Manifesting Divinity

Week 8

Question:
What is Vedantik sannyasa?

Reflection:
“Spiritual life does not have to be pursued in thick forests or lonely caves, nor is it only for certain extraordinary individuals of special qualifications. It is not achieved by running away from the world or living a beggarly life of idleness in some remote Himalayan valley. The votary of truth need not change his clothes or apply some marks to his or her body, or for hours stand upon his head in the blazing sun. Shaving the head, keeping a begging bowl, throwing away all clothes, sitting on a bed of nails, or sleeping on lion-skins — these external changes have no real meaning, nor are they by themselves true signs of a freed soul. Spiritual life is not dependent, except to a very negligible extent, on the place where you live, on the clothes you wear, on how you stand, or on the condition of the hair upon your head. There is only one way of attaining a divine life — by living a divine life.

Worldly life is a continuous experiencing of limitations, pains and sorrows, now and then uplifted by a false, intoxicating waft of fleeting joy gained from some sense object. Spiritual life is a continuous attempt to live a divine life, with a full realization of its scope and values. The aspirant is now and then encouraged by fleeting glimpses of the real, dynamic bliss — God.

The aspirant’s goal is an eternal experience. The individualized ego realizes its ultimate fulfillment in merging with the existence-knowledge-bliss (sat-chit-ananda) that truth is. It is the supreme ‘be-ness’, the goal, the end. In that state of perfection, there is nothing that he does not have; there all desires are fulfilled. He is no more under the tyranny of his mortal limitations. Beyond time, space and causality, beyond death and disease, above hopes and desires, he finds himself to be the all. This is not a becoming — he merely regains his true nature by an intuitive recognitions of the Self.” ~ Swami Chinmayananda