Sannyasa and Society

At the present juncture in the history of the world and of religions, in the East as well as in the West, the sense of the Mystery is everywhere being increasingly obscured even in those whose special vocation is to bear witness among their brothers to the eschaton, to the presence here and now of the ultimate realities. The spirit of secular activism corrodes everything. So in the West monks and clergy seek to establish their status in society and ask for a social recognition which is purely secular in character. In the flood of secularism which is sweeping away all the adventitious sacredness with which their calling was overlaid (cp. adhyāsa) in previous ages they rose the sense of their real identity. Thus they forget that their primary function is to be the witnesses in the midst of society to what is truly sacred—that which is beyond all forms and definitions. They merely replace the forms of a false sacredness with secular forms which are no less alienating, instead of plunging directly into the Infinite—though this is what is imperatively demanded at this turning-point of history. Meanwhile society itself is becoming all-engrossing. It permits no one to escape from its hellish cycle of production and consumption. It does not allow that anyone has the right to stand aside and live on religious alms; still less does it recognize its own duty of providing for the needs of those who have been summoned to pass beyond its structures, whereas in fact such people are the guardians of its purity and its need for transcendence. It is therefore more than ever important that many ‘keśis’ should go forth both from the churches and from the world, and first of all in India, which from the beginning has been the faithful herald of the mystery of transcendence. Following the great tradition of the desert in the West and of parivrajya in India, they are needed to remind everyone that there is a Beyond, an eschaton (a transcendent finality), already present, something permanent in the midst of all that passes away, deeper than words, deeper than acts, deeper than all exterior relationships among men. Their motto might well be that spoken by the angel to the great Arsenius, the high officer of the emperor Theodosius, who in the midst of his career left the world and the court to hide himself among the hermits of Scete in Egypt: “Flee away; keep silence; be at peace!” India, the world, and the religions need such prophets as never before, for they alone can safeguard the right of every man to be himself.

—Swami Abhishiktananda
The Further Shore, 29–30