These days I work out at the gym and listen to videos by Swami Sarvapriyananda. I was listening to his commentary on the Song of a Sanyasin by Swami Vivekananda, where he made a profound point.
When a Sanyasi leaves the world and moves to the Himalayan peaks, it’s easier to experience the world as Maya. When the mountain is covered in fog, and you cannot see beyond your nose, everything seems an illusion. However, if you genuinely think about it, in such times, the world has forgotten the Sanyasi but the Sanyasi still remembers the world.Swami Sarvapriyananda
Just contemplate these lines. When a Sanyasi newly moves to the Himalayas, their mind is still full of the world they left behind. Family, friends, places, smells, and sights. Yet the world continues to churn without them. Their room at home is converted to a study room for the younger child. The family moves on and continues to live. Friends find it easy to drown themselves in their troubles, and their favorite restaurant continues to do booming business.
You have to look at funeral gatherings to see how quickly people move with their lives. The fire is still burning when everyone is figuring out their plans for the rest of the day. A Sanyasi thinks they are making a big decision by moving away from everything they love to find solitude and go inwards. Yet, everything they hold dear was never theirs in the first place. It reminded me of a line from Swami Vivekananda’s talk on Maya.
Maya is a statement of the fact of this universe, of how it is going on.Swami Vivekananda
Oh, dear Sanyasi reader, nothing you hold dear is permanent and will never be with you anyway. When you truly understand this, the world becomes your Himalayas. Om Tat Sat — The only truth.
I sat down to write a completely different article, but this one just came out. I hope it makes sense to some of you.
This song goes out to all the great saints of Sanatana Dharma who dedicated lifetimes to this glorious tradition.
This article is a submission at the lotus feet of my guru Om Swami – the founder of the Vedic Sadhana app. The app helps you identify your ishta and then perform daily rituals that deepen your relationship with them. This incredible app makes the ancient rituals and practices followed by the sages of India available to you.