Poojya Swamiji's Jayanthi Message

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

To the Brahma Vidya seekers and devotees:

Harih Om Tat Sat.  Sannyaasa is the last of the four Ashramas meant for human life.  In Sannyaasa alone does human life, devoted to Dharma and Purity, get fulfilled.  This means that all the three earlier Ashramas like Brahmacharya, Garhasthya and Vaanaprastha are but preparations leading to and culminating in Sannyaasa. 

Thus the spirit and purpose of Sannyaasa, the freedom and fulfilment it brings, must be reflected upon in all the three earlier stages of life.  Householders have to understand this and develop a strong bond towards Sannyaasa and Sannyasins.

Any sannyasin is born in a household.  He is also brought up in the household.  The heredity as well as the initial growth he gains from his parents and home alone lead him to a spiritual Teacher, seeking spiritual wisdom.   The new bond with the Teacher finally results in his embracing Sannyaasa, the last order of life.

Householders reflect upon this supreme fact with fondness and inspiration. Their virtues, purity and enrichment alone perpetuate goodness and long-term welfare in the society.  All sannyasins are fed by the householders alone.  A Sannyasin’s life also is solely meant to help and strengthen householders in their path of dharma, goodness and spiritual wisdom.  The bond thus between sannyasins and householders is wholesome, unassailable.

When understood well, more than an order of life, sannyaasa is an inner enrichment.  It instils a strong, sublime, inner note of renunciation towards every kind of gain and loss, freeing the mind of all botheration and doubt.  Spiritual wisdom alone has the power to bring this freedom. 

Arjuna’s discomfiture in Kurukshetra was due to his lack of renunciation. In utter delusion, he pleaded that he should quit the battlefield, abandoning the war for which he had prepared for 13 years.  His mind was shaken, intelligence confused, ego shattered.

Krishna sensed the distress. With timely words of wisdom, he instilled in Arjuna the inner renunciation, calling it yoga.  Arjuna was initially surprised. But, very soon he found a new focus. In about 3 hours, the confused Arjuna became clear and resolved.  Renunciation, he was clear, was not in shunning activity, but in taking it up in an enlightened manner - the ego should drop and the blessedness of universal vision should shine in its place. 

“I am a part of the infinite Nature.  Nature beams with activity.  Through me a part of it becomes manifest.  I have no special purpose. Like a drop of water in the river, I also am in the flow of Nature. Let me do my best, feeling that it is an inevitable contribution to the whole. In this lies my harmony, fullness and poise.  No more am I a disconnected individual. Everything is Divine and Full.”

If you will lead yourself to this kind of expansion, freedom and harmony, therein reigns sannyaasa.  Those who take up Sannyaasa, are taking up this pursuit in a wholesome manner.  Therein lies their difference too. 

Birthday never repeats.  But with every year passing, one completes a greater tenure on the earth.  I wonder how forty-nine years have passed after I embraced Sannyaasa. The reflection is enriching and fulfilling. 

As I have always said:  There is a way of living in this world without being bound by it, afflicted by it - come what may.  This is the way of freedom, enlightenment and harmony.  Every one is entitled to pursue this way. 

I would like this spirit and mission to inspire all of you, even the whole world.  If all of you can heed, imbibe and reflect this spirit in your life and pursuits, that would be the greatest offering you can think of making.  May this message be spread heartily.  Do everything necessary for it.

Love and ashirvaad. 

Swamiji 

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