Spirit soul is evergreen. The body is changing. That is to be understood. Body is changing. That everyone can understand. Just like in your childhood your body was different. Just like this child, a different body. And when that child will be young girl, that will be a different body. But the spirit soul is there in this body and that body. So this is the proof that spirit soul does not change, the body changed. This is the proof. I am thinking of my childhood. That means I am the same "I" which I was existing in my childhood, and I remember in my childhood I was doing this, I did that. But that childhood body is no longer. That is gone. Therefore it is conclusion that my body has changed, but I am the same. Is it not? This is simple truth. So this body will change, still I shall remain. I may enter into another body, that doesn't matter, but I shall remain. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). As I am changing my body even in the present circumstances, similarly, the ultimate change does not mean I am dead. I enter into another... That also explained, vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā (BG 2.22), that I change. Just like when I was not sannyāsī, I was dressing like any gentleman. Now I have changed my dress. That does not mean that I have died. No. I have changed my body, that's all. I have changed my dress.
Dress of a sannyasi (Lectures)
Expressions researched:
"dress is not sannyasa"
|"dress like a sannyasi"
|"dress of a sannyasi"
|"dress of sannyasi"
|"dress, this is called sannyasa"
|"not by dress"
|"person is always a sannyasi"
|"sannyasa dress"
|"sannyasi does not become simply by changing dress"
|"sannyasi dress"
|"sannyasi has to dress"
|"sannyasi, his dress"
|"when I was not sannyasi, I was dressing"
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ (BG 6.1). Do not take shelter of your result of your activities. You must take it as duty. He is sannyāsī. Anāśritaṁ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ, sa sannyāsī. He's actually sannyāsī. A sannyāsī does not become simply by changing dress. No. Sannyāsī means he's to work for Kṛṣṇa. Without taking shelter of the result. It doesn't matter. "Kṛṣṇa has ordered, and Kṛṣṇa's representative has ordered. Therefore I have to do it." Kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ. sa sannyāsī.
Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is said that vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni: "This body is just like our dress." Suppose a very learned man has come in a shabby dress. Do you think that he should be dishonored? If he's known, of course. Just like our this sannyāsī dress. It is not very costly dress. It is a loin cloth. It is very cheap, but sometimes people misunderstand that "Here is a beggar." And sometimes we are respected. So simply by dress we should not see any living entity. Whether, either he's a dog, or he's a, in the estimation of the society, a lower class man, or a very high class man, or a cow, but we shall see that "Here is a spirit soul." Anyone who can understand the spiritual vision of life, he is paṇḍita. He is paṇḍita.
And if you question me that "Swamiji, why you have taken sannyāsa?" You may ask that question. Yes. So I may tell you frankly that I had no desire to accept this sannyāsa. I never dreamt in my householder... I was a householder. I never dreamt. But circumstantially I was forced to accept the sannyāsa dress just to become a preacher. You see? That is a long history. Sannyāsa, (chuckles) but I was forced some way or other to accept the sannyāsa. Of course, as far as possible, I am following the rules and regulations of a sannyāsī, as far as possible. So here Kṛṣṇa says that tayos tu karma... Everything can be utilized for the ultimate business. Everything can be utilized. Kṛṣṇa says. So there is no difference. Why there is no difference? If your ultimate goal, aim, is Kṛṣṇa conscious, then either you become Kṛṣṇa conscious in a dress of sannyāsī or as an ordinary man, oh, there is no difference. There is no difference because your aim is the same.
Just like Arjuna. Arjuna was not a sannyāsī. He, after hearing Bhagavad-gītā, he did not take up the renounced order of life and dressed himself in orange-colored dress and went away from the battlefield, no. He remained the same man, the same military man, but he became the most perfect Kṛṣṇa conscious man. So same principle was there. Therefore here Lord Kṛṣṇa says, sannyāsaḥ karma-yogaś ca niḥśreyasa-karāv ubhau: "Either you take sannyāsa or you remain in your position, that doesn't matter. You can attain the highest perfection from any position, provided you are Kṛṣṇa conscious." That's all. Jñeyaḥ sa nitya-sannyāsī yo na dveṣṭi na kāṅkṣati (BG 5.3). Hear how nicely Kṛṣṇa says. Jñeyaḥ sa nitya-sannyāsī. Just try to understand. That person is always a sannyāsī—not by dress but by his actual activities. What? Na dveṣṭi na kāṅkṣati. "He does not, I mean to say, hate anything, and he does not desire anything." These two qualifications. He does not hate anything, and he does not desire anything.
