- What’s wrong with fish and betel leaf? They’re not harmful. Giving up ‘lust and greed’ is the real renunciation.
- Whoever has renounced the world has progressed a good deal. All your achievements are of no account unless they lead to the realization of God.
- You cannot succeed unless you renounce ‘lust and greed.’ I renounced three things: land, wife, and money. I went to the village to get some land registered in the name of Raghuvir. I was asked to sign the deed. I did not. I didn’t think of the land as mine.
- How can one expect to realize God without renouncing? If one thing is lying under another, how can you reach it without removing the one on top?
- You don’t have to renounce everything. Live in the world like a tortoise. A tortoise moves around, feeding itself in the water, but it keeps its eggs on the dry bank. Its whole mind is where its eggs are.
- A sadhu renounces ‘lust and greed’ for his own good. And then even when he has become detached, he must not allow a woman or gold near him, to set an example. A man of renunciation, the sannyasin, is a world teacher. Just seeing him gives spiritual awakening.
- What use is it to give up tobacco and betel leaf? Giving up ‘lust and greed’ is the real renunciation. A clerk is jailed. He is bound, chained, and later set free. Will he dance with gusto after being released? No, he again takes to clerkship. You don’t wish to have a paid job, but you have to provide for your family. If you didn’t, what would happen to them?
- A real all-renouncing devotee is like a chatak bird. A chatak bird won’t drink any water but rainwater when the star Svati is ascendant. The seven seas and the rivers are full of water, but it doesn’t drink from them. A person of real renunciation will not touch ‘lust and greed,’ nor will he keep them near him lest he become attached.
- You must pray to God to give you the ability to renounce – to enable you to give up immediately what appears to be an illusion.
- If an all-renouncing – a renunciate of ‘lust and greed’ – and perfected person works selflessly, people can easily understand and imitate him.
- Why should everybody renounce ‘lust and greed’? It isn’t even possible to renounce before the time is ripe. When the desire for enjoyment is over, the time for renunciation comes. Can you do it by force?
Man of Renunciation
- Unless a person renounces the world, he can accomplish nothing wonderful and people do not accept him. People say, ‘He is a householder, he enjoys ‘lust and gold’ secretly while he tells us that the Lord is the only Reality and the world is transitory like a dream.’ Unless one has renounced the world completely, his word is not accepted by everybody, even though some worldly people may accept it.
- I ask you to have mental renunciation. I don’t ask you to leave home. You can attain God if you live unattached with your family and seek Him sincerely.
- It is different with tyagis (those who have renounced the world). Taking their mind from ‘lust and greed,’ they give it to the Lord and only sip the sweetness of Hari’s name. A genuine man of renunciation doesn’t like anything but the Lord. When he hears worldly talk, he gets up and leaves. He only listens to Godly matters. The genuine renouncer talks of nothing but the Lord. The bee sits only on flowers, for it drinks honey. It likes no other thing.
- What is the message of the Gita? What you hear when you say the word ten times. By repeating it ten times, Gita becomes ‘tyagi’ . And this is what the Gita teaches: Oh man, giving up everything, strive to realize God. Whether one is a sadhu or a householder, one must get rid of all attachments in the mind.
- Too much reading inclines one to reason and argue. The Naked One (Totapuri) taught me that the essence of the Gita is what you hear when the word Gita is repeated ten times. In other words, by repeating ‘Gita’ ten times, it becomes ‘tyagi,’ renunciation.
- Intense dispassion is essential to attain God. You must renounce immediately what you think is an obstacle in your way to God. You cannot pass over it, saying, ‘It can be dealt with later.’ ‘Lust and greed’ are hurdles on the way. You must take your mind off them.
- Most people cannot renounce unless they have enjoyed the pleasures of the world. There are two kinds of spiritual aspirants: kutichaka and vahudaka. Religious aspirants of the latter class visit numerous places of pilgrimage – they cannot settle at one place for any length of time. They drink the water from many different holy places. When their restlessness ceases by constant roaming about, they build themselves a hut and settle down. Then they meditate on God free from worry and effort.
- Without renouncing ‘lust and greed,’ one does not succeed. It is only by renunciation that ignorance is dispelled. When the rays of the sun fall on a lens, many objects burn. On the other hand, if you take the lens inside a room where there is no sunlight, nothing is burned – you have to come out of the room to use the lens.
- If you repeat the word Gita ten times, it becomes tagi. Only he who has renounced his attachment to ‘lust and greed’ and who can direct a hundred percent of his love to God can understand the essence of the Gita. One doesn’t have to read the whole of the Gita. Just say, ‘Tagi, tagi,’ and it is done.
- It is enough if one renounces in the mind. That too makes one a sannyasin. But one has to set fire to one’s desires. Only then can one succeed.
- When an object is covered with another object, don’t you have to remove the top object to get the lower one? Can you reach one without removing the other?
- What else can one see after having the glimpse of everything filled with God? The world is not visible then. But one must renounce in the mind.