Renunciation doesn’t make devotion attractive – devotion makes renunciation attractive
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
Renunciation doesn't make devotion attractive. Devotion makes renunciation attractive. When we are practicing spiritual life, it is easy.
Externals first. And in a sense, change needs to be external too. But it's not external alone.
Change is not the most important change. So for example, when we come to know about Krishna and about how he performs beautiful pastimes in his eternal abode in the world beyond this world, then we are left with no alternative in the sense of our intellectual understanding except to seek that Lord who exists beyond this world. We understand that attractive in this world, it can be easily deceptive.
So we need something to redirect our attraction towards. And since the order of renunciation seems to promise rejection of this world, so it becomes easy to move towards Krishna. So we think that we are moving towards Krishna by adopting the renounced order.
But when we accept renunciation externally, this renunciation alone doesn't make Krishna attractive. It doesn't make devotion to Krishna attractive. The character of our heart, it doesn't change simply by the change of the color of our dress.
The change of the character requires something much deeper. It requires purification. So if we prematurely rush into the renounced order, then we find that after some time, the world starts attracting us and it keeps attracting us.
And it's almost impossible to get rid of the attractiveness of the world simply by wishing away the attractiveness, calling it as deceptive, calling it as temporary. Yes, intellectually we need to understand this. But still our conditionings make these things seem attractive and sometimes irresistibly attractive.
So renunciation doesn't make devotion attractive. It is rather purification that makes devotion attractive. Actually it's not that it makes devotion attractive.
Devotion is eternally attractive because the object of devotion Krishna is eternally attractive. But that attractiveness is not so easily apparent to us. That attractiveness is not so easily evident to us when we are conditioned.
So we could say in that sense that purification makes Krishna attractive in our eyes. Eternally, factually, independent of our vision, he is always all attractive. Now when we strive to practice bhakti, it is steady practice of bhakti and the purification thereof that actually makes renunciation truly attractive.
Superficially renunciation can be initially attractive when we think that we are making a dramatic change in our life. We think that we are taking a giant step forward in our spiritual life by accepting the renounced order. And yes, accepting the renounced order can be a giant step forward.
But only when we see it as a facility for accessing more and more forms of purification, for accessing more and more opportunities for purification. Only when we see it this way can we become purified and can renunciation become a healthy aid in our journey towards Krishna. Otherwise renunciation itself can become such a torture that instead of being an aid, it can become an obstacle.
It can appear to be something which externally we are proud of, but internally we feel tormented by. Krishna talks about how this inner battle can go from the level of torment, from the level of self-torment to self-deception, where we externally delight in our renunciation and internally delight in our sensual imagination. In 3.6 he says, कर्मे इन्द्रियाणि संग्यम् ययासते मनसास्मर्ण इन्द्रियार्थान् मुद्धात्मा विठ्याचारस उच्छते So he says that some people, quite externally in putting on a show of being very renounced, but internally they are contemplating on sense objects and they're delighting in such contemplation.
They're not resisting that contemplation. Then they can't grow much. In fact, they are hurting themselves and they are hurting others.
So the best way we can move forward in our life is by understanding that Krishna is the one who is all-attractive and it is our purification that will reveal His attractiveness. And when we are attracted to Him, then indulgence in the world will be seen as a distraction and thus the inner disposition and the outer position that minimizes such distraction will naturally be seen as attractive. And that's how renunciation becomes naturally organically attractive.
So by focusing on our own purification, not our renunciation, irrespective of whether we are in the renounced order or the engaged order, when we focus on renunciation, then we can move forward steadily in our journey towards Krishna. And thus it is that renunciation doesn't make devotion attractive, renunciation doesn't make Krishna attractive. It is devotion and the purification that awakens devotion that makes renunciation attractive.
Thank you.