[Advaita-l] Karma yoga: the kinder, softer preparation for self-inquiry and surrender

[Ven Balakrishnan]

Apologies, I am joining the discussion late.  But I noted that someone asked where has Ramanamaharishi ever stated that renunciation is necessary.

In Guru Vachaka Kovai, the most authentic collection from his talks, which he himself proofed:

828: The path of sannyasa is like treading on slippery ground. Even if a slip only occurs in the mind, great harm is still sure to result.  It is therefore the duty of the person who Is walking on the slippery ground of sannyaa to ensure, by vigilance, that the perfidious pramada does not gain clandestine access into his heart.

829: It is impossible for anyone to determine definitively his lifespan. Therefore for the jivas who are trying hard to attain the powerful state of kaivalyam, it is most beneficial to renounce the world without delay, at the very moment that aversion to the body and the world arises.

830: Just as a ripened fruit separates effortlessly from the tree and falls, when a sadhaka who is aiming to merge his mind in the supreme attains maturity, he will definitely renounce family life as unsalted gruel unless his unfavourable prarabdha stands in the way

831: Only those who have extricated themselves from the multitude of things that, like a dream, appear within them, by regarding those things as mere imagination, will root out the deception, the illusory corruption. None of the others willl know the means to put an end to that corruption.


And he goes on with further verses.

For Ramanamaharishi, who viewed the world as entirely unreal, renunciation would natural - like a ripe fruit falling - as understanding accumulated.  However for him, there was no point in mere physical renunciation without mental renunciation as well.  Hence if someone had to ask whether to renounce, then the mere fact of asking showed that s/he was not ready for renunciation - so why confuse or add to the mental burden of such a seeker.  And as Krishna notes in BG, only the very rare seeker attains jnana - hence for the majority of us, we still have to perform sadhanas as best as possible . . . until we are ready.



venkat