Renunciation and detachment are two different qualifications. According to authentic texts, renunciation definitely belongs to the renunciation of objects and relationships. Of course, it is another matter that renunciation may not really help the person. People have given different definitions of this. Some say that renunciation of the object and relationship is renunciation. Others say it is not necessary. You should renounce the fruits of action, and others say you should renounce the doership of the action. The fourth group says that you should renounce what we call negative actions, negative things, negative people.
If you put all these opinions together, you find that the first one is the easiest. Easiest in the sense that it is not an intellectual process. Renunciation of the fruits of action is an intellectual process. Renunciation of the doership of action is also a rational process. Most people find it easier to renounce, because in renunciation they do not have to use their brain or rationality, and at the same time, they find it easier and more relaxing.
Renunciation of the doership of action is a rational process. You detach yourself from the notion of doership, but how to do it? You have to feel, ‘I am not the doer,’ but is that enough? Everybody can think like this, because they know it intellectually. You know that you are the doer, but because you are a person of philosophical temperament, you say, ‘I am not the doer’, or ‘I don’t do it, God does it’, or ‘I don’t do it, nature does it.’ It is a philosophical concept. A few people perhaps can dis-identify, but by and large it only remains a rational process.
Renunciation of the fruits of action is another tangle. You have created a karma and it has produced a result, and you renounce it. How to do it? Just by telling yourself? Just by thinking or proposing that the results do not belong to you is not enough.
When you create a karma it produces a result. That result is either according to your wish, against your wish or a mixture of both. Whichever result accrues from the karma you have done; you are going to be affected. You are either going to be happy, unhappy or you are going to be apprehensive. Happiness, unhappiness and apprehension are the experiences created by the result of your karma. If the karma has produced a happy result, can you dis-identify from the feeling?
In the course of my spiritual life, I have found detachment and disidentfication very difficult, and sometimes I even found that it was a sort of hypocrisy. All the time you go on suggesting to yourself, ‘I am not the doer’, ‘I renounce the fruit, I renounce the fruit’, and yet you are unhappy. Therefore, detachment and disidentification belong to the individuals who are very high in quality, because any type of result which you accrue from your life is going to affect you somehow or the other. You are not a liberated sage, and if you are a liberated sage, this question does not arise at all. Therefore, in my opinion, renunciation is the simplest and non-intellectual process.
If you can, you can renounce in parts; if you are strong enough, you can renounce completely, or maybe you can renounce only the things which are undesirable and unhealthy. It is not necessary for you to renounce productive work, charitable and helpful work. It is not necessary for you to renounce those acts which purify your mind and body.
Therefore, when one is trying to prepare a scheme of renunciation one can go to the first step: ʻI will not renounce good acts and I will renounce those acts which are detrimental to my health, to my mind and my spiritual progress.’ This way you can increase the quantum of renunciation in your life according to your spiritual progress.
In the Bhagavad Gita there is a lot of discussion on this point. Arjuna wanted to renounce. Krishna did not want him to renounce. Krishna is talking to him about so many possibilities, but Arjuna finds them very hard. So finally they come to one conclusion, karma sannyasa, in the eighteenth chapter of the Gita. Krishna says. ‘Involve yourself in karma; do not renounce good karmas.’
At the same time, you must be very careful about accepting the influence of the karma on your mind and you should try to realize as to why and for whom you are working. Are you working for yourself, for your family, for your community or nation, for humanity, or are you working for the progress of your own spiritual life?
What is the role and what is the place meant for karma in your spiritual life? Are you working for enjoyment, evolution, or are you working for others? All these things will have to be understood and properly classified. As you go on having more and more control over your mind and senses, the effects of karma change. Therefore, the primary preparation for renunciation and detachment is proper training and discipline of your senses and the body and the mind. When there is a proper discipline initiated into your life, then naturally you can classify your karmas.
20 August 1984, Château Theyrargues, France