PERFECTION OF RENUNCIATION
H.H Radhanath Swami Maharaj
7th January 1990, BG (18.46)

VERSE
BG 18.46

yataù pravåttir bhütänäà
yena sarvam idaà tatam
sva-karmaëä tam abhyarcya
siddhià vindati mänavaù

TRANSLATION
By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, a man can attain perfection through performing his own work.

PURPORT
As stated in the Fifteenth Chapter, all living beings are fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. Thus the Supreme Lord is the beginning of all living entities. This is confirmed in the Vedänta-sütra-janmädy asya yataù [SB 1.1.1]. The Supreme Lord is therefore the beginning of life of every living entity. And as stated in the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gétä, the Supreme Lord, by His two energies, His external energy and internal energy, is all-pervading. Therefore one should worship the Supreme Lord with His energies. Generally the Vaiñëava devotees worship the Supreme Lord with His internal energy. His external energy is a perverted reflection of the internal energy. The external energy is a background, but the Supreme Lord by the expansion of His plenary portion as Paramätmä is situated everywhere. He is the Supersoul of all demigods, all human beings, all animals, everywhere. One should therefore know that as part and parcel of the Supreme Lord one has his duty to render service unto the Supreme. Everyone should be engaged in devotional service to the Lord in full Kåñëa consciousness. That is recommended in this verse.

Everyone should think that he is engaged in a particular type of occupation by Håñékeça, the master of the senses. And by the result of the work in which one is engaged, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Çré Kåñëa, should be worshiped. If one thinks always in this way, in full Kåñëa consciousness, then, by the grace of the Lord, he becomes fully aware of everything. That is the perfection of life. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gétä (12.7), teñäm ahaà samuddhartä. The Supreme Lord Himself takes charge of delivering such a devotee. That is the highest perfection of life. In whatever occupation one may be engaged, if he serves the Supreme Lord he will achieve the highest perfection.

LECTURE BEGINS

PERFECTION OF RENUNCIATION
We are reading from the 18th chapter of Bhagavad-Gita, which is entitled The Perfection of Renunciation. Here Krishna is describing the perfection of renunciation. Many people are under the conception that vairagya or renunciation means to renounce or give up all activities, to consider any action within the world or materialistic society to be illusion and therefore to become inactive in the sense of going exclusively to a holy place or to be in seclusion and as they say to just leave the world to go on on its own way. That of course is a sense of renunciation. But Krishna in 18th chapter is describing the perfection of renunciation. The perfection of renunciation is to work as Krishna wants you to work.

REAL RENUNCIATION
After all the Bhagavad-Gita is being spoken to Arjuna to convince him to perform his duty of fighting a battle whereas Arjuna was in the mood of just renouncing everything and going to a holy place and chanting Hare Krishna. But the Lord was telling him, that is a kind of renunciation but real renunciation is that I have given you so many gifts, to use everything I have given you in My service is the perfection of renunciation. Everything is spiritual if it is used in the service of the spiritual source of everything. The difference between material and spiritual is the consciousness in which something is used. When we use the thing for our sense gratification that is material but when we use that same thing in the service of Lord Hari that is the perfection of renunciation. Srila Rupa goswami has taught us

präpaïcikatayä buddhyä
hari-sambandhi-vastunaù
mumukñubhiù parityägo
vairägyaà phalgu kathyate
(Bhakti-rasämåta-sindhu 1.2.126)

If you have something that can be used in God’s service and in the name of renunciation you give that up, that is called incomplete renunciation. Complete renunciation is to utilize everything, what ever intelligence you have, whatever energy you have, whatever wealth you have, whatever distinction within the society you have, whatever abilities you have, to be conscious of all that as coming from Krishna and to utilize everything for Him.

So here Krishna is explaining, how the perfection of renunciation is to perform your duty for the all pervading Supreme Lord who is source of all living beings. As described in Srimad Bhagavatam

ataù pumbhir dvija-çreñöhä
varëäçrama-vibhägaçaù
svanuñöhitasya dharmasya
saàsiddhir hari-toñaëam
(S.B-1.2.13)

Whatever particular activity is within society; whether you are a Brahamana or Kshtriya or Vaisya or Sudra, whether you are a Brahmacari, grihasta, vanaprastha, or sannyasi; whether you are a housewife or prime minister, if you are performing your duty for the sake of pleasing Krishna that is the perfection of your life.

