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Chapter 5
TWO-FOLD STATE OF AKARMA: YOGA AND SANNYASA
20. Sannyasa: The Other Aspect Of Akarma
16. Suppose someone gets angry with us. If it is because of our fault, we go to pacify him. But he refuses to talk to us. How great is the effect of his keeping mum, of this renunciation of the action of speaking! Another man in the same situation may pour abuse on us. Both are angry, but one keeps mum and the other speaks out. Both the reactions express anger. Keeping mum is also an expression of anger and it too works. When a mother or a father stops speaking to the child, its impact on the child is far more decisive than that of any action. Silence can have an effect which speaking can never have. Such is the state of a jnani. His akarma, his being still, accomplishes much; it generates great power. While being in the state of akarma, he does work that no activity can accomplish. This is another type of sannyasa. In such type of sannyasa, all enterprise, all frenetic efforts cease. Saint Tukaram describes such a state : द्योगाची धांव बैसली आसनीं, पडिलें नारायणीं मोटळें हें। (‘Now all enterprise, all activity has ceased. The body is lying like a little sack at the feet of the Lord. All care is now over; I now feel assured that I shall not be born again. I have not to live now on my own strength, as the Lord has emptied me of my ego. I am no more master of my life; it is His power that moves me. I have been reduced to zero.’) Tukaram is empty—his sense of ‘I’ has dissolved. But there is tremendous power in that emptiness. The sun gives call to no one; yet, when it rises, birds soar in the sky, lambs begin to prance around, cows head for grazing, shopkeepers open their shops, farmers start out towards their farms. The whole world is on the move as it makes its appearance on the horizon. The sun’s mere existence is enough; that gives rise to innumerable activities. Its state of akarma has potentiality to stimulate those activities; it is packed with power. Such is the other wonderful aspect of sannyasa. |
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