True Penance

People assume that renunciation is sitting in a cave or deep in the forest and holding one’s breath. It is not so. You have been so long eating from a metal plate; you will now eat from a coconut shell. Is that penance? You were feeding yourself. You will now go around the streets seeking alms. Even then you are dependent – on a plate, on someone’s mercy. So long you would have dressed up well. Now you will go around in rags. You had your house to shelter you. Whereas you will hunt around now for a cave in the forest. This is not penance!

Penance is realizing that God has created the world for our enjoyment. Parents work, build houses, buy dresses, educate their children – all these for their children’s happiness. That’s why they toil their lifetime long.

Worldly parents take so much effort to ensure the child’s happiness, God, who is our parent across several eons, does not subscribe to our torture in the name of penance. God created the treasures of this world for the enjoyment of His children.

Divinity is being able to live as a human being amidst ordinary people and helping them attain divinity