ENGAGE IN ONE’S OWN OCCUPATION AS A SERVICE TO KRISHNA
Krishna says in the next verse, it is better to engage in one’s own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly than to accept another’s occupation and perform it perfectly. Prescribed duties according to one’s nature are never affected by sinful reactions. Some people are under the misconception that all activities within this world are sinful. Anything that is not done in the service of God is sinful. But the highest dharma is to simply perform your duties in Krishna Consciousness for the pleasure of Krishna. But how do we know what is the pleasure of Krishna? For that we must have the guidance of Krishna’s representatives the great sadhus. And factually, how Krishna best wants Him to be served? A surrendered devotee allows Krishna to decide that. A neophyte devotee will perform his occupation, according to the way he wants to do it for Krishna, but an advanced soul, his desire is Krishna, how can I please you, whatever you want that is my duty. I would like to tell you a story. This narration explains the quality of such a surrendered soul, who is willing to do anything that Krishna so desired.

THE STORY OF YAMUNACHARYA
You know in South India there are many great Vaishnava temples. There is the Venkateswar temple in Tirumala in Tirupati, there is the temple in Sri Rangam or Sri Ranganath Swami. These two very famous temples are worshiped by the great descendent of Srila Ramanujacharya. Srila Ramanujacarya is one of the great founders of the four vaishnava sampradayas. There are four authentic unbroken lines of disciplic succession in which the pure message of God has come down through the ages. One of them is Sri Sampradaya, one of them is Brahma Sampradaya, the Kumara Sampradaya, and the Rudra Sampradaya. Now Ramanujacarya, he was that great powerful spiritual master, who revived and spread the glories of the Sri Sampradaya throughout all of India. Ramanujacarya is the disciple of a very very great saint who had a very interesting life. His name was Yamunacarya. Do you know the story of Yamunacarya?

Yamunacarya was a brähmaëa, but he was very famous within history as being a great king. So the question is, what is the brähmaëa doing on the throne of a king? He was not a descendant of a king. In fact he was born as a son of Natha Muni who is basically a sadhu. They had no money, nothing. So how did he become king? I would like to tell you the story. When Yamunacarya was only five years old, he went to the Gurukula of his guru maharaja, whose name was Bhavasyacarya. Bhavasyacarya was very learned, very humble and saintly person. He trained Yamunacarya in Sanskrit grammar, the study of the scriptures, and living a discipline and pure life in devotion to God. When Yamunacarya was 12 years old, he had grasped everything that his teacher had taught him. It was a fantastic thing, how he was just able to assimilate all his teachings immediately.

Now it is described that one day his spiritual master Bhavasyacarya was away and all of the other students his classmates, they all had left for vacation and in the school he was the only one present. At that time some visitors came. In those days, to be a pundit was very prestigious within Indian society and your name as a pundit would become famous to the degree you are able to defeat other pundits. So scholars would challenge others and if they would defeat, they would become victorious and become very famous.

So there was one pundit at that time, his name was Kolahala. He was so incredibly learned that nobody could defeat him. His mind was so brilliant and the knowledge of the scriptures was so thorough and his pride was so mountain like, that he would just travel throughout the kingdom and challenge everyone and he would absolutely massacre everyone in logic and argument. Because he was so expert in juggling words and defeating others he became the favorite of the king. At that time there was the Pandya’s dynasty. The king of the Pandya started really liking him very much and therefore the king made a law that any pundit that is challenged by Kolahala must accept the challenge and must beat him. If anyone loses to Kolahala, he must pay tax to the king every year. So this visitor that came to the ashram of Yamunacarya’s guru happened to be one of the disciples of Kolahala and he came to collect tax and he was in very angry mood.

He said “I want to speak to your spiritual master Bhavasyacarya.” Yamunacarya was very mild, very sweet in his words, very gentle by nature. He said “I am very sorry my dear guest My guru maharaja is not here. Can I ask who you are and why you want him so badly?” He said “because your spiritual master is a rascal, my guru maharaja is the greatest of all learned scholars, who is undefeated in any argument? He completely defeated your spiritual master and your spiritual master must pay tax, and because he has not paid tax since two years we’re about to put him to the death sentence. So we want him to pay.” The 12 year old boy said to this person, he said, “you are so proud that any spiritual master that allows such a foolish disciple to be so proud must also be a fool. I think your guru is a great fool. And besides that if he is challenging everyone to a debate”, he said, “I want to debate him”.

