Kabir says, "What is the point if you don't give up pride!" and Guru Arjan says, "Without renouncing ego, how can one be a renunciate?"

Guru Gobind Singh's shabad Re Man Aiso Kar Sanyasa is a beautiful crystallization of some of the deepest wisdom from oneness principles extolled by Indian sages for millennia. Every word and phrase can be used for meditation and for digging deeper. Through this shabad, Guru Gobind Singh gives the same message as Guru Nanak in Japji Sahib, and the same message Shri Krishna gave Arjun in Bhagwad Gita. The highest spirituality and the deepest self is not found by searching in the wilderness; it is found by perfecting one's mind. The one who win's their own mind, conquers the world.

SHABAD, TRANSLITERATION AND ALTERNATIVE TRANSLATION

ਰਾਗ ਰਾਮਕਲੀ ਪਾਤਸਾਹੀ ੧੦ ॥
Raaga Raamkalee Paatasaahee 10 ॥
RAMKALI OF THE TENTH KING

ਰੇ ਮਨ ਐਸੋ ਕਰਿ ਸੰਨਿਆਸਾ ॥
Re Man Aaiso Kari Saanniaasaa ॥
O mind ! the asceticism be practised in this way :

ਬਨ ਸੇ ਸਦਨ ਸਬੈ ਕਰ ਸਮਝਹੁ ਮਨ ਹੀ ਮਾਹਿ ਉਦਾਸਾ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
Ban Se Sadan Sabai Kar Samajhahu Man Hee Maahi Audaasaa ॥1॥ Rahaau ॥
Consider your house as the forest and remain unattached within yourself…..Pause.


ਜਤ ਕੀ ਜਟਾ ਜੋਗ ਕੋ ਮਜਨੁ ਨੇਮ ਕੇ ਨਖੁਨ ਬਢਾਓ ॥
Jata Kee Jattaa Joga Ko Majanu Nema Ke Nakhuna Badhaao ॥
Consider continence as the matted hair, Yoga as the ablution and daily observances as your nails,

ਗਿਆਨ ਗੁਰੂ ਆਤਮ ਉਪਦੇਸਹੁ ਨਾਮ ਬਿਭੂਤ ਲਗਾਓ ॥੧॥
Giaan Guroo Aatama Aupadesahu Naam Bibhoota Lagaao ॥1॥
Consider the knowledge as the preceptor giving lessons to you and apply the Name of the Lord as ashes.1.


ਅਲਪ ਅਹਾਰ ਸੁਲਪ ਸੀ ਨਿੰਦ੍ਰਾ ਦਯਾ ਛਿਮਾ ਤਨ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ॥
Alapa Ahaara Sulapa See Niaandaraa Dayaa Chhimaa Tan Pareeti ॥
Eat less and sleep less, cherish mercy and forgiveness

ਸੀਲ ਸੰਤੋਖ ਸਦਾ ਨਿਰਬਾਹਿਬੋ ਹ੍ਵੈਬੋ ਤ੍ਰਿਗੁਣ ਅਤੀਤ ॥੨॥
Seela Saantokh Sadaa Nribaahibo Havaibo Triguna Ateet ॥2॥
Practise gentleness and contentment and remain free from three modes.2.


ਕਾਮ ਕ੍ਰੋਧ ਹੰਕਾਰ ਲੋਭ ਹਠ ਮੋਹ ਨ ਮਨ ਮੋ ਲਯਾਵੈ ॥
Kaam Karodha Haankaara Lobha Hattha Moha Na Man Mo Layaavai ॥
Keep your mind unattached from lust, anger, greed, insistence and infatuation,

ਤਬ ਹੀ ਆਤਮ ਤਤ ਕੋ ਦਰਸੈ ਪਰਮ ਪੁਰਖ ਕਹ ਪਾਵੈ ॥੩॥੧॥
Taba Hee Aatama Tata Ko Darsai Parma Purkh Kaha Paavai ॥3॥1॥
Then you will visualize the supreme essence and realize the supreme Purusha. 3.1.
BACKGROUND - SHABAD HAZARE 

This shabad comes from the Shabad Hazare. Shabad Hazare include ten religious hymns composed by Guru Gobind Singh which are present in Dasam Granth. Some scholar link hazare word to Persian Hijr means separation which linked as the shabads separates us from Maya where it is also believed to be come from word Haazra (means present) i.e. word of Haazar Hazoor. These hymns are primarily composed in Braj and Hindi languages, with plentiful use of sanskritic words. Like the Guru Granth Sahib, these hymns subscribe to the oneness direction of the mool mantra; they inspire a revolution of the mind and they are against idolatory and meaningless ritual practices.