Jñeyeḥ, "Just understand," sa. Sa means he. Who? Nitya-sannyāsī: "That person is always in renounced order, not by dress, but by action, always in renounced order..." Yo na dveṣṭi na kāṅkṣati: "That person who does not hate, neither desires." Nitya-sannyāsī. The renounced order means that I renounce my material propensities. That is called renunciation. A living entity is living. He has got his different propensities. That is his natural position. If I say that "You don't desire," no, that is not possible. I cannot desire, I don't desire... If I am desireless, then I am dead. What is my life? Desire... Somebody says that "You become desireless." That is an impossible, sir. Desireless means don't desire materially. That is desireless.
Who has got no more material desires. Then he is fit for taking sannyāsa. Sarvopādhi. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ. Śūnyam means zero. All material desires made into zero. Then sannyāsa. Sannyāsī, anāsakta. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ sa sannyāsī... Who is a sannyāsī? Anāsakta. Anāsakta means he is working day and night, but no attachment for the result. Karmīs... What is the difference between karmī and sannyāsa? Karmī is working so hard, day and night; he is expecting that "I shall get some money out of it and I shall enjoy." That is karmī. And sannyāsī, he is working in the same way, day and night, but he is not expecting the profit for his personal use. For Kṛṣṇa. That is sannyāsa. What is the difference? There is no..., in the activities there is no difference, but the one is accepting the result for his personal benefit, and one is creating good result but not for his personal benefit, but Kṛṣṇa's service. This is the definition of sannyāsa. Anāsakta..., anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryam: he is doing as my duty. I am Kṛṣṇa's servant, I have to do it. If I do not do it, then it is my misbehavior. Anāsakta, anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma ka..., sa sannyāsī ca yogī ca. Such person is yogī, such person is sannyāsī, na niragnir na cākriyaḥ. Not that artificially I have taken the dress of a sannyāsī and talking nonsense. He is not sannyāsī. Sannyāsa means one who has completely devoted his life for Kṛṣṇa. He is sannyāsī, sa sannyāsī, and he is yogī.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the ideal sannyāsī. He says, mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4). He never claimed that "I may not have any more birth." Mokṣa means one who hasn't got to take birth of this material body. That is called mokṣa. So a Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī, they do not want even mokṣa. Therefore they have no demand. So that sannyāsī is different from the ordinary sannyāsī. Ordinary sannyāsī, he has demand. He wants mukti. But Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī, either he is in sannyāsī dress or in not sannyāsī dress, simply because his aim and object is to satisfy Kṛṣṇa; therefore he is sannyāsa. Anāśritaḥ karma. He has no shelter of the work that he is doing for Kṛṣṇa. Not that "I shall work in this way, and there will be good result, and I will enjoy it." Other sannyāsīs, they are thinking like that: "I will go austerities and penances severely. I shall go to Himalayas and execute very rigidly all the principles of sannyāsa. But as a result of this, I will get liberated, mukti." Therefore he has got demand.
So all these relatives of Kṛṣṇa, the Pāṇḍavas, His sister Subhadrā-Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, Subhadrā. Subhadrā was sister of Kṛṣṇa. So Baladeva wanted to hand over the sister to Duryodhana, and Kṛṣṇa wanted to hand over the sister to Arjuna. Two brothers, difference of opinion. But elder brother's order cannot be disregarded. Therefore Kṛṣṇa planned that Arjuna may kidnap His sister. So Subhadrā was kidnapped by Arjuna in the dress of a sannyāsī. Don't learn this business, sannyāsīs. (laughing) But Kṛṣṇa planned it, that "You come..." Because he was known, if he comes as ordinary Arjuna, then he will be recognized because he is the cousin-brother. Therefore he covered himself as a sannyāsī just like Rāvaṇa. Rāvaṇa also kidnapped Sītādevī as a sannyāsī.
Now, find out any institution throughout the whole world who are suśīla. You will find here in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement: no meat-eating, no illicit sex, no gambling, no intoxication. You won't find anywhere. This is called suśīla, well behaved. Suśīla means... śīla means behavior, or custom. Here you will find they are taking bath three times, they are changing cloth, everything neat and clean, personally their character, their behavior, suśīla. Suśīlāḥ sādhavaḥ. Sādhavaḥ means saintly. What are the saintly characteristics? That is also mentioned:
- titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ
- suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām
- ajāta-śatravaḥ śāntāḥ
- sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ
- (SB 3.25.21)
These are the characteristics of sādhu, not a sādhu having a dress like a sannyāsī and accompanied by three dozen women.