This messenger of Kolahala became very angry and he went back to his spiritual master and he said that, “12 year old student of Bhavasyacarya wants to challenge you to a debate.” Kolahala began to laugh haaaaaahaaaaaaaa! 12 year old boy challenge me. He said “go to the king and tell him about it.” The king then sent the message back to the child. “Do you know, if you are defeated, you will be killed for the offence you have committed to the great Kolahala. Either you pay the taxes, or you debate him. But because of this offence, if you lose you are dead.” So Yamunacarya sent the message back, “I will be very glad to debate with him. But if you want me to debate with him, you have to send a royal palanquin to pick me up.”

At this time Bhavasyacaraya had returned and he was thinking,” O my god! what of you gotten yourself into. Do you know who this man is? He has completely defeated me. How are you going to do anything against him?” Yamanujacarya said “do not worry about these things. Just have faith in Lord Narayana He will protect us. We are not the doers, if He wants me to win. I will win. If He wants me to loose then who cares.”

So the word spread throughout the city of Madurai. Madurai was the kingdom of the king of the Pandyas. Everyone was very much restless thinking “what a wonderful thing, a 12 year old boy is challenging Kolahala the greatest of all scholars. Who is this boy that can possibly stand up against such a stalwart debater”. And this was the talk of the whole kingdom. And the Brahmans who were all defeated by Kolahala they all came to Yamunacarya and started offering their blessings, “May the Lord be with you to defeat this rascal, he is so puffed up!”

And then what happened is the royal palanquin was send to him. And as he was being carried with the royal procession seating the 12 year old boy, the king and the queen were sitting in the court waiting for the match to take place. And the king was bragging about his greatest pundit Kolahala. He said to his queen, he said “this Kolahala, just like a cat plays and destroys the mouse that is how he is going to defeat this child.” And the queen looked at him. She said “I have information that this is not an ordinary child. If you want to know my opinion, just like a little tiny spark can burn to ashes an entire mountain of cloth, in this way this child will destroy your pride and joy Kolahala. He will be ‘allabandara’ which means the conqueror.” The king, he said “how can you speak like this, what chance, that child has against the greatest pundit on all the world.” He said to the queen, “if you are saying this seriously, make a wager. I want to bet with you.” The queen said alright, “If your Kolahala wins this debate, I vow that I’ll become the servant of your maid servant.” And then the King said,” ahha! I vow that if this 12 year old little child defeats the great scholar Kolahala, then I will give half of my kingdom to that boy.” So they decided alright let it be.

At that time the child came in on the palanquin, very humble, very gentle, offering obeisance to everyone. The great Kolahala was sitting there. They began the debate. Kolahala began to challenge Yamunacarya with simple questions about the Sanskrit grammar and Yamunacarya was answering them. He said “what do you think, I am so stupid that you have to ask me such elementary questions. Give me something hard, this is the debate.” So then he began to ask him very very sophisticated, difficult and challenging philosophical questions and without the slightest effort Yamunacarya was answering everything. Through all the questions of Kolahala, he could not question anything to Yamunacarya that he could not answer with ease.

So Yamunacarya with very gentle and humble voice, he said “my dear sir, you are asking me such easy questions. I know you gave me some challenge. If you cannot ask me any hard questions, then let me ask you three questions and if you cannot answer my three questions, if you cannot refute, and if you cannot defeat, my three questions, if you cannot prove that I am wrong, then you have to accept defeat.” He said “alright.” Now, of course great scholars, they could juggle words in so many ways, that anything you tell them they can refute it is wrong. So Kolahala, he knew this science. He said, “alright no problem.”

So Yamunacarya said “my first challenge to you is to defeat this. Your mother was not a barren women”. Kolahala began to think, “what kind of question is this? If I defeat him, then I have to prove that my mother was a barren woman. If she was a barren woman then I would not have taken birth.” He was thinking like this and he began to perspire. It was the first question in the history he could not defeat. He turned pale, he could not say anything. And everyone in the king’s court was just silent as they saw him without any words in his mouth. And then Yamunacarya said “ah, then let me present my second challenge to you, try to defeat this. That the king is the supremely righteous man on all the kingdom.” Kolahala was thinking “my God, if I prove that he is not righteous man, he will kill me.” So he remained silent. So then Yamunacarya said “my third challenge is to defeat this that the queen who is sitting right in front of you that she is chaste and faithful only to her husband”. He was thinking “my god if I try to refute this the queen will be very angry and I’ll be finished.”

