Renunciation and Divine Love Pujya Gurudevshri explains the vital role of the love for God in the process of renunciation and how renunciation is the representation of inner abundance Burns and Scalds Any effort directed towards materialism is useless, while even a little effort put forth in the direction of the divine is rewarding and of great importance. Truly, that alone is worthwhile and must be pursued even if the path looks difficult. Though the material world is perceivable, it has no value. And the divine is unseen, yet it is worth seeking. Be a worshipper of the sun. How long will you keep venerating a lamp? How long will you wait at the door of darkness? How long will you indulge in the happiness for the body and be in the illusion of being the body? The love for the divine appears arduous only because one gets caught in the transient, worthless, illusory joy. One thinks, ‘Let me enjoy a little and then I will give up everything and perform austerities and practices. Where can God go away? God is and will always be there. These pleasures and youth will not be there.’ Thus, by imagining happiness in materialism, one gives up the quest for the eternal and gets deceived by the temporary temptations. Love for the divine may seem tough because of strong delusion. Still, that is the only thing worth doing. If not, then life is a waste. Therefore, even if love for God involves difficulties, it must be cultivated. There is bliss, bliss and bliss alone on the path of devotion. Devotion and Renunciation Devotion is the highway to liberation. Therefore, it is natural that divine love will free us from all negative feelings. By devotion matter as well as materialism will fall away, but how it happens must be understood. Getting connected to the divine is so blissful that all material pleasures seem dull, and so they fall away. Like stones and pebbles fall away from the hands effortlessly on seeing valuable diamonds. To drop them, we don’t need to take vows or follow disciplines, organise functions or public processions. We do not keep a count of how many stones fell away from where. Our focus is on the gain of the valuables and not loss of the worthless; this is true renunciation. The primary thing is the gain of the diamonds, and the fruit of it is the dropping away of stones. But people notice just the renouncing. Due to the strength of right understanding, the value in worldliness drops. With an increase in the joy of the divine, the material pleasures start falling away. This must be understood well. Else, going in seclusion to the ashrams too will not bear fruits. We may renounce the world and not attain the divine. The Enlightened Ones say that the happiness of loving God is such that no worldly pleasure can be compared with that joy. This joy is matchless with the pleasures experienced from the spouse, family, wealth, status, etc. All seem worthless. The Power of Divine Love The strength of divine love is the remedy for all suffering. When such divine feelings arise, their touch cures the dis-ease. As a result of pure love manifests a state of elevation, which gives the experience of such joy and peace that cannot be experienced amid worldly riches. Therefore, a devotee’s mind revels in the inner richness and outer poverty. That is, intoxicated with the divine love it remains unbound and unaffected by the world. Mind means the desire for more. What is, is not enough. The mind is never content. The chase for more makes it even more restless. Mind’s imagination is boundless, which begets thirst for more, and the running after worldly pleasures goes on. It wants more wealth, more respect, and more knowledge. And when such mind gets intoxicated with real mendicancy, then it does not remain as mind! The consciousness attains the state of no-mind. True Mendicancy Mendicancy means acceptance of what is; contentment. No desire for change either to decrease or increase, freedom from possessiveness, absence of I-ness, my-ness, doership, and enjoyership. The cause of this state is love for the divine. But outer mendicancy without love will show as dullness on the face, inner dryness, rigidity, hypocrisy and arrogance. In practices focus will be more on quantity and not quality. The intoxication and high-spiritedness will be missing; there will be no fountain of joy in the heart. His practices will be like the fall season and not like the spring. There is a vast difference between mendicancy of one who has given up wealth etc. but is not in love with the divine and the one whose heart is so filled with the divine that everything else falls away naturally. Mendicancy for him is not an outer activity but is an inner spirit of love. The former fears material world and always shuns it. Though he guards himself against the world, he does not wake up to the truth. To him, dharma is in running around and not in getting enlightened. He thinks, if he does not renounce indulgence in pleasures, he will be doomed to hell or will be born in lower forms of lives. He fears missing the opportunity of going to heaven. Thus, his renunciation is negative and born out of fear of hell and the temptation of heaven. While the one immersed in divine love, his renunciation is positive. He neither fears hell nor is he tempted by heaven. His love is solely for the divine. His mind does not wander anywhere. He is so much in love that he does not even get a thought to wander outside. For him, the world does not exist. There is no worldliness left for him; neither to leave nor to cling to! Letting Go is Natural in Love In the world, one who is in love, for him, everything becomes secondary compared to his beloved. He is ready to go to any extent for the loved one. He can do anything or leave anything effortlessly for his love. In the same way, the one who is in love with the divine, his focus is not on renouncing anything still it happens effortlessly. Because of this, there is neither pretence nor arrogance of giving up. His focus remains ever on his gains and never on things renounced. Only in the absence of love, giving up becomes significant, and deceit or conceit may arise. No mother can ever keep an account of things she has done for her child. Be it the number of sleepless nights or days of missing meals and amount of care and concern for the child. She will have no memory of such things. But she will surely remember what she could not do or is unable to do. One who loves is not interested in maintaining counts, and one who keeps the count is neither a mother nor a lover or an aspirant. A heart without love for the divine is very much interested in keeping count of practices. The Masters say, ‘enough of maintaining records of the numbers; now start with elevation and connection with the divine.’ The real renunciation springs from love for the divine. Staying intoxicated in the divine love, the world ebbs away, and liberation gets closer. Therefore, devotion is deemed a freeway to freedom. Topicsabundancecontenmentdevotionloverenunciation Quotes Focus on the Guru's abidance in the pure Self during every activity. He remains a witness while appearing as a doer. Show your strength in defeating your inner enemies, not in controlling the weak. If you feel the absence of others, you will experience loneliness. But, if you sense your own presence deeply, you will find solitude. A good student is a learner for life. View All #SadguruWhispers If you feel the absence of others, you will experience loneliness. But, if you sense your own presence deeply, you will find solitude. 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