In Patanjali's yoga Sutras*, there is an eightfold path to enlightenment. All eight parts have to be followed simultaneously. Three of the parts are pratyahara, dharana and dhyana. Pratyahara is drawing the mind inwards, away from the five senses. The next is dharana, the merging of the mind with the inner Self. The third is dhyana, meditation. Withdrawing the mind from the five senses itself can happen only when the mind merges with the inner Self! For example, you can release the foot from the lower rung of the ladder only after establishing yourself in the higher rung, is it not? You can let go of the lower branch of the tree only after clinging to the higher branch. We all think that only after renouncing worldly attachments, we can attain god.

No! The truth is, only after attaining god can you really shake off the worldly things. For a sannyasi, the mind is happy all Only after you the time. What he experience gets is what he nithyananda wants. or eternal bliss, you can shake off mithyananda or worldly fantasies. If you can become aware of and hold on more firmly to the higher rung you may let go of the lower rung more easily. That awareness is called sannyas. It is the process of understanding and moving to the higher rung and leaving the lower rung. As you move, renunciation happens as a byproduct. Because you realize that to climb higher you don't need anything but yourself! Anything you take with you is only going to make it more difficult to climb.

A samsari moves to pursue his fantasies. He goes to places to see the beauty of Existence. A sannyasi sees everything around him as already divine and beautiful! He is fantasized by what he sees! When the samsari starts turning inward, he becomes a sannyasi. Until he finds the burning need for that, it is better for him to continue with what he is doing. For a sannyasi, the mind is happy all the time. What he gets is what he wants. He is always living in the mood of grateful and welcome acceptance. For a samsari, the mind is occupied with too many conflicts. He keeps trying to get what he wants. With intelligence, the samsari can awaken to the truth, that what he is getting is what he needs for that moment and for his ultimate fulfillment.

yoga Sutras - The book on yoga authored by enlightened master Patanjali. The samsari is concerned with material things and living life in a limited way. The sannyasi is concerned about death – death of all that is not him, which is his ego, possessiveness, lust, anger, fear, jealousy and discontent. He knows he is something beyond all this. His whole quest is to find this, because once he finds it, he has found the higher rung of the ladder and he can leave the lower rung where the constant push and pull of all these emotions and material things reside. Sannyas is the search to answer the question Who am I? A sannyasi puts his whole energy into discovering the answer to this question. If people ask you, Who are you? you will generally reply, I am so-andso's son, I am an engineer, I am a professor.

But those words describe who you are in your relationships with the world. If there were no world, then who are you? The great enlightened masters who founded the world religions have said repeatedly, Aham Brahmasmi meaning, I am That in the Hindu tradition, or Be still and know that I am god in the Christian tradition, or Anal-Haq meaning I am the Truth in the Islam tradition. Experiencing that you are god is the purpose of human life. Once this purpose is experienced, the inner bliss that all these great masters talk about starts happening. Then you understand that the outer world is a beautiful stage where the divine play is happening. There is ultimate freedom from all worldly difficulties. You do, and yet you don't do, you speak and yet you don't speak.

You cry and yet you don't cry. Your inner Self remains untouched. You are in eternal bliss – nithya ananda. The problem is that people generally think sannyas is a hindrance to worldly life. They think sannyas is seriousness. No! Sannyas is a certain quality for living life to its optimum. Seriousness will never help one live life to its full potential. Only sincerity and laughter will help. Laughter is the greatest spiritual quality. A master was seated with his disciples. He was in an expansive mood and his disciples decided to ask him about the various stages he passed through to reach the Divine. The master beautifully started explaining… God held me by the hand and first took me to the Land of Action.

I stayed there for several years. Then god returned and took me to the Land of Sorrow. I fell into deep sorrows but eventually went beyond them. I felt happy. Then, suddenly I found that god put me in the Land of Love. I went through burning emotions and found myself cleansed thoroughly. Then, he took me to the Land of Silence. There I learned the mysteries of life and death. The disciples asked, Was that the final stage of your quest? The master said, No. One day god said, Today I will take you to my very heart… and he led me to the Land of Laughter. Sannyas is your very energy. How can it be a hindrance to anything? Not only that, with the energy of sannyas, you are always young.

With the energy of sannyas, you are ready for the challenges of life. People ask me, Why can't we continue in samsar and live with the consciousness of a sannyasi? You see, the nature of man is such that unless a conscious decision is taken, it is difficult to bring about a permanent transformation in the consciousness. Sannyas is a conscious decision to transform the consciousness. Sannyas is a conscious decision. That is why sannyas needs to be taken. With a conscious decision, there is continued awareness. Continued awareness decreases the chance of slipping back. Without it, there is nothing binding one to keep on the path. It becomes easy to slip.