Bhaktananda: Simplicity

[Jitendra Hydonus]

Bhaktananda Simplicity LDG 5/28/98

SRF Monastics fourfold-vow:

1.   Simplicity
2.   Obedience
3.   Chastity
4.   Loyalty

What does it mean to live a life of simplicity?

Desires - God should be first, supreme

Possessions – It is easier to be content with less things.

Activities – Be efficient to have more time to meditate.

Thinking – Does not mean daydreaming or thinking of the past or future.

Be efficient in your thinking. Concentrate on your planning at a certain time, set aside a time; otherwise think of God. This is how householder saints are made. There have been many.

Don’t think and plan and introspect all day – wasted!

Does no good.

Plain living – high thinking. More and more.

Renounce the material life to have God. It is like investing $5000 to get a million.