Nature of Renunciation

Don't desire sense-enjoyments. The body is being maintained by providence any way. Have no attachment towards any thing because everything is ever-changing. Know this and be contented. The Supreme Self, witness to these changes, is eternal. Know the majestic glory of the Eternal and be one with that. Enjoy both, the ever-changing and the eternal. Don't allow yourself to be dragged down by the ever changing and do not turn back from the eternal.

For ages we have been wandering through numerous forms of life because of our desire lust and attachment. "Get rid of the sense of 'I' and 'mine' of the pairs of opposites like pleasure and pain. Destroy all ignorance and differences.

Have no attachment and no hatred; eradicate all defects from the mind. Root out desire from your heart. Bring supreme good to your real Self. Destroy duality; contemplate on Self abiding in all/" Thoughts of duality breed vices like attachment and hatred, fear, grief, worry remorse desire and the sense of 'I' and 'mine'. Contemplate on the Universal Self.

What is desire? I want to get something. To seek pleasure in doing something, grasping, seeing and listening. We have been hankering after these desires for ages; yet we didn't get happiness that lasted. Had we got lasing happiness as much as the water on the tip of a needle, we would have had tons of happiness with us by this time. But nothing of that sort happened and we are left with zilch for all our efforts.

Krishna says" Renounce desire; next renounce longing as well. Even after this, attachment or the sense of 'mine' is left. This too brings misery. Renounce the sense of 'mine' as well. But even after renouncing attachment, desire and longing, there remains the ego of renouncing these. This ego too has to be renounced. Ego is of two kinds — natural ego, an evolutes of Prakriti and unnatural or ignorance borne ego.

Natural ego is limited to the body alone. It preserves and protects the body. It says, 'I am the body'. If the body feels hungry, the natural ego provides food to it; if the body is tired, it takes it to the bed. If the mind feels bored it takes the body to a place of entertainment. Natural ego is not that painful.

Ego in transient things like this is my house, I have this much money, I have this much land, I have so many friends is unnatural or ignorance-borne ego.

In reality true renunciation means complete disbelief in favorable and unfavorable conditions because the favorable gives rise to attachment, and the unfavorable to hatred. The absence of attachment and hatred is the only renunciation. Renunciation brings in theism, and then it gets transformed into love and after having experienced theism in absolute sense that love gets culminated in knowledge. Liberation is achieved by renunciation of desire and not by giving up things. The mind becomes free from prejudice after renouncing vanity; it attains peace and the ability to attain to Supreme Brahma.

Desire, longing, the sense of 'mine-ness' and ego or the sense of 'I-ness are the causes of rebirth. If one renounces these four one becomes liberated here and now.