Questions & Answers_

Question 3

No opposite pole is to be created because Neo-Sannyas is not a choice. It is not against the world. If sannyas is against the world, it is a choice. Therefore, if sannyas is against the world, we will create a very worldly society. We have done this in India. These 5,000 years in India were a conscious choice for sannyas – renunciation. Renunciation was the goal, and look at the Indian mind: the most worldly in the whole world! Why? We have tried to create an absolutely unattached society, but look at the Indian mind: the greediest! We have been saying that ”Wealth means nothing – it is simply nothing,” and look at our society: wealth is everything!

Why has this happened? This was a conscious choice. We were against the world. Through that conscious choice, we moved to the other extreme. So now we go on talking against the world and go on living in a worldly way.

The same in the reverse order will become possible in the West. They have chosen the world, and now their children are going against the world, against society, against the establishment, against whatsoever has been held as valuable. America stood for wealth, and now its children are hippies: they are against wealth. America was a clean society, cleanliness was held just next to God, godliness, and now hippies are going just against this – they are the most unclean.

Why? If you go against something, something else will happen to balance it. If you choose wealth, your children will be against wealth. If you choose some other world, your children will belong to this world: they will choose this world.

Neo-Sannyas is not a choice. It is a deep acceptance, not a choice. It is not against, neither is it for. It is a deep understanding – a remaining in between. Not choosing: LIVING! Not choosing: flowing! If you can flow with a deep acceptance inside, sooner or later the day will come when you will transcend both worldliness and renunciation.

To me, sannyas means not renunciation, but transcendence.