The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures from Colombo to Almora/Sannyasa: Its Ideal and Practice
SANNYASA: ITS IDEAL AND PRACTICE
A parting Address was given to Swamiji by the junior Sannyâsins of the Math
(Belur), on the eve of his leaving for the West for the second time. The
following is the substance of Swamiji's reply as entered in the Math Diary
on 19th June 1899:
This is not the time for a long lecture. But I shall speak to you in brief
about a few things which I should like you to carry into practice. First, we
have to understand the ideal, and then the methods by which we can make it
practical. Those of you who are Sannyasins must try to do good to others,
for Sannyasa means that. There is no time to deliver a long discourse on
"Renunciation", but I shall very briefly characterise it as "the love of death".
Worldly people love life. The Sannyasin is to love death. Are we to
commit suicide then? Far from it. For suicides are not lovers of death, as
it is often seen that when a man trying to commit suicide fails, he never
attempts it for a second time. What is the love of death then? We must die,
that is certain; let us die then for a good cause. Let all our actions —
eating, drinking, and everything that we do — tend towards the sacrifice of
our self. You nourish your body by eating. What good is there in doing that
if you do not hold it as a sacrifice to the well-being of others? You
nourish your minds by reading books. There is no good in doing that unless
you hold it also as a sacrifice to the whole world. For the whole world is
one; you are rated a very insignificant part of it, and therefore it is
right for you that you should serve your millions of brothers rather than
aggrandise this little self.
सर्वतः पाणिपादं तत् सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् ।
सर्वतः श्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ॥
"With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads, and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere in the universe, That exists pervading all." (Gita, XIII. 13)
Thus you must die a gradual death. In such a death is heaven, all good is
stored therein — and in its opposite is all that is diabolical and evil.
Then as to the methods of carrying the ideals into practical life. First, we
have to understand that we must not have any impossible ideal. An ideal
which is too high makes a nation weak and degraded. This happened after the
Buddhistic and the Jain reforms. On the other hand, too much practicality is
also wrong. If you have not even a little imagination, if you have no ideal
let guide you, you are simply a brute. So we must not lower our ideal,
neither are we to lose sight of practicality. We must avoid the two
extremes. In our country, the old idea is to sit in a cave and meditate and
die. To go ahead of others in salvation is wrong. One must learn sooner or
later that one cannot get salvation if one does not try to seek the
salvation of his brothers. You must try to combine in your life immense
idealism with immense practicality. You must be prepared to go into deep
meditation now, and the next moment you must be ready to go and cultivate
these fields (Swamiji said, pointing to the meadows of the Math). You must
be prepared to explain the difficult intricacies of the Shâstras now, and
the next moment to go and sell the produce of the fields in the market. You
must be prepared for all menial services, not only here, but elsewhere also.
The next thing to remember is that the aim of this institution is to make
men. You must not merely learn what the Rishis taught. Those Rishis are
gone, and their opinions are also gone with them. You must be Rishis
yourselves. You are also men as much as the greatest men that were ever born
— even our Incarnations. What can mere book-learning do? What can meditation
do even? What can the Mantras and Tantras do? You must stand on your own
feet. You must have this new method — the method of man-making. The true man
is he who is strong as strength itself and yet possesses a woman's heart.
You must feel for the millions of beings around you, and yet you must be
strong and inflexible and you must also possess Obedience; though it may
seem a little paradoxical — you must possess these apparently conflicting
virtues. If your superior order you to throw yourself into a river and catch
a crocodile, you must first obey and then reason with him. Even if the order
be wrong, first obey and then contradict it. The bane of sects, especially
in Bengal, is that if any one happens to have a different opinion, he
immediately starts a new sect, he has no patience to wait. So you must have
a deep regard for your Sangha. There is no place for disobedience here.
Crush it out without mercy. No disobedient members here, you must turn them
out. There must not be any traitors in the camp. You must be as free as the
air, and as obedient as this plant and the dog.