Life of a Working Sanyasi

What does a Sanyasi do? Funny question isn't it? But the question is worth pondering about. He lives a life of renunciation. Does it mean he relives himself of all worldly pleasures and responsibilities and is free from social obligations?
What about a concept of working Sanyasi, one who has responsibilities towards ones family, society, nation and humanity? Let us visualize his life. His daily life has three chores - Meditation, work and prayer.



Meditation
To know about meditation our sanyasi visits an ashram in Jalahalli. They show him how to meditate and how to make his mind free from all thoughts except that of God. They asked him to concentrate on his inner self - his soul. They asked him to visualize the divine light embedded deep inside his heart. But with every effort his restless mind was wandering in the wilderness of his crazy ideas. The more he concentrated the more wilder shapes his ideas took.
When he opened his eyes everything looked cool around him as if the sunshine bathing them was screened by a layer of a giant translucent cloud. There was a soothing effect but his mind was not still calm. His first try to learn a new art has failed. May be because it was for the first time and he was not ready to give up. He thought about it- why he could not concentrate. Or was it really the way he wants to do it? He thought - his search is something different from what he has experienced. He wanted to explore his mind. But was it possible with a thoughtless mind? He wanted to rein his mind so that it gallops towards the destinations of his passions bounded by the commitments of his social life. Will that be different from what his soul wants? What his God wants?
People say they meditate to find the ultimate truth. But is it different from ultimate happiness? Why they are still not able to find it? Why it seems that the ultimate truth is actually a colossal lie. He believes ultimate truth is a realization. Realization of achievement what our lives strive to achieve. So it will be different for different people. Mahatma Buddha stopped his search when he found his truth. But still the search goes on and on. We all come here to search for our truth. But most of them perish before even getting acquainted with their goals. We need a leader to show us the way. But how will we find a person who has same goal as ours? Why don’t we search within ourselves? We will find a leader in there. We have to strengthen him by nurturing him and feeding him with the ideas we generate. So meditation could lead to the discovery of self. So our working Sanyasi meditates to refine his thoughts, his work and his style (a stylish Sanyasi humorous one isn’t it?).





Work
Vairagya (renunciation) is believed to be a state of mind when one becomes free from desires. But can he survive in the modern world without earning? He needs money and things to run his household to provide support to his dependents; to fulfill there needs and protect them from harm. He needs for self construction and development to help him grow, change his world and put his ideas into practice.
So renunciation for him is not non-possession but non-attachment. He has to get his share of right and has the duty to use it for the right cause and be ready to pass it on to the next rightful person. For this he needs to have non-attachment to his powers. Thus this possession is not ‘bhog’ but karma.
He should work for building character and development of personality. He learns outside the close confines of his cubicles and strives to become a product of creative experience than the textual ones. He takes painstaking paces for an evolutionary change rather than a revolutionary change. It may require dedication, sacrifice and martyrdom.


Prayer
What is Prayer? Our Sanyasi thought about it. The closest word that he came into his mind was praise. Yes it should have come from the word praise, he thought. But his poor literary knowledge of English language questioned its correctness. But he only wanted to satisfy himself. So this would do. So we sing ‘Bhajans’ to praise (Sthuthi) the achievements and ‘karma’ of God Almighty. To praise his kindness that he had showered on us. But does it end there? What about the effort human puts? He too needs encouragement. To enjoy his work, to feel proud of his achievements, he needs constant motivation and appreciation. He boasts about his small achievements to himself and celebrates his tiny victories. His small happiness and achievements uplifts himself to a respectable position in his own eyes.