Sankaracharya becomes a sannyasi¹⁹

There was once a great Sanskrit scholar who was also a matchless philosopher. When he was quite young he said to his mother, “Mother, I don’t like this world. This world is not good. Here it is all bondage and illusion. I want to give up this world. I want to accept sannyas, renunciation.”

The mother burst into tears, “My son, how can you accept sannyas? You know the entire creation is God’s. How can you go out of God’s creation? No, no, you cannot accept sannyas. You have to be with me. Without you I will not be able to live on earth. My whole life will be miserable and unbearable. Your absence will break my heart. I cannot allow you to accept sannyas.”

The young man remained silent. He could not accept the life of a sannyasi without his mother’s permission. According to the Scriptures, one has to take permission from one’s parents or guardians. Then only will sannyas bear fruit. So he waited for his mother’s permission devotedly, soulfully and helplessly.

One day he went swimming in a nearby river and there he was caught by a crocodile. He started screaming and his mother came running.

The crocodile said, “If you want to remain in ignorance, then I will eat you up, but if you don’t want to remain in ignorance, then I will let you go.”

Then the son said, “Mother this is the time to grant me my boon. If you don’t allow me my wish, then the crocodile will kill me.”

“I will give you my permission to accept sannyas if you feel that the crocodile will free you,” the mother said.

Immediately the crocodile let him go, and he came up to his mother and said, “Now, Mother, you have to keep your promise!”

The mother said, “I will keep my promise, but my heart will break when you leave me. To lose you is to lose my all.”

He said, “Mother, you will not lose me. Whenever you want me just think of me and meditate on me, and I shall come to you. Normally one does not see one’s family for ten or twelve years after one has accepted sannyas. But in my case, whenever you want I will come. But I will not accept the worldly life and I will not get married. I will follow only the path of sannyas.”

The mother blessed the son and said, “Go, go! You want to please God. Whether it is in God’s Way or your own way, I do not know. But you do want to please God; that much I know. So I will be happy, because I know you are going for God. You feel He should be realised in a specific way. I won’t stand in your way; I give you my full permission. But your absence will kill me. Now go. Go and be satisfied, for I am your dearest and you are my dearest. In your satisfaction I also will be satisfied.”

The boy fell at his mother’s feet for the last time and took her blessings. Then he left home.

This young man was none other than India’s Sankaracharya, the peerless philosopher who introduced our Advaita philosophy, “One without a second.”