The Real Meaning of the Term 'Renunciation' Renunciation does not mean giving up something, but being detached in mind from that thing. True renunciation is getting ready to receive the Kingdom, the Infinite, into one's daily life. When a person wishes to enjoy a fine dinner, he naturally gives up, for the time being, not only many little things he is attending to, but also his important works. Even so, when one wants to listen to the infinite Stillness, Silence, Peace of God, or taste His boundless Love, one naturally gives up, for the time being, the awareness of worldly things. But once a contact is established with the infinite Kingdom of the divine Consciousness, one pours the treasures of that Kingdom into the life in this world, or receives back the world with unfailing joy, boundless love, and with the eyes and the heart of the infinite Light and Being.
Renunciation is a corollary of spiritual maturity and a necessity and act of ripened wisdom.
It is an obligation imposed upon man, for a person who is striving to live his life from the standpoint, from the nature of the Infinite which transcends all the opulence of individual excellence and cosmic richness. A rejection of all that hinders the true flowering of life into its full stature, dignity, value, significance, is unavoidable. The life of such wise and noble renunciation is indispensable, as the most effective condition for breaking one's way through the barriers of separative existence, divided experiences, finitising tendencies and relative values built by the individual. The life of real renunciation is principally a life in which thought is not extinguished but freed from every distraction incidental to disorderly worldly living. Here, thought is given an upward turn and rendered into the power of a highly vigilant discrimination and an all-embracing divine knowledge.