So there was one Ajāmila at that time, but you will find many Ajāmilas like that at the present moment because it is the age of Kali. There was one Rāvaṇa. In the dress of a sannyāsī he kidnapped Lord Rāmacandra's wife, and nowadays you will find many Rāvaṇas like that. You see? The so-called sannyāsīs, their business is to... This tendency is always there, but according to the age, sometimes it is very prominent and sometimes not so prominent. But this material world is so contaminated. In the days of Rāmacandra people were hankering after the kingdom of Rāma, even there was Rāvaṇa in the days of Rāmacandra. And what to speak of all these nonsense debauchees? Rāmacandra was so strict, and God Himself was ruling, and still, there was Rāvaṇa. But because Rāmacandra was there he was also killed. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnām (BG 4.8). God's business is to protect the faithful and kill the demons. That is always. Therefore we find Lord Viṣṇu, the four symbolic representation: for killing, the club and the cakra; and for protecting, the lotus flower and conchshell.
There is one verse in Bhāgavatam. One devotee, he has taken sannyāsa. Sannyāsa means the renounced order of life. Just like as you see me by my dress, this is called sannyāsa. Sannyāsa means... This is Sanskrit word, sat-nyāsa. This is sannyāsa. Sat means the Supreme, the Absolute Truth. And nyāsa means renounced. One who has renounced everything for the service of the Supreme, he is called a sannyāsa. Sannyāsa does not mean a particular type of dress or particular type of beard. Sannyāsa means you can become a sannyāsī even with your, this coat-pant. It doesn't matter, provided you have dedicated your life for the service of God. That is called sannyāsa. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said, anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ, sa sannyāsī, sa sannyāsī sa yogi ca na cānya akriya (BG 6.1). The meaning of this verse is that anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ. Everyone is working in this material world for some salary or for some remuneration, but if one works not for salary or for remuneration but as a matter of duty... Anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryam. Kāryam means "It must be done." Karma karoti yaḥ: "In such a way, if somebody acts, then sa sannyāsī, he is sannyāsī." Just try to understand. Anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ. You are doing some work. Why you are doing some work? Either for some salary or for some profit or for some gain. Otherwise nobody is working uselessly. He must have some gain. But one who does not utilize that gain for his sense gratification but works as a matter of duty, kāryaṁ karma karoti sa sannyāsī sa yogi ca. Such person is actually a sannyāsī and yogi.
Just like a child should not be given independence—then he will be spoiled—similarly woman also should not be given independence. That is the injunction of Manu-saṁhitā. They should be always given protection. The child, woman, brāhmaṇa, the cow, and the old man—they should be given proper protection. That is the injunction. Anyway, the vānaprastha, when the gentleman is completely educated for renouncing this world, then he sends back the wife to grown-up boys and he takes sannyāsa. This is sannyāsa dress. This is preparing, not... Preparing is finished. Sannyāsa means he should distribute spiritual knowledge from door to door. That is his business. He has no family attraction, he has nothing to think for his maintenance, because the society is advised to take care of brahmacārī, vānaprastha, and sannyāsa. Just see. This is spiritual communism. One section of people, the householders, they have to maintain the three other divisions. We have divided the society into four divisions: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, and sannyāsa. Only the gṛhasthas are allowed to make money, to earn money. But the brahmacārī and the vānaprastha and sannyāsī is to live at the cost the gṛhasthas. Brahmacaris shall go from door to door and beg alms and bring it for the spiritual master. The spiritual master is a sannyāsī. So whatever the brahmacārīs bring, they cook and they eat and they cultivate spiritual Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the system. That means it is the duty of the gṛhasthas, or the householder, to maintain the other three section of the people. And that is varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ.
