Q. How can we reconcile living in abundance and following the path of
renunciation?
A. To answer that important question without creating further misunderstanding, we need to ask ourselves what is the nature of abundance? And secondly, why does there seem to be a conflict between having abundance and being taught that to realize God one has to practice renunciation?
Let us understand the nature of abundance is infinite. It is spiritual in substance, for it is the nature of God, or the infinite Reality, to manifest in infinite variety the love that it is and to share the joy of manifesting in the most creative, imaginative, and joyful ways whatever it conceives within its infinite consciousness. Even so, it is man’s nature to embody and experience infinite abundance. How does this square with the idea of renunciation?
Traditionally, renunciation has been a fundamental requirement for anyone seeking self-enlightenment. This idea is based on the belief that possession of worldly goods or wealth serves as an obstacle to self-enlightenment. We are quickly reminded that the Avatars and sages or yore were great renunciates and therefore we need to emulate their example. Let us understand, if the renunciation of the things of this world were the criterion for enlightenment, then you would have to inform God to be the first to initiate this reform and renounce His own creation. Of course, this is absurd.
Abundance cannot be renounced, since it is the very nature of God to thrive through all Souls in manifestation. What serves as the obstacle to enlightenment is not abundance but the consciousness of attachment to the objects of the senses. What causes this attachment? False sense-identification, born of the belief that fulfillment resides in the possession of worldly objects. Experience, of course, denies this to be the truth.
True abundance is the realization that all the Father has, I have. Or, if you will, that each one of us is the beneficiary of infinite supply. However, the feeling of lack creates the illusion that only by struggling for the things of this world can we hope to achieve abundance. The feeling of deprivation generates greed, and that becomes the cause of suffering and obsessive attachment to the objects of the senses.
God’s will for each of us is to share in God’s nature and participate in the growth of joy, the unfoldment of love, and the sharing of divine grace with one another. By cultivating the consciousness of abundance we renounce the consciousness of lack. By developing appreciation, we are open to enlightenment and ever greater joy, connectedness with the stream of pure Existence, Consciousness, and ever greater creative self-expression. Renounce ignorance by remembering who you are. That is all there is to it.
