Quality # 19
Sarva arambha parityagee
Renounced all undertakings and all Commencements
The phrase sarva-arambha-parityagi means renouncing all endeavors that are colored with ego.
He does not take initiative. If something happens, he acts in accordance with that happening. If nothing happens, he keeps quiet.
He does not plan what he will do tomorrow or the day after that. He remains quiet, as if nothing is happening and the world itself does not exist.
Why would a True devotee will not make a beginning in any thing?? Will he just sit idle??
For such apparently contradictory verses, Sri Chinmaya’s lines always illumine and clears the confusion when we read such verses
He writes,
“To perceive any definite beginning in an undertaking, the individual actor must have a solid and gross egoistic claim that he had begun it himself.
He must have the strong feeling that he is beginning an activity, for the purpose of gaining a definite goal, whereby he will be fulfilling a specific desire of his, or will thereby be gaining a positive profit.
One who is a seeker of the Divine, striving to reach the higher cultural perfections, must renounce this egoistic sense of self-importance and work on in the world."
An example would clarify this state of “not beginning anything on his own ( with ego)"
Never did an Idea strike to the Author that he should re-start the same. After nearly 5 years or so, when the Sadan talk series on Realization through the path of devotion, Attraction to Atma Nivedanam got over, one of the devotees messaged, “ Why don’t you start the Samarpan again?”.
There was no time space gap between the suggestion received and his replying, “ yes, we will start”.
This shows that, on his own, a true devotee may not rush to start any thing on his own, which is propelled by ego, any thought that “ I will take the initiative”.
However, it does not mean that he will never rise to take up anything. Everything that he starts, does, is based on intuition and the decision to start, when the intuition is received, is instant and then the work is taken up with highest spirit.
Quality # 20
Yona hrishyati na dweshti
Neither rejoices, nor hates
Again, both these qualities owe their state of existence to the devotee’s transcending the root cause- EGO, which has been sufficiently explained , yet, it deserves a recap.
Clouded with ignorance ( Avidya) of our divine nature, developing the “ I” or “ mine ness”( Asmita) , when we usually encounter a situation or obtain an object, we are either attracted ( Raga) to it, repulsed (Dvesha) by it.
Attraction generates desires that are stored in our mind, and repulsion generates negative desires, a list of things we would like to stay away from. If we eventually get the favorable object, or hold on to the favorable situation long enough, we become “harshita”, we rejoice.
But if we lose that object or situation, which is bound to happen sometime, we become “shochita”, we grieve. Attraction, revulsion, desire, hatred, joy, grief – this is how most of us usually operate.
The perfected devotee has tackled this problem at its root, he has transcended Avidya and has become one with the Lord.
He has stopped labelling any object, person, situation or thought as either good or bad, because it is exactly this labelling that starts the chain reaction of attraction, desire, joy and sorrow. The perfected devotee accepts all objects and situations as Easwara’s blessings, does what he has to do, and moves on.
Love