According to Vedic literature, there are different dress. A girl unmarried, her dress is different. A girl married, her dress is different. A girl widow, her dress is different. A girl prostitute, her dress is different. A men sannyāsī, his dress is different. A brahmacārī, his dress is different. So by the dress one can understand that who is who. That is the system. So that dress is offered by the spiritual master after qualified. Just like if a girl is married, then his (her) dress is offered during the marriage ceremony. One of the symptoms of married girl is some red powder between the two divisions of the hair. So one can understand that "This girl is not..." So similarly, there are different dresses according to qualification, according to the situation. But in the Kali-yuga, that, anyone can take any dress without any regulation, without any formality. Simply by dress. Suppose... Just like sannyāsī. Because a sannyāsī has to dress himself in these saffron-color garments, so sannyāsī has the privilege, if he goes to a householder's house, he is very respectfully received, and if he wants something, the householder gives him. That is the system. Now, if somebody sees that "It is a very cheap process of earning money, so let me dress in this saffron color and beg from door to door. What is the use of laboring so hard...?" So that will go on. Misuse of dress. Misuse of dress. Liṅgam eva āśrama-khyātāu. Āśrama, a gṛhastha. Āśrama means... There are four āśramas: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, and sannyāsī. They have got different dresses. But they have got different duties also. But in the Kali-yuga, simply by dress one should be known that either he is a sannyāsī or a brahmacārī or gṛhastha.
Initiation Lectures
So that daṇḍa you can take. Your daṇḍa take. You can take, come on. His name is there? No.
Devotee: No.
Viṣṇujana: You know which one is which?
Prabhupāda: No. According to the size we have made. So which size he is I do not know. I... That's your?
Viṣṇujana: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That's your. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa... Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa. Now chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Dance. (break—prema-dhvani) So, this is now formal accepting of sannyāsa, but real sannyāsa purpose will be fulfilled when you'll be able to induce the people of the world dancing like you. That is real sannyāsa. This formal dress is not sannyāsa. Real sannyāsa is when you can induce other people to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and they dance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So somebody is engaged n cleansing the temple, somebody is engaged in dressing the Deity, somebody is engaged in cooking for the Deity, somebody is engaged going in Tokyo city for distributing literature, somebody is performing kīrtana here, somebody is reading our various books. In this way we have got twenty-five hours engagement instead of twenty-four hours. So mind cannot go outside Kṛṣṇa. That is called Kṛṣṇa conscious. We don't allow the mind go out of Kṛṣṇa's service. And this is sannyāsa. Practically anyone who is engaged in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness business, he is a sannyāsī. Never mind what is his dress. He may be in a dress of a family man, householder, or he may be in the dress of a sannyāsī—everyone is engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service. Therefore in the essential sense, everyone is sannyāsī. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ, sa sannyāsī (BG 6.1). The Lord Himself is giving the definition of sannyāsī. What is that? Anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ. Karma means action. Whatever you do, there must be some reaction. Whatever you do. You do something very pious or do something which is vicious, there will be some resultant action. But if you don't take shelter of the resultant action, anāśritaḥ karma, karma-phalaṁ. Karma-phalaṁ means resultant action of your activities. You don't take shelter of that action, good or bad... Kāryam: "It is my duty." Kāryam karma karoti yaḥ: "In this way, one who acts..." Sa sannyāsī. Everyone is trying to enjoy the result of his action. Suppose you are doing some business, and you get very huge profit. So you take the profit for enjoyment. But one who does not take the profit, he is sannyāsī.
In Bhagavad-gītā, Sixth Chapter, first verse, it is also stated, anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ, sa sannyāsī ca yogī ca: (BG 6.1) 'One who works devotedly for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa is a sannyāsī.' The dress is not sannyāsa, but the attitude of service to Kṛṣṇa is. The word paramātmā niṣṭhā means being a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Parātmā-vigraha. Parātmā, the Supreme Person, is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Those who are completely dedicated to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa in service are actually sannyāsīs. As a matter of formality, the devotee accepts the sannyāsa dress as previous ācāryas did. He also accepts the three daṇḍas. Later, Viṣṇu Svāmī considered that accepting the dress of a tridaṇḍa was parātma-niṣṭhā. Therefore sincere devotees add another daṇḍa, the jīva daṇḍa, to the three existing daṇḍas. The Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī is known as tridaṇḍī-sannyāsī. The Māyāvādī sannyāsī accepts only one daṇḍa, not understanding the purpose of tridaṇḍa. Later, many persons in the community of Śiva Swami gave up the ātma-niṣṭhā, devotional service of the Lord, and followed the paths of Śaṅkarācārya.
| Page Title: | Dress of a sannyasi (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Serene, MadhuGopaldas |
| Created: | 04 of Apr, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=17, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 17 |