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Total surrender

CHENNAI: The more a person progresses spiritually, the more he will be able to discern the divine will guiding his destiny. Great saints therefore are always attuned to the divine will by sublimating their ego. The scriptures are the guide for a spiritual seeker to eschew that which impede his evolution and follow those practices that will enable him to progress. Saints, however, transcend this duality as they are in union with God; besides they will not do anything morally wrong.

In his discourse, Swami Gautamananda said when a devotee asked Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa why he had not renounced a householder’s life as that would be better for him, the saint replied that it was a matter of perspective whether one should remain a householder or formally become a monk. He was always in communion with God that it did not matter to him to which stage of life he belonged, but devotees who thronged to him often had such reservations and expressed them to him. He was accessible to them and clarified their doubts with all seriousness. To this Sri Ramakrishna replied that he did not know what was right or wrong but followed whatever God directed him to do. In practice, renunciation will be good for some and not for others. In fact, he had advised many of his devotees to follow the spiritual path as a householder.

The devotee further asked if everyone renounced the world would that not go against God’s will. The saint asked him how all could renounce worldly life at any given time as it was possible to progress only stage by stage. Even by that reckoning, if all followed the scriptural injunctions strictly there are four stages of life—Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha, Sannyasa—and hence only one-fourth of society will be Sannyasins. In turn, the saint countered that if he was convinced that it was divine will that some were householders, why then did they blame God while facing calamities in life—they should accept them also as God’s will. Sri Ramakrishna thus drove home the truth that it required total surrender to God to accept the vicissitudes of life with equanimity of mind. For a person who is able to do so, it does not matter whether he was a householder or a monk.

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