Samnyasin

There is no doubt that the key concept in mysticism is “detachment”; samnyasin is he or she who is detached from the world, those who renounce the way of the world, but whose real renunciation is to “me and mine”.


Samnyasa means to “renounce, let go, set aside, abandon, renounce the world”.


“Who are those apt to enter the sacred order of the samnyasa? Only those who renounce the world completely, who have no preoccupation for tomorrow, who do not worry about what they will eat or wear. It is necessary for them to be like a man who can climb the tallest of trees and then can abandon himself to a fall, without worrying about his limbs nor his life.”


Samnyasin is he who has left behind him the world of duties and desires, whose only aspiration is to attain to a state of peace, beatitude, and perfect knowledge of the self, beyond birth and death.

 

His renunciation makes him an atmayajnin, he who sacrifices himself. He becomes the oblation of the eternal cosmic sacrifice, and aware of this, he dedicates himself fully to the service of God.

 

monaci-monasreo      monaci-monastero      monaci-monastero-indu


When the monks are initiated in the sacred order of the samnyas, they join the universal body of the renounciates, whose existence has always been like an uninterrupted flux from the time of the Veda till now.


It is common belief that the samnyasins have divine origins, springing from the four mental sons of Brahma, the Kumara, who possessed the absolute renunciation.

 

The scriptures declare that the two ways, the householder and the renunciate, are distinct in the results and in the dharma, and affirm that the real renunciation cannot be obtained by those who live in the world, even when animated by a genuine attitude of detachment.

 

The sacred Vedas declare that “The man who has found Him, becomes a silent monk. Desiring Him only as a world, the ascetics leave their homes and wander.”


The scriptures define four types of samnyas: vidvat, vividisha, markata, and atura.

In the first case, vidvat samnyas, one has a extreme awareness that renunciation and the abandonment of the world are the only way to realize reality; this awareness comes from very strong impressions, samskara, matured in previous lives.

The second type is vividisha samnyas, and happens when a student, while on a path of spiritual search, spends long years in study and introspection, through the scriptures and various practices. He lives the renunciation in the world through action until he can embrace the samnyas as a culmination of the fruits of his actions.

The third, markata samnyas, happens when a person is hit by a real strong sorrow as in the death of a dear person, and takes up the vows of renunciation. This vow is weak and could not last in time.

The last type, atura samnyas, is the one that can be received at the moment prior to death. In such a moment, sometimes, a person may feel the desire to take on this vow of renunciation in order to receive an impression that can carry over the next incarnation. On the other hand, if the person continues to live after this moment, he or she must commit to a life in respect of the laws of dharma, and finally consolidate the vows taken during that “extreme” moment with the appropriate ceremony.

 


The theology of renunciation, which is also at the base of the ritual of samnyas (samnyasa diksha), however, does not consider the abandonment of fire as a denial; it is rather an internalization. The external fires get placed in the inside of the samnyas who must continue to feed them internally, and therefore more permanently and perfectly.