Carpe Diem #710, Renunciation

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

After a wonderful weekend off in which Hamish Managua Gunn was your co-host at CDHK I am full of new energy. Thank you Hamish for being our co-host last weekend, you did a great job and I have enjoyed your posts. Maybe another time again? Next month (May 2015) Georgia will be your co-host as I take my weekend off, but that's in the near future. Now we are in the present and we are reading the Bhagavad Gita to (maybe) find peace of mind, as is the theme for this month.

Today it's all about renunciation ... a not so easy to use prompt I think, but maybe the definition for renunciation can help a little bit. This is the definition: an act or instance of relinquishing, abandoning, repudiating, or sacrificing something.

As I re-read this definition than it's obviously that renunciation is an act. An act to give up Self for the greater task in life. That's what Krishna tells Arjuna as they are standing in the middle of the two armies. Let us take a look at the Bhagavad Gita and what it tells us about renunciation.

without sadness
the birds in the sky
rejoice

© Chèvrefeuille

song of a Nightingale

[...] Arjuna asking what is true Sannyasa and true Tyaga (renunciation). In reply to this important and crucial query, the blessed Lord makes it clear to us that real Sannyasa or renunciation lies in renunciation of selfish actions, and even more in the renunciation of the desire or greed for the fruits of any action. Very clearly we are told that selfless and virtuous actions, and actions conducive to the welfare of others should not be abandoned. You must engage yourself in performing such action but renouncing attachment and greed. The true and proper renunciation is giving up of selfishness and attachment while performing one’s legitimate duties. This is called Sattwic Tyaga. We neither hate unpleasant action nor are we attached to pleasurable action. As it is not possible for you to renounce all action, the renunciation of egoism, selfishness and attachment in your activity is declared as true renunciation. Karma does not accumulate and bind one who is thus established in such inner renunciation.

The divine injunction is that God must be made the sole object of one’s life. This is the heart of the Bhagavad Gita. This is the central message in its teaching. This is the one way to your welfare here. Now Sanjaya concludes his narrative by declaring that where there is such obedience as that of Arjuna, and such willing readiness to carry out the divine teachings, there surely prosperity, victory, glory and all blessedness will prevail. [...]

As follows a conversation between Arjuna and Krishna about "Selflessness" and part of this conversation I will reproduce here. (The following verses are from the 18th chapter)

10. The man of renunciation, pervaded by purity, intelligent and with his doubts cut asunder, does not hate a disagreeable work nor is he attached to an agreeable one.
11. Verily, it is not possible for an embodied being to abandon actions entirely; but he who relinquishes the rewards of actions is verily called a man of renunciation.

50. Learn from Me in brief, O Arjuna, how he who has attained perfection reaches Brahman, that supreme state of knowledge.
51. Endowed with a pure intellect, controlling the self by firmness, relinquishing sound and other objects and abandoning both hatred and attraction,
52. Dwelling in solitude, eating but little, with speech, body and mind subdued, always engaged in concentration and meditation, taking refuge in dispassion,
53. Having abandoned egoism, strength, arrogance, anger, desire, and covetousness, free from the notion of “mine” and peaceful,—he is fit for becoming Brahman.
54. Becoming Brahman, serene in the Self, he neither grieves nor desires; the same to all beings, he attains supreme devotion unto Me.
55. By devotion he knows Me in truth, what and who I am; and knowing Me in truth, he forthwith enters into the Supreme.

Arjuna has to let go Self and has to become selfless completely devoted to Krishna if he wants to go to "heaven". He has to become one with Brahman to enter Atman.

Credits: All Gods Are One God

Isn't that also what is said in so many other religions? Is this again a based on the idea that all religions derived from Hinduism? I think so hypothetically ... because there are so much connections to the sacred texts which we (maybe) all know. Is this not what is said in the proverb "All Gods Are One God" .... again a lot to think about, but how to catch this in a haiku?
As you read in the above haiku ... I think we can catch renunciation through nature and all that's living in it, including humans. Although ... humans can choose for renunciation, but nature it self, animals, birds and so on, don't have that choice, because they are all part of the greater .... part of the Creator (as we are too, as we could read in several episodes on the Tarot in 2013). We are all made from "god stuff" ... and that makes us, nature and humans, one.

lost in the forest
wind, sun, trees and birds
one with it all

© Chèvrefeuille

A though episode to write, but I think I have succeeded to make it ... I hope this episode will inspire you to look at nature without Self ... completely in tune with nature ... 

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until April 23th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, another wonderful haiku by Kala Ramesh, later on. For now, have fun!