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| Om Swami |
(from "Truth to be told"):
Om Swami: Enlightenment does not mean you have to live like a pauper. It does not mean you have to subject yourself to a life of hardship and abstinence. On the contrary, to be enlightened means to live in the light of love, compassion, and truthfulness. It means learning to live without reservations and inhibitions. I have seen many teachers and sadhus who teach renunciation and detachment, yet are deeply attached to their own ideas, agendas, and possessions.
I have met young monks from monasteries who visit restaurants and shops, eager to enjoy things they can't afford. Rather than begging or being a poor monk eyeing material comforts, it is far better to live in the world and be detached.
Your knowledge of rituals and scriptures, the time you spend in places of worship, the money you raise for religious causes - such things, I am sorry to tell you, have absolutely no connection with God unless the heart is open to the Divine. Such acts will not even lead to an independent way of thinking, let alone enlightenment unless you understand well that the objective of religious acts is to purify yourself and cultivate compassion and gratitude. The more you get attached to a cause, religious or otherwise, the more you restrict your freedom. The most inflexible people I have met are generally the most 'religious'. Religion is our creation. It is the middlemen who over-promises and under-delivers and, what's more, it rarely connects us to the right supplier.
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