Parables of Rama
by Swami Rama Tirtha | 102,836 words
Stories in English used by Swami Rama to illustrate the highest teaching of Vedanta. The most difficult and intricate problems of philosophy and abstract truths, which may very well tax the brains of the most intellectual, are thus made not only simple and easy to understand but also brought home to us in a concrete form in such an interesting and ...
An old lady came to a saint in India and asked if it was advisable for her to leave her house and her family, and to retire to Brindaban (in India), where Krishna was born.
Was it advisable for her to break her family ties and sever all her relations with each and all and retire to that lovely city, Brindaban, the Jerusalem of India? This lady had her grandson with her. The sage replied, "See please, mark please, what is it that looks into your eyes through the eyes of your grandson? What force, what energy, what Divinity is it that looks at you from every pore of the body of this child? The lady said, "It must be God. In this dear little baby there is no thought of temptation or wickedness. This dear little baby is innocent and pure. When he cries, in his wailing is the voice of God and nothing else." Again the sage said, "When you go to Brindaban, you shall have to cling to the one image of Krishna. There in the Jerusalem of India, and there in that image of Divinity, you must worship the Divinity. Is not the body of the child just as good an image of Krishna as the image you shall have to see in that Jerusalem of India?" The lady was surprised a little; and after thinking and reflecting, she came to the conclusion that she might just as well worship Krishna through the body of this child by regarding this child as the incarnation of Krishna. For God is that looks through the eyes of the child; God it is that gives the child its power; God it is that works through the ears of the child; God it is that makes the child's hair grow; God it is that works through every pore of his body; it is Divinity.
According to the direction of the saint, she must no longer regard the child as her grandson, or look upon him as related to her in any way, but must regard him as God, and thus break all family and worldly ties. The only tie should be the tie of Godliness or Godhead. This is the way to renunciation.
Renunciation does not mean asceticism. Renunciation means making everything holy. Renouncing the child does not mean giving up all connection with the child but thinking the child, the grandson, to be God. Realizing the Divinity in each and all: this is Renunciation according to Vedanta. Vedanta asks you to give up your wife or your husband and other relations. Vedanta says, "Give up the wife, as related to you, give up the wife as the wife, but realize the true Self, the Divinity within her. Give up the enemy as the enemy, see only the God in the enemy; give up the friend as a friend, but realize the Godliness or Godhead in the friend."
Renounce the selfish, personal ties; see the Godliness in each and all. See the Divinity in each and all. This is what the Hindu Scriptures enjoin upon every husband and every wife to live.
MORAL: The right way of renunciation is to give up not the persons and things themselves but the personal relations with them and to realise the Divinity or God in each and all.