TEACHINGS OF SRI SARADA DEVI

CHAPTER-VI:THE IDEAL OF RENUNCIATION -PART-II

1. "You are a living god. Who is able to renounce all for God's sake? Even the injunctions of Destiny are cancelled if one takes refuge in God. Destiny strikes off with her own hand what she has written about such a person."

2. "Will a man who has strong desires for worldly pleasures listen to me if I ask him to renounce them? But if a fortunate soul has realized the world to be the sport of Maya and God alone to be real, shall I not help him a little? Is there any end to the suffering in the world?"

3. "Don't marry, don't enter the world. What do you lose if you don't marry? You are free wherever you may be."

4. "An unmarried person who leads a pure life will advance towards Him with rapid strides, whether he prays to Him or not. The others, being tied hand and foot, find it difficult to extricate themselves from the bondage of worldliness, even though they try to think of God."

5. "What is there in the worldly life? What an inordinate attachment people have for it. See how out of one so many come out, and how one's attention and energies are all dissipated. Is it possible for a person placed under such conditions to attain to spiritual greatness? Have you not seen crabs? The mother crab peeps out of her hole again and again, and then goes down. It struggles hard repeatedly to free itself, but fails. And why? Because of her attraction for her numerous progeny living in the hole. This attraction drags her into the hole in spite of all her efforts. Such is the case of those who are immersed in worldly life."

6. The mother of a monk requested Holy Mother to ask her son to go back to worldly life. Mother replied, "It is a rare good fortune to be the mother of a monk. People cannot give up attachment even to a brass pot. Is it an easy thing to renounce the world? Why should you worry?"

7. About a boy who wanted to embrace monastic life and was being encouraged by Swami Shivananda to do so, Mother said, "One needs good fortune, indeed, to accept the ideal of renunciation taught by the Master. Tarak (Swami Shivananda) is right. How few can be rescued from the world once they are entangled in it! The boy has real strength of mind."

8. A woman devotee requested Holy Mother to order her daughter to marry. Mother replied, "Is it not misery to remain in lifelong slavery to another and always dance to his tune? Though there is some risk in being a celibate, still, if one is not inclined to lead a married life, one should not be forced into it and subjected to lifelong worldliness. Those girls that are drawn to the ideal of complete renunciation should be encouraged to lead a celibate life."

9. When someone criticized Holy Mother for giving a disciple the ochre robe, she replied, "Look here, child, they are children of light. They live on this earth as pure as flowers. Can you tell me anything happier than this? You have seen for yourself what kind of happiness worldly life can give. What have you learned from me all these days! Why so much attraction for worldly life? Why so much animal propensity? What sort of happiness do you derive from it? Can you not even conceive in dream a pure ideal of life? Can't you live with your husband even now as brother and sister? Why this desire to lead a piggish life? This misery of the world has been gnawing into my bones."

10. "He has done very well to become a Sadhu. What is there in this cage of flesh and bones? ... What is after all in this body? Why should one become enmeshed in this Maya? It will ultimately come to an end after a few days. Then when it is burnt, there will remain only a seer and a half of ash. Banku has become a Sannyasin, he has taken to the path of God. He has done well, he has done well indeed!"

SOURCE: saradadevi.info/THM