Renunciation and Transformation
Divine Life
Society Publication: Chapter 67: Your Questions
Answered by Swami Krishnananda
What place does renunciation have in the meditative process of realizing
one's true Self?
Renunciation means
renunciation of all the desires that are connected with the world of
perception. Have you desires connected with this world? If they can be
renounced, you have attained perfection.
If you desire the Self only,
and desire nothing external to the Self, you have renounced, really.
Renunciation is not abandoning objects of the world, persons and things – but
the longing for them. If you have no concern with anything in the world, then
the question of renunciation, also, will not arise.
If you have got concern with
something, then the idea of renunciation, or not renunciation, arises. You are
concerned with the Self and if there is nothing else that can interest you,
then you have renounced perfectly, and you have done the best thing in the
world.
How does transformation of the personality take place?
Transformation is actually a
state of consciousness. When you are aware of something, consciousness envelops
that thing, and it takes the shape of that particular thing, whether it is a
human being, or any particular object of the world. And, you are transformed at
that time into the form of the object which you are thinking in your mind. But,
if the object does not exist for you, as you have concluded just now – they are
not matters of concern for you – you have nothing to do with anything in the
world, and then the consciousness transforms itself into its own true nature.
Now, we are empirically
conscious, sensorially aware, and filled with object consciousness. We are
seeing this world; we are looking at the buildings, we are seeing the wall, and
so many people around us. There, in that condition of perception of things, a
psychological transformation takes place. The mind assumes the shape of that
which it cognizes; then, you are able to see that such a thing exists. As
molten lead cast into a crucible takes the shape of that crucible, the mind
takes the shape of any object which it cognizes, or perceives through the sense
organs.
This is called bondage to the
objects. If you are not concerned with anything – you are seeing so many people
here, but your mind is not transformed into the shape of these people, because
the mind has no concern with them – it is a blank looking and seeing, without
any emotional connection. If that emotional connection with things is
withdrawn, and your concern is centralized in the Pure Self, you undergo a
metaphysical transformation, as they call it – a transcendental transformation
– transformation into a form of God Himself, I should say. Instead of your
consciousness taking the shape of a thing that it cognizes outside, in the form
of objects, etc., the centralized consciousness, with no concern external in
space and time, gets modified into the form of the Transcendent Being, which is
God-consciousness. That is the transformation that you are expecting, which
will take place automatically, if you are freed from object-consciousness, or
any kind of desire-consciousness. That is what you are expecting in your spiritual
transforming process.
The Self almost loses contact
with itself, and moves outside in the form of objects of sense, when it desires
anything. That is an unnatural condition of the mind. The senses have to be
withdrawn from such perceptional activity, and consciousness has to rest in
itself. The resting of the consciousness in its own self, which is Universality
of Being, is the highest Yoga or meditation. There is nothing more to be done
afterwards. That is the final goal.
In your book The
Realisation of the Absolute there is one part where you say that if a
person does not realize himself, then Nature, in some way, will. And it made it
sound like Nature has some sort of purpose, or some sort of reason. I just
wondered if you could explain that.
Nature will constrain the person to the laws of
Nature, to which we are all subject, so to say. The consciousness of finitude,
fear of death, sense of insecurity, and a feeling of dissatisfaction with
everything – these are the ways in which Nature will react upon the person who
has not realized the Self.
Self-realization means the
experience of the Universal Eternal Being, where Nature does not stand outside
it. Inasmuch as it is universal, there is no one to control it. There is no one
to restrict it; inasmuch as it is everywhere, it cannot die, also. It cannot be
born; it is perfectly free, and ultimately absolute. This is how we describe
the state of supreme realization, called by various names like Self-realization,
God-realization, and Realization of the Absolute – where One alone is, and
there is nothing external to limit you in any manner whatsoever.
That is ultimate freedom, the
aim of life, for which you have to struggle hard in deep meditational process.
Deep meditation is necessary and you have to spend practically all your time in
contemplation on this supreme completeness, the Total Whole, what you call the
Absolute, where everything is, which is All-in-All, which is inseparable from
your own existence.
This meditation is the primary
duty of every person, and when that duty is discharged, everything is
fulfilled, and you become perfect in every sense of the term. This is the thing
for which we have to struggle and strive, day in and day out, in all our
activities, in all our doings. Whatever our performances are in this life, they
all have to get streamlined in the direction of this great meditative process
on the Absolute. This is the duty of all.
Excerpts from:
Chapter 67: Your Questions
Answered by Swami Krishnananda
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