310 Aptavani-2
There is no need to renounce anything for liberation. Renunciation should be natural and spontaneous. There is no need for any other type of renunciation. All other renunciations are from the perspective of illusion and ignorance. Lord’ s renunciation is real renunciation. What is renunciation of the illusionary perspective like? When a smoker quits smoking, he thinks he has renounced smoking, and the one who made him quit thinks it was because of him that the other person quit smoking. Even a small child would understand this illusionary renunciation of his uncle quitting smoking.
What kind of renunciation is this?
A sheth once said to me,“ When you are on your daily walk, please come and visit me for an hour or so. We will spend some time together.” He was a good man;‘ we’ used to sit with him for half an hour or so. Usually his bidis( hand-rolled cigarettes) were short but one day he rolled a twelve-inch long bidi and began to smoke. So‘ we’ asked him,“ Why are you smoking such a long bidi?” The Sheth told me,“ The Maharaj( his guru) has told me to smoke only four bidis a day. I told him that I would not be able to do so but he insisted that I abide by his instructions.”
“ Hmmm … is that how you are carrying out his instruction?” Seeing this‘ we’ saluted this era! Later, after smoking half the bidi, he took two more leaves and began to roll them at the bottom of the bidi. So‘ we’ asked him,“ Sheth, what are you doing?” He told me,“ Because I am not satisfied with smoking only four long ones!”
‘ We’ salute your fortune! Even Lord Mahavir did not know such things. You have knowledge of what even Lord Mahavir could not see in his fully enlightened state of omniscience( keval Gnan)!!‘ We’ applaud you! Today‘ we’ discovered that such minds exist. Truly the intellect of the merchant class deserves a special(!) prize. When you tell your guru that you