Renunciation

From the strict spiritual point of view, renunciation, the so-called earthly renunciation is not necessary for an aspirant. At the same time, we have to know what we mean by renunciation. If renunciation means leaving the family aside, not caring for society or humanity, then I wish to say that no matter what we renounce today, there will be something else tomorrow to stand in our way. Today the family is the obstacle; tomorrow it will be our friends or relatives; the day after tomorrow, it will be our country and the day after the world. There will be no end to this kind of renunciation.

Certainly we have to renounce in the spiritual life. What are we going to renounce? We are going to renounce fear, doubt, imperfection, ignorance and death. We are not going to renounce individuals; we are going to renounce qualities, the qualities which stand in the way of our union with the Divine. When we enter into the spiritual life, we get the opportunity to renounce, or rather to transform those qualities. When we speak of renouncing or transforming something, we immediately think of ignorance. Truly it is the one thing that we have to transform in our spiritual life.

Renunciation can never he applied to the world or to our dearest ones. If somebody says he is going to renounce the world in order to realise God, then I wish to say that he is mistaken. Today he will renounce the world and tomorrow he will find that the God he is seeking is nowhere else. He is in the world itself. So what is preventing him from seeing God in the world? It is his attitude. He has to try to see God in humanity. In order to see God in humanity, he has to remove the veil of ignorance that lies between him and the rest of the world. When the veil is rent, when the veil is, in fact, removed, there is nothing to be renounced. One sees God, one feels God, one is in God, here and beyond.

From:Sri Chinmoy,AUM — Vol. 4, No.10, 27 May 1969, AUM Centre Press, 1969
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