Resource§
Holy Orders Of Sannyāsa
सन्न्यासधर्म
EXCERPTS FROM
A ŚAIVA SWĀMĪ’S DĪKSHĀ AND
LIFETIME VOWS OF RENUNCIATION
HE FIRST PART OF YOUR LIFE WAS LIVED FOR YOURSELF; The second part will be lived in the service of others, for the benefit of your religion. You have been tried and tested through years of training and challenges and proved yourself worthy to wear the kavi, the orange robes, and to fulfill the illustrious Śaiva sannyāsin dharma. ¶The sannyāsin harkens close to Śiva and releases the past to an outer death. Remembering the past and living in memories brings it into the present. Even the distant past, once remembered and passed through in the mind, becomes the nearest past to the present. Sannyāsins never recall the past. They never indulge in recollections of the forgotten person they have released. The present and the future—there is no security for the sannyāsin in either. The future beckons; the present impels. Like writing upon the waters, the experiences of the sannyāsin leave no mark, no saṁskāra to generate new karmas for an unsought-for future. He walks into the future, on into the varied vṛittis of the mind, letting go of the past, letting what is be and being himself in its midst, moving on into an ever more dynamic service, an ever more profound knowing. Be thou bold, sannyāsin young. Be thou bold, sannyāsin old. Let the past melt and merge its images into the sacred river within. Let the present be like the images written upon the water’s calm surface. The future holds no glam our. The past holds no attachment, no return to unfinished experience. Even upon the dawn of the day walk into your destiny with the courage born of knowing that the ancient Śaivite scriptures proclaim your sannyāsin’s life great above all other greatness. Let your life as a sannyāsin be a joyful one, strict but not restrictive, for this is not the path of martyrdom or mortification. It is the fulfillment of all prior experiential patterns, the most natural path-the Straight Path to God, the San Mārga—for those content and ripened souls. Leave all regret behind, all guilt and guile, others will preserve all that you proudly renounce. Let even the hardships ahead be faced cheerfully. ¶Never fail to take refuge in your God, your guru and your Great Oath. This is the highest path you have chosen. It is the culmination of numberless lives, and perhaps the last in the ocean of saṁsāra. Be the noble soul you came to this earth to be, and lift humanity by your example. Know it with a certainty beyond question that this is life’s most grand and glorious path, and the singular path for those seeking God Realization, that mystic treasure reserved for the renunciate. Know, too, that renunciation is not merely an attitude, a mental posture which can be equally assumed by the householder and the renunciate. Our scriptures proclaim that a false concept. True renunciation must be complete renunciation; it must be unconditional. §
There is no room on the upper reaches of San Mārga for mental manipulations, for play-pretend renunciation or half-measure sādhana. Let your renunciation be complete. Resolve that it will be a perfect giving-up, a thorough letting-go. Let go of the rope. Be the unencumbered soul that you are. Be the free spirit, unfettered and fearless, soaring above the clamor of dissension and difference, yet wholeheartedly and boldly supporting our Śaivite principles against those who would infiltrate, dilute and destroy. All that you need will be provided. If there is any residue of attachment, sever it without mercy. Cast it off altogether. Let this be no partial renunciation, subject to future wants, to future patterns of worldliness. Give all to God Śiva, and never take it back. ¶To make this supreme renunciation requires the utmost maturity coupled with a dauntless courage. It requires, too, that the wheel of saṁsāra have been lived through, that life hold no further fascination or charm. Through experience the soul learns of the nature of joy and sorrow, learns well to handle the magnetic forces of the world. Only when that learning is complete is true sannyāsa possible. Otherwise, the soul, still immature, will be drawn back into the swirl of experience, no matter what vows have been uttered. True renunciation comes when the world withdraws from the devotee. Sannyāsa is for the accomplished ones, the great souls, the evolved souls. Sannyāsa is not to be misinter preted as a means of getting something—getting enlightenment, getting puṇya or merit. Sannyāsa comes when all getting is finished. It is not to get something but because you are something, because you are ready to give your life and your knowledge and your service to Śaivism, that you enter the life of the sannyāsin. The kavi or saffron robes are the royal insignia of the sannyāsin. Those in kavi the world over are your brethren, and you should feel one with each of these hundreds of thousands of soldiers within. ¶The ideals of renunciation as practiced in the Sanātana Dharma are outlined fully in these Holy Orders of Sannyāsa. Live up to them as best you can. You need not be a saint or jīvanmukta to enter into the ancient world order of Sannyāsa. Renunciation in its inmost sense is a gradual process. It does not happen instantly when a vow is spoken. Do not mistake Sannyāsa dīkshā as the end of effort, but look upon it as a new spiritual birth, the beginning of renewed striving and even more difficult challenges. There will remain karmas to be lived through as the soul continues to resolve the subtle attachments or vāsanās of this and past lives. It is enough that you have reached a knowing of the necessity of tyāga. It is enough that you renounce in the right spirit and pledge yourself to meet each challenge as befits this tradition, bringing honor to yourself and your religion. ¶Finally you are charged with preserving and defending the teachings of the Śiva Yogaswāmī Guru Paramparā and the Śaiva Dharma as brought forth in A Catechism and Creed for Śaivite Hinduism and The Holy Bible of the Śaivite Hindu Religion. You are cautioned against being influenced by alien faiths or beliefs. You are the vault, the repository wherein are kept the priceless treasures of Śaivism, secure and available for future generations. All who accept these Holy Orders accept a selfless life in which all monastics work their minds together, thus keeping the saṅgam strong and effective. You must not veer from the San Mārga, nor follow an individual path, nor remain remote or aloof from your brother monastics. It is a serious life which you now enter, one which only a sannyāsin can fully undertake. Remember and teach that God is, and is in all things. Spread the light of the One Great God, Śiva-Creator, Preserver and Destroyer, immanent and transcendent, the Compassionate One, the Gracious One, the One without a second, the Lord of Lords, the Beginning and End of all that is. Anbe Śivamayam Satyame Paraśivam.§
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Guru Mahāsannidhānam, Kauai Aadheenam, Hawai, USA§