If everything is a passing manifestation of Existence, then where is the scope for ego or fear or greed? Sannyas, as such, doesn't change anything. Everything remains the same. But it changes the way you see things. Sannyas happens in you. Sannyas has nothing to do with the outer world. Sannyas is awakening the charioteer. Man's body is like a chariot and his consciousness is the charioteer. The charioteer is fast asleep, and the chariot is moving according to the horses. The five horses are the five senses, each with its own different idea. Not one of them is the truth. They are just transient ideas! Even in the most difficult times, a sannyasi remains with the awareness that life is a fleeting dream! He carries a completely different definition for success and failure.

He doesn't carry success or failure itself. A samsari on the other hand carries success and failure with him wherever he goes. There starts the problem. Surrender, love, compassion, sannyas Sannyas is saying yes to Existence. Saying yes is surrender. Saying yes is love and compassion. The human mind is trained to always say no. Saying no boosts the ego. Yes makes the ego vulnerable, so the mind continues to say no. Sannyas is saying yes to Existence. Existence created you. It is waiting to express its divine play through you. By saying yes, you allow the divine play to happen through you. When the divine play happens, things happen exactly according to the flow of Existence. Then, everything becomes auspiciousness! In the effort to say yes, you start softening.

Sannyas is about becoming soft. As long as you say no, you remain hard. When you make an effort to say yes, you start softening. When you make a conscious decision to say yes, it starts. That is where the master plays a role. Sannyas is saying yes to the master without asking for an explanation. When you start trusting the master completely, sannyas starts happening in you. Somewhere you get the click that the master knows better than you. Then you start letting go of your hold over your mind and start holding the hands of the master. The master's hands are always stretched out, but you were not ready to hold them. Once the yes starts happening, you hold his hands. Then a space is created where love starts happening.

Love happens only when you start saying yes. By saying yes, not only do you start loving, you allow the other person to love you as well. Then your inner space that was like a rock earlier, starts becoming like cotton! It becomes soaked with love. The love is not just towards one person or for any reason. It is an overflowing energy. It is towards the whole of Existence for no reason. You start communing with the trees, with everything around you. You feel that life is a song, the song of Existence of which you are a part. You are in a deeply resonant mood with everything and everyone around you, including yourself. Your actions simply become an outpouring of the joy and ecstasy that is enveloping you all the time.

A small story: A Zen master arrived at the meeting place of the Cambridge Buddhist Society. He found everyone dusting and cleaning the whole place in anticipation of his visit. They were surprised to see him because he was not supposed to arrive until the following day.