In the light of Gita’s concept of tyaga and sanyasa, can we look at Buddha’s spiritual actions as an example of sanyasa, external renunciation? Because he gave up on kingdom and family to be able to pursue Truth. Then again, from what I have read of Buddha’s words himself, he did not pay much attention to external fanfare. He told the monks ‘You can put on the robe in fifteens minutes but learning true monkhood will take you lifetimes of effort as one needs to have a pure mind first.’ This looks like he emphasised more on tayra 🤨. I was wondering how you look at this.

I never felt a sanyasi in the Buddha just as I never felt a sanyasi in Sri Aurobindo leaving behind everything as he sailed to Pondicherry. They did what they did under the pressure of a tremendous aspiration moved with deep compassion for the world. They are hero warriors, Samurai who went away not because they couldn’t handle the world or afraid of its challenges but because they were so much occupied with their quest that they were ready to go and ready to leave anything for its sake. Tyaga of course and that too very naturally, unassumingly without ostentatious show or fuss. The ascetic on the other hand does it either out of fear of the world or else to showcase himself to the world as a great renunciate.

In fact as long as one is attached to the world and the mind values them, mere outer renunciation is hardly of help. And if one is no longer attached then outer renunciation means diminishing the means of outer manifestation.

Affectionately,

Alok Da