10/12/2004

Renunciation is meaningless if you have nothing to renounce!

We all know Prince Siddartha who renounced all his kingdom, family and wealth [in short, all his worldy pleasures] to attain the highest enlightenment, and become the Buddha. Do we know of Sadharana, the charioteer who renounced his chariot, his hut, and his family [his worldly pleasures].
Why isn't he in the history books? He too renounced! but it was only Siddartha's renunciation that is acknowledged! Why is that? [Sadharana is a product born of fiction!]

In tamil literature there were two princes of the Cheran heritage, the elder, Senguttuvan and younger, Ilango. Once an astrologer predicted that it was the younger one Ilango who had the stars to be the next king. But, Ilango for the love of his brother, renounced the kingdom and became a sage. His renunciation is still acknowledged.
But there has been many other brothers who had renounced their wealth for their siblings..why haven't they been acknowledged?

Now, the entire point of this write-up is..if you claim you renounce something, you must have something worthy to renounce. Whatever one renounces, it must be important to him. But I am not talking about that. My stake is, if you renounce something, it must be worthy in the eyes of the world. Otherwise it is not acknowledged or respected.

What you sacrifice should be of some standard, otherwise, the sacrifice is nothing.
Raise yourselves to better standards, and higher positions and if you want to..renounce or sacrifice then...if not, forget renunciation and related humbug!

People who claim that money, wealth, name and fame all are transient, without possessing them or experiencing them, are all hypocrites. Don't waste your time listening to them!!
Spend your time wisely in accumulating them!
You just have one life to live!

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmm, never thought of it this way till the two of you brought it up. Now its apparent what sort of sacrifice really matters. Thanks for the enlightenment and this is going to allow for minute sacrifices to be made for huge recognition. and I mean recognition within oneself. Thats what matters now isn't it?

the last paragraph is what I thoroughly enjoyed. It was sharp, it was advice that really meant well , for once~!

V

8:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi! I completely agree with Anantya's point.We renounce for ourselves, not for the world.And renunciation is less of the "things n relationships" n more of the ties! If we maintain those ties of greed, power, ambition, popularity, acceptance, recognition etc we will not be able to understand the true meaning of life. Till there is Identification, Objectivity will not come. You wud continue to be inside the web.

Our scriptures define the four goals of life as " Artha, Dharma, Kaam, Moksha". If you notice Moksha comes at the last. I genuinely believe that this was not done merely for rhyming purpose but has a deeper meaning behind. I totally agree with your view Ela that we need to first taste life in all its facets, only then will a sacrifice be meaningful.

But you know, one need not necessarily fall to understand the pain. We learn by observing others as well. Most dont realise even after repeated hurts..but thats a different story.

We can't afford to despise them as each of us is interconnected and has a shared responsibility to elevate the Cosmic Homeostasis.

Best Regards,
Rashmi

3:22 AM  
Blogger Karthik .P.Krishnan said...

I totally agree with one part of ur ryt up which says that its not possible to renounce something if u dont possess it...but i dont agree that people who dont have interests on materialistic needs are hypocrites...people who actaully desire possesions but fail to get it (basic losers) and then renounce are hypocrites but i dont thnk disinterested ones fall into this criteria

11:34 AM  

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