Monday, July 03, 2006
GITA 108 DAYS - DAY 23
23. Learn Renunciation from Sri Krishna
We must learn renunciation from Sri Krishna, not from Buddha. Krishna’s renunciation is not by rejecting anything, but by accepting everything. There is complete acceptance where ‘I’ and ‘me’ are not present. Buddha abandoned his wife and son to embark on spiritual enquiry.
In the journey within, there should be no difficulty. We should withdraw the senses from their objects of attraction in such a way that even we should not notice it. It must be effortless like opening of a flower bud. For those who have controlled their senses, their intellect is firm in their resolves.
Sense organs, under the spell of anger, steal the mind of even a hardworking scholar. Sense organs go to their respective sense objects without us even knowing about it. Even if we sit down in contemplation inside a cave, there will be sense objects (vishaya) dancing in front of us with their finest glory and beauty to disturb our penance. Here, there is no point in being too stubborn as that can cause nerve diseases. It is an art to transcend vishayas- it cannot be achieved by fighting them. Most of the austerities can torture our body and mind, when we undertake them wishing to get something in return. Usually those attempts are in vain. Those who are fasting by forcefully controlling the urge may be thinking about food all the time. Whatever we want to renunciate that way, our lust for the same will be ten-fold.
A yogi’s renunciation is not like that of a diabetes patient rejecting sugar in his diet. There are desires present in the man who has taken up hunger strike. A jnaani (wise man) doesn’t run behind sensory pleasure, because he is convinced that they are trivial. As the ultimate Truth is known to him, a man with his intellect transcended will not have any desires at all.
Gita advises us to withdraw our senses from the objects like a tortoise withdrawing its head and limbs. While the tortoise may be doing it out of fear, the wise man does it out of wisdom. Men with a steadfast intellect direct their senses inward and withdraw them from the objects.
We must learn renunciation from Sri Krishna, not from Buddha. Krishna’s renunciation is not by rejecting anything, but by accepting everything. There is complete acceptance where ‘I’ and ‘me’ are not present. Buddha abandoned his wife and son to embark on spiritual enquiry.
In the journey within, there should be no difficulty. We should withdraw the senses from their objects of attraction in such a way that even we should not notice it. It must be effortless like opening of a flower bud. For those who have controlled their senses, their intellect is firm in their resolves.
Sense organs, under the spell of anger, steal the mind of even a hardworking scholar. Sense organs go to their respective sense objects without us even knowing about it. Even if we sit down in contemplation inside a cave, there will be sense objects (vishaya) dancing in front of us with their finest glory and beauty to disturb our penance. Here, there is no point in being too stubborn as that can cause nerve diseases. It is an art to transcend vishayas- it cannot be achieved by fighting them. Most of the austerities can torture our body and mind, when we undertake them wishing to get something in return. Usually those attempts are in vain. Those who are fasting by forcefully controlling the urge may be thinking about food all the time. Whatever we want to renunciate that way, our lust for the same will be ten-fold.
A yogi’s renunciation is not like that of a diabetes patient rejecting sugar in his diet. There are desires present in the man who has taken up hunger strike. A jnaani (wise man) doesn’t run behind sensory pleasure, because he is convinced that they are trivial. As the ultimate Truth is known to him, a man with his intellect transcended will not have any desires at all.
Gita advises us to withdraw our senses from the objects like a tortoise withdrawing its head and limbs. While the tortoise may be doing it out of fear, the wise man does it out of wisdom. Men with a steadfast intellect direct their senses inward and withdraw them from the objects.
# posted by Sukumar Canada @ 4:46 PM 
