What could be the feeling that a princess of Jodhpur experienced so intensely that she left all the palace pleasures and decide to live her life as a yogini? What could be that emotion which persuaded a prince to renounce all the palace enjoyment and comfort and live his entire life as a beggar until he got the enlightenment? You must be guessing their names. The Princess is Meerabai and the prince is none other than Gautama Buddha. These are only the two examples and I can give you more – many more.
The point I am trying to convey is not to leave your home but to know that feeling, that emotion that tempted them to do so. I always wanted to experience the feeling that grows so intensely that can make a person so isolated, so exhausted of the earthly desires that at the end his only aim left to quench this thirst of truth.
“Those who leave one thing to take up another, and follow attachment, never relinquish desire. They are like monkeys who let go of one branch only to grasp another only to let it go in turn.” (Sutta Nipāta 791)
The world has not produced a greater genius than Sankaracharya, renounced every worldly desire and become the greatest sanyasi of all time. Why? Why did Ramakrishna Paramahamsa renounce the world? Why did Mandan Misra take Sanyasa? There is no greater sage than Yajnavalkya. He had the highest Realisation, yet he took Sanyasa. Why? In many texts, the Buddha explains the danger inherent in sensual pleasures and the blessing of renunciation. Why? What’s so blissful in that? No use of argumentation and logic; mere vanity of the intellect.
“Renunciation is the act of denying something, especially if it is enjoyable or pleasurable, something that the renunciant has previously endorsed. Or in simple terms rejecting something which we like and are attached with.”
No one can renounce everything without any reason. Can we? No. Then why they felt so compelled that renouncing everything but the truth became their aim. There must be something that we cannot ignore. We shouldn’t. As Gautama Buddha said that this bliss he got after enlightenment was much more pleasurable than he had in his palace. So what’s this bliss that is so wonderful so happiness providing that every sadness even the biggest tragedy seems lesser to it?
You know what every person in his life experiences that feeling once. But they ignore it as soon as they feel it as it scares them away. It makes them frightened. They don’t want to think about it so they divert their mind into something else like shopping, music or gossiping.
But it shouldn’t be done. It’s not good as it takes away people from their real self. This is the inner voice that is trying to make you think “who you are?” This is the only point when you can seriously think about your real nature. This is the only point when you think beyond your family, finance and career thing. Never let go of the feeling. Jot it down. How it is making you feel. What are you experiencing? It can be scary but notice it. Don’t ignore by watching the TV or mobile.
Don’t seek the logic behind that feeling as we know thoroughly that we are ruled by our emotions rather than understanding. Sometimes we feel a sudden urge of doing something which is beyond logic. We can be maybe intellectual with a high understanding of the nature of things but put aside our intellect when feelings supervene because in our homes we are just an embodiment of emotions and emotions is the root of individuality.
Understanding might be a brilliant torch before us in our academies, in our colleges and universities but we become a heap of feeling in a state of ebullition and religion. So don’t try to understand what’s happening. What’s happening is merely what’s happening. Observe the feeling and dive deep into it. It will take you to the real self. It will illuminate the path towards knowing your true nature. And then you will only feel the true bliss that Buddha talked about.
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