So then Kolahala he became very angry, he just lost his temper like anything and he got up and he started screaming. He said “what are these nonsense questions that cannot be possibly defeated. Not only that, blaspheming against the king and queen. I challenge you, you defeat these questions and if you cannot then you should be killed for slandering and blaspheming the king and the queen.” At that time everybody stood up from Kolahala’s camp of disciples, they all said “yes this child should be killed, what nonsense questions?” Then everybody stood up and said “no, no, this child he is putting forth good questions. The pundit Kolahala could not defeat them. The condition was not that he had to answer them. He must step down from the position and accept defeat.”

In this way there became a huge argument among both sides. Yamunacarya he stood up and he raised his hand and said, “silence” and everyone was silent and the 12 year old child said, “I’ll now completely defeat and refute all of these three challenges” and everyone was hushed. Kolahala said “it is impossible, how can you do this without offending.” He said first of all “Kolahala, according to the manu sahmita if a woman only has one child, she is considered to be a barren woman and you are the only son of your mother therefore according to shastra she is a barren woman.” Everyone was silent.

“And my second challenge is to refute the argument that the king is supremely righteous man.” Kolahala said “how you are going to defeat that without offending the king.” He said “according to shastra the king takes 1/6th of the pious and impious acts of the whole kingdom all the citizens and because it is Kaliyuga naturally there are more impious acts than pious acts. So although the king personally is the most righteous, most pious, most noble, and most honorable religious man, 1/6th of the non-righteousness of all of the citizens are a burden on his back. So in this way he is not supremely righteous.” And the king smiled. He felt very glorified to hear this. And Kolahala began to become very worried “My god!” He could not say a thing.

Then Kolahala said “what about the queen.” He said “yeah, my third challenge was to you was to defeat the fact that the queen is faithful and chaste only to her husband.” The queen was very attentive and the king was very attentive and all the guards with their swords were also very attentive, everyone was very attentive for this. There was a hush of utter silence. Then Yamunacarya spoke, this beautiful 12 year old boy, he said “according to shastra my dear Kolahala, you should know these things, within the king are eight principal demigods Varuna, Chandra, Vayu, Indra, Yama, Kuvera, Surya, and one other. All these great demigods are always present within the king. The king is the representative of these great demigods. So although the queen is the most faithful and most chaste of all women in her service to her husband at the same time she is serving eight other husbands. So she is not exclusively chaste and faithful only to him.”

At that time the king was so happy that he leaped from his throne and he embraced Yamunacarya and he put the garment of victory around him and he said “my dear boy, never I have seen anyone like this.” He said, today “I’ll reward you half of my kingdom.” He was coronated on that day. Although he was just a poor little poverty stricken brahman boy, he was made a king of half of the Pandya dynasty and he was a very great king and he ruled the citizens perfectly according to the highest spiritual principles. And he himself became the spiritual master of Ramanujacarya one of the greatest proponents of Vaisnava philosophy in history.

TO PERCEIVE EVERYTHING AS AN ARRANGEMENT OF GOD
Now Yamunacarya although totally inexperienced in this line of life he accepted it because he could see that it was the arrangement of God. And with the blessings of his spiritual master he became the king and he became a perfect king. Why? Because whatever he did, he did it simply for the purpose of pleasing Lord Hari. Whether he was a little Brahman boy pleasing his spiritual master by studying Sanskrit or begging alms door to door or carrying water or collecting firewood the most menial services he was rendering as a brahmacari. And the next day he was put on throne to rule armies, to organize the entire kingdom. As far as he was concerned there is no difference between begging alms door to door, collecting wood, or ruling the kingdom. If this is what Krishna wants me to do, I’ll do it to please him. This is the consciousness of a Krishna Conscious person. This is the real quality of the surrendered soul. Whatever Krishna wants, that is what I want? And whatever we do, if we do it exclusively for the purpose of pleasing Krishna that is the perfection of renunciation.

