. The moth: being attracted by the brilliance of the fire the moth falls into it and gets destroyed, so also a human being not in control of his senses loses his way. To keep fixed on the Self, one must have one’s senses in control.

12. The black bee: it sucks honey from different flowers and not from one flower, in the same manner Dattatreya learnt that he should take a little food from one house, some from another etc so that he is not a burden on any one house.

13. Bees: Like the bees that make honey with difficulty see that their honey is easily taken away by man, in the same manner those who hoard wealth etc see that they have to leave it behind for somebody else to use it. From this Dattatreya learnt that it is useless to hoard material things.

14. Elephant: the male elephant, seeing a paper-elephant, blindly falls into the pit covered by grass, and gets tortured. Tha passionate man too falls into women’s traps and gets ruined. Lust can cause the ruin of man and therefore man must be mindful of lust.

15. The deer: it is enticed by man through its love of music and becomes enslaved; women of loose character similarly bring about destruction.

16. The fish: gets trapped because it loves the tasty bait; similarly greed for food destroys man.

17. Dancing girl Pingala: Pingala, the dancing girl, had got tired of looking out for customers. She became hopeless when they did not come to her. Then she decided that she would remain content with what she had and after that enjoyed good sleep. Dattatreya learnt from her that the abandonment of hope leads to contentment.

18. A raven: when a raven picked up a piece of flesh, the other birds pursued and beat it. As soon as it dropped the piece it was left alone and at peace. From this one can learn that sensual pleasures drive one into all kinds of troubles and miseries; as soon as man drops them, he becomes at rest and happy.

19. Child: a sucking child is free from all cares and worries and is cheerful. Dattatreya learnt that one must be simple and cheerful in one’s life.

20. A maiden, left alone at home, had a group of visitors come to her house to see her as a prospective bride for their son. She went inside to husk the paddy but as she did that the sound of her bangles rang out; she removed the bangles one by one until finally only one remained and then there was no sound as she husked. Dattatreya learnt that living among many people there are always disputes and quarrels, even living with one more person there are quarrels. The ascetic or sanyaasi must always remain alone if he wants to have no strife.

21. The serpent: According to Dattatreya the serpent does nto build its own hole and occupies holes dug by others. Similarly the sanyasin should not build his own home, he can live in caves, temples etc built by others.

22. Arrow-maker: Once an arrow-maker was busy making arrows and straightening and sharpening them. A king passed his shop; later when he was asked if he had seen the king, the arrow-maker replied that he had not because he had been so deeply engrossed in his arrows. From this, Dattatreya learnt that one must be focussed and possess intense concentration of mind.

23. The spider: While weaving threads, the spider often gets entangled in his own web; similarly man often gets entangled by his own hands. One must think of Brahman only to escape falling into one’s own trap.
24. The beetle: It was believed, in those days, that when the beetle caught hold of a worm, it took it to its nest and there gave it a sting and go away. The poor worm, constantly thinking of the beetle’s return and its sting, became a beetle itself! Dattatreya learnt from this tale that whatever a man thinks of constantly, he attains in course of time. As a man thinks, he becomes. So Dattatreya learnt that if he kept thinking of the Atma, he would attain moksha, liberation.