Life is a mix of joy and sorrow where nothing is steady and every moment is fleeting. Even with this drawback, the short-lived moments of joy in one’s life time seem to attract people into samsara rather than draw them towards the search for something beyond all this flux. Religious leaders and saints have experienced the moment of light and truth that transcends worldly life and have chosen the path of renunciation to get liberated from samsara, pointed out Sri Muralidhara Swamigal in a discourse.
Prince Siddhartha’s life illustrates the kind of renunciation that comes from a true scrutiny of life. It had been predicted at his birth that he would be deeply affected by the sorrows of this life and would renounce the world to become a great spiritual leader. To ensure that his son would instead be a great ruler, his father King Suddhodhana took pains to protect the prince from all sorrows of life. But despite all this, the prince was destined to confront the woes of old age, disease and death.
Then came the turning point in his life and he renounced kingdom, wife, son, etc, to seek the true knowledge that is found only within oneself. He taught that one attains “peace of mind, higher wisdom, full enlightenment and nirvana” when the gap between ignorance and enlightenment is bridged through meditation and righteous living. Ramanuja, the Vaishnava acharya, renounced family life to take up Sanyasa. He advised that a life of self-discipline, meditation and worship of God and chanting His names are the sure means for spiritual attainment. Since renunciation is an attitude rooted in one’s consciousness and a purely mental attainment, realised souls have shown how to deal with the body and worldly life to attain that state.
