The true spirit of renunciation

Abstract

n life we may not find ourselves in a pleasant situation always. There are occasions when the situation is rather unpleasant. It could be that we faced a big failure in our work place. At other times the spouse or the children did not give us the respect and position that we deserved in the family and took us for granted. Sometimes, we are sidelined or totally ignored by other family members or colleagues. When we face such unpleasant situations in our life, a frequently encountered feeling is that of running away from worldly matters. We suddenly become disinterested in life, withdraw our sensory organs a little bit, and become reflective. All these happen for a night. When we sleep and get up the next day morning we are almost back to normal. For many of us this is the nearest encounter to the idea of renunciation. It appears that renunciation is a great medicine to avoid difficult to handle situations in life. Arjuna was no different during the time of the war. He was not at all ready to face the reality on the battlefield. Therefore, he felt it is better to take samny?sa. In Bhagavad G?t?, he repeatedly asks Krishna if he must take samny?sa as it seems to be a convenient way out of the predicament that he was facing. Chapters 3, 5 and 18 in Bhagavad G?t? begin with this question only.