Sri Ramakrishna used to say: “The sannyasin, the man of renunciation, is a world teacher. It is his example that awakens the spiritual consciousness of men.” Ramakrishnananda was a sannyasin of spotless character. He once said to an American devotee: “Man must give up everything to God, then alone he thrives… . If you study all the personal religions, you will find that all preach renunciation. Renunciation is their fundamental teaching.”
Another time he explained the mystery of renunciation: “Those who give up the world for spiritual life are giving up the uncertain for the certain, the passing for the permanent. All our power comes from renunciation. Only when we have given up our lives do we begin to live. At present we are like prisoners. We may get a glimpse of freedom now and then but the world falls upon us when we are off our guard and drags us back once more into our prison cells. As soon as a man finds out, however, that these little pleasures of the flesh are nothing compared with the infinite pleasures of the spirit, he wants to renounce; not for the sake of renunciation, but because he has found something better. He has realized the hollowness of the enjoyments of the world and can be satisfied only with higher enjoyment. Renunciation means giving up a lesser thing for a greater.”
Selfishness is sin; unselfishness is the first milestone on the path of spirituality. A selfish person may perhaps enjoy comfort and health, but a sannyasin can never afford to be selfish. Ramakrishnananda said: “So long as we are selfish our work must be fruitless. We may deliver fine lectures, we may gain name and fame, but the actual results will be nil. The moment, however, that our little self disappears, at that moment our real work begins. Then we may live an obscure life and go nowhere, but we shall accomplish wonders.
“When we drop the ego from our consciousness and live in God, we have unlimited power. God is the only existence that is real; all other existences are unrealities behind which God exists as the reality. This maya is so irresistible and it is this maya which makes us selfish. Only when God is gracious to us can we lift the veil and get a glimpse of Him. Then all selfishness drops off.
“The word ‘selfishness’ is not always understood. When by ‘self’ I understand the body or the little self and I do something for that self, I am selfish. But there is a Self which is beyond this physical body; when I do something for that Self, that is worshipping God. The man who lives in that higher Self is never selfish. Try to feel God inside yourself and you will overcome all selfishness. When you live constantly in the presence of Divinity, the ego loses its power; but so long as the ego rules a man, he is a bond-slave. All your anxieties and worries come from egotism and selfishness. Let go of your little self and they will all disappear.” (Source: God Lived with Them)