We should not be attached to anything except pleasing Krishna. We should not be attached to any occupation, to any prestige, to any position in society. These things are all an illusion unless we are accepting them, in the service of God. If we accept them in the service of lord it becomes sanatana dharma, the highest perfection of life. So whether you are a businessman, doctor, lawyer, an engineer, an architect, a stock consultant, a student, or house wife whatever position you may be in society, whether you are a brahmacari, grihastha, or a king these things are not very important. The important thing is why you do it? Or who you do it for? Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed us.

nähaà vipro na ca nara-patir näpi vaiçyo na çüdro
nähaà varëé na ca gåha-patir no vanastho yatir vä
kintu prodyan-nikhila-paramänanda-pürnämåtäbdher
gopé-bhartuù pada-kamalayor däsa-däsänudäsaù
(Cc. Madhya 13.80)

I am not a Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Sudra. I am not attached to the position of being a sannyasi, vanaprasta, grihastha, or brahmacari. My only aspiration on and the only position I will be identified in life is that I am the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. If the lord wants me to be the king, I’ll become king for Him, depending on His mercy, if the lord wants me to be a beggar, begging alms for my guru, then I’ll be a beggar. This is the teaching of Bhagavad-Gita, this is the perfection of renunciation. Whatever is our occupation according to the arrangement of God to perform it for His pleasure. And this consciousness, this divine spiritual consciousness, which creates this quality within our life is most readily awakened through the process of associating with persons who are surrendering to Krishna.

’sädhu-saìga’, ‘sädhu-saìga’—sarva-çästre kaya
lava-mätra sädhu-saìge sarva-siddhi haya
(Cc. Madhya 22.54)

By associating with sadhus the path to liberation and all the doors to the highest perfection of life are open wide. And what is that the sadhus will teach us. They will teach us to perform our duty in the service of Lord Hari. And they will teach us that love, that divine realization which is required to offer our services in God’s service can be realized by the process of chanting His holy names. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. By chanting this sweet sound of Krishna’s name with attention and devotion our natural propensity to serve and to love the Lord will awaken from within our heart. And through this process we can perform our everyday duties of life in the spirit of the perfection of renunciation.

YAMUNACHARYA PROPAGATES THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HOLY NAME
Actually the importance of the holy names of the Lord was also disseminated by Yamunacarya. Yamunacarya told Ramanuja his disciple that I have a mantra and this mantra is so powerful that any one who chants it will attain the supreme perfection of prema bhakti, love of God. He said “I will only initiate that mantra, when I am convinced that you are very serious and surrendered soul because it is not a cheap thing.” So Ramanujacarya for many many months he was going to his guru walking a long long distance and his guru would always tell him why he wasn’t ready. After seeing that his disciple, was so anxious just to serve without expecting anything in return except more service, he was completely unconditional. Then Yamunacarya said “now you are fit for initiation, for diksha. But this is a secret mantra and you should not let anyone else hear it. You must keep it for your self.” And then Yamunacarya whispered the mantra in Ramanujacaraya’s ears, this took place in Srirangam. Then Ramanuja went to the top of the Gopuram and he called for everyone in Srirangam to come, for a special meeting. And everyone came and he said “I have a mantra that so powerful, that anyone who chants will get liberated from all disease, from all sufferings of birth, old age, disease, and death and they will attain the supreme perfection of prema love of God. So everyone repeat after me. ‘Om namo Narayanah’” And tumultuously everyone was chanting “Om namo Narayanah”. And Yamunacarya heard this. My god, what is this, this is a secret and the whole town is chanting it. So he called Ramanuja. “Ramanuja you are supposed to be such an obedient disciple, I told you this is a secret, why are you telling everybody.” He said “guru maharaja, I know by disobeying your order, I am going to hell. But anyone who chant this mantra is going to go back to godhead, then let everyone else go back to godhead and I’ll go to hell. I do not mind.” And then Yamunacarya was so happy, tears started flowing from his eyes and he embraced his disciple, and said “you have captured the essence of my mood, the essence of compassion, you should be willing to go to hell to uplift others with the holy name of God.”

There is not greater uplifter, there is no more auspicious element within the entire existence than the name of God. It is the essence of auspiciousness, it is the essence of religion, it is the essence of life, to chant “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare” and by chanting with this faith, with this devotion, whatever we do will naturally be an expression of our unlimited love for Krishna.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna!

‘End of the document’