Sanyasa
Selection From a lecture of Swamiji (in the year 1994)



. . . A Sanyasi is one who can stand apart and watch the situation, and make appropriate responses to it. While a Samsari gets caught up by a situation and becomes a victim of it, a Sanyasi stands apart and responds creatively. In the process he discovers himself, unfolds his inner potential.

Sanyasa, which is the highest ideal is not running away from activity. It is looking inward for that extra magazine of energy. A Sanyasi, is therefore one who is self-inspired and self-motivated. We should not have the wrong notion that Sanyasa means renouncing everything and going back to the forests. For the last two thousand years we have been indulging in such thoughts:' let us go back to the Himalayas; let us go back to the forests'. And that is the reason why we have come to such a pass. . .

Renunciation means you have to create and renounce. If you don't create you have no right to renounce. To create means you have to invoke something unique out of yourself. Those people who can invoke their potential in their interactions with the world, alone can invoke their potential in their interactions with the world, can alone leave what they create for other people. They keep moving ahead.

Sanyasa means a constant forward movement.
Create and leave behind what you have created. . .