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Possessed of high soul, the Sannyasin should restrain his senses from all things and keep himself aloof from all attachments. He should never repair to the places visited by him and the men known to him while leading the prior modes of life. Agreeable to all creatures, and without a fixed home, he should be devoted to the contemplation of Self.
"Is a Sannyasin rather dull?" "In the Bhagavad-gita," I answered, "he is to be known as a Sannyasin who does not hate and does not love anything." "How are you progressing?" I felt her troubling eyes full upon me, and I suspected there was mockery in their depths. "Oh, well, fairishly but of course I haven't studied as faithfully as I might." "I should think you couldn't afford to be negligent."
It hath been heard by us that the different courses of duty laid down for the different modes of life, all lead to the same end. The Sannyasin attains to a high end. The forest-recluse also attains to a high end. Both the other two also, viz., the householder and the Brahmacharin, reach the same end. All the four modes of life have always been regarded as Deva-yana ways.
It was the impression made on the young prince, of the general prevalence of suffering, that drove him forth from the palace to be a sannyasin or devotee. In a striking sermon he uses the figure of fire to indicate how universal is the rule of pain in all parts of nature and of human life.
The course of life is settled at the time of the initiatory rites. What is stated here is this. The Sannyasin should not ask for alms: or, if he ever seeks for alms, he should seek them in a village or house where the cooking has been already done and where every one has already eaten. This limitation is provided as otherwise the Sannyasin may be fed to his fill by the householder who sees him.
He whose actions are performed not with the object of securing any reward or blessing, who has sacrificed all to the requirements of his renunciation, is a real Sannyasin and is really wise. And as communion with Brahma cannot be taught to us, even by our spiritual preceptor, he only giving us a clue to the mystery renunciation of the material world is called Yoga.
Old Gobind had always known: "You will learn to look within for the woman. You would not find favor in finding her without. It is not for you the red desire of love." How he had rebelled against the authority of those sentences, but his respect for the deep vision of Gobind was complete. Moreover, the old Sannyasin had said he was not to return to India until he was ready to give up the body.
"Brahma is faultless and equable"; so Sreedhara and others, "since faultless equality is Brahma." The sense is that they are at one with Brahma both here and hereafter. Renouncer and devotee Sannyasin and Yogin. Which spring from desire. Self in this sloka is explained by the commentators as mind. The mind, unless controlled, cannot lead to devotion.
"Yes," the Sannyasin answered simply, but a moment later, he shivered, and seemingly divined all that was in the young man's mind, for he added: "You will learn to look within for the woman.... You would not find favor in finding her without.... It is not for you the red desire of love!"
"Thank you!" and I made the play. "Then you're not a Sannyasin yet?" "I've nearly taken the first degree. Sometimes after hard practice I can succeed in not hating anything for as much as an hour." I dealt eight more cards and became, to outward seeming, I hope, absorbed in the new aspect of the game. "Perseverance will be rewarded," she said kindly. "You can't expect to learn it all at once."
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