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between the fire and the frying pan. The Soul cannot be attained only through renunciation. Renunciation is a process that entails great physical suffering. If liberation were to be attained through renunciation, then liberation would also entail suffering. The Lord has said that liberation is a natural process and is easily attained.
Even in the Kramic path, if you are going to renounce then do so only if that renunciation results in elimination of anger, pride, deceit and greed. Renunciation that increases anger, pride, deceit and greed, is not renunciation
The Lord has said, "Remain in pure awareness (shuddha upayog). "Nevertheless, if you still have greed for the worldly life and want worldly happiness, then do not hurt anyone and make others happy. Attain such qualities and renounce those that hurt others. But if you desire Moksha, then simply remain in the awareness of the Self.
When you keep only that which is necessary, it is considered renunciation. It is renunciation when you do not keep twelve shirts when you need only four. Renunciation is to make do with what you have. Only the person who has the Gnani Purush to guide him is allowed to renounce, otherwise if anyone tries to renounce, he will inevitably come under the growing influence of intoxication of his renunciation
There are two categories of worldly people: those inclined towards renunciation of worldly life (tyagi) and the others inclined towards worldly life (sansari). In the former when intoxication of renunciation increases then the latter is illuminated. And when the intoxication increases in the movement towards worldly life, illumination occurs in the movement of renunciation. Lord has said that one can become a vitarag from any state, from the state of a renunciant or from one living a family life. A woman too can become a complete vitarag. The only requirement is that one has to be in a human form. Neither of the two has a monopoly over illumination.
There is no need to renounce anything for liberation. Renunciation should be natural and spontaneous. There is no need for any other type of renunciation. All other renunciations are from the perspective of illusion and ignorance. Lord's renunciation is real renunciation. What is renunciation of the illusionary perspective like? When a smoker quits smoking, he thinks he has renounced smoking, and the one who made him quit thinks it was because of him that the other person quit smoking. Even a small child would understand this illusionary renunciation of his uncle quitting smoking.
What kind of renunciation is this?
A sheth once said to me, "When you are on your daily walk, please come and visit me for an hour or so. We will spend some time together." He was a good man; 'we' used to sit with him for half an hour or so. Usually his bidis (hand-rolled cigarettes) were short but one day he rolled a twelve-inch long bidi and began to smoke. So 'we' asked him, "Why are you smoking such a long bidi?" The Sheth told me, "The Maharaj (his guru) has told me to smoke only four bidis a day. I told him that I would not be able to do so but he insisted that I abide by his instructions."
"Hmmm... is that how you are carrying out his instruction?" Seeing this 'we' saluted this era! Later, after smoking half the bidi, he took two more leaves and began to roll them at the bottom of the bidi. So 'we' asked him, "Sheth, what are you doing?" He told me, "Because I am not satisfied with smoking only four long ones!"
'We salute your fortune! Even Lord Mahavir did not know such things. You have knowledge of what even Lord Mahavir could not see in his fully enlightened state of omniscience (keval Gnan)!! 'We' applaud you! Today 'we' discovered that such minds exist. Truly the intellect of the merchant class deserves a special (1) prize. When you tell your guru that you