MAIN CONCEPT - TRUE SANYAAS AND UDAASI

Historial concept of Sanyaas: 

Sannyasa is a form of asceticism, is marked by renunciation of material desires and prejudices, represented by a state of disinterest and detachment from material life, and has the purpose of spending one's life in peaceful, love-inspired, simple spiritual life. Sanyasis can be called renunciates or ascetics. Sannyasa (saṃnyāsa) is the life stage of renunciation within the Hindu philosophy of four age-based life stages known as ashramas, with the first three being brahmacharya (bachelor student), Grihastha (householder) and Vanaprastha (forest dweller, retired). An individual in Sanyasa is known as a Sannyasi (male) or Sannyasini (female) in Hinduism, which in many ways parallel to the Sadhu and Sadhvi traditions of Jain monasticism, the bhikkhus and bhikkhunis of Buddhism and the monk and nun traditions of Christianity, respectively. In Sikhism, there is no ascetism; in the highest state of the individual is Brahmgyani. For someone who does this early in life, there are two options: Grihastha or Sanyaas. Gurbani combines the two and shows a path where Sanyaas can be achieved within grihastha. A more practical way of living a life. 


Sanyas Happens Even Now: 

Renunciation - even now people renunciate. They give up their lives and go on traveling trips. In fact some of their stories are published in books. Eat Pray Love is a book about this. Another example is Walden's Pond. Those who do these experiments come back rejuvinated. Hemingway's granddaughter who writes Wild is the most recent example of a popular work about Sanyasa. 


Sanyaas and Udaas

Sam-ni-aas - having not desire: all together having no desires.
Sa - Ni - aas - literally "with no hope"
Sun - aas: being in zero-ness as Sant Singh Maskeen explains.

Ud-aas - Udar Aaas - Hope from inside, Hope in inside

While Sanyaas is a noun, Udaas is normally a verb. So someone can be in Sanyaas, and someone is udaas. 

Also, Bhagwad Gita Chapter 9, verse 28

Mary Oliver on Sanyasa 

I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains, somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully in the cold and the silence. It’s said that in such a place certain revelations may be discovered. That what the spirit reaches for may be eventually felt, if not exactly understood. Slowly, no doubt. I’m not talking about a vacation.

Of course, at the same time I mean to stay exactly where I am.

Are you following me?

Other links

Sant Singh Maskeen -

Perpetual Motion
Tony Hoagland

In a little while I’ll be drifting up an on-ramp,
sipping coffee from a styrofoam container,
checking my gas gauge with one eye
and twisting the dial of the radio
with the fingers of my third hand,
Looking for a station I can steer to Saturn on.

It seems I have the traveling disease
again, an outbreak of that virus
celebrated by the cracked lips
of a thousand blues musicians—song
about a rooster and a traintrack,
a sunrise and a jug of cherry cherry wine.

It's the kind of perceptual confusion
that makes your loved ones into strangers,
that makes a highway look like a woman
with air conditioned arms. With a
bottomless cup of coffee for a mouth
and jewelry shaped like pay phone booths
dripping from her ears.

In a little while the radio will
almost have me convinced
that I am doing something romantic,
something to do with “freedom” and “becoming”
instead of fright and flight into
an anonymity so deep

it has no bottom,
only signs to tell you what direction
you are falling in: CHEYENNE, SEATTLE,
WICHITA, DETROIT—Do you hear me,
do you feel me moving through?
With my foot upon the gas,
between the future and the past,
I am here—
here where the desire to vanish
is stronger than the desire to appear.

My Take:

The narrator of the poem is going to start on a car journey. He wants to go very far -- he says he wants to go to Saturn. Perhaps he just wants to escape his life, his now. He just wants to go. It's a feeling that he has no control over. It's like a disease he has contracted. Perhaps he is inflicted by pessimism, because it is an outbreak that is celebrated by so many blues musicians.

He is so pessimistic that loved ones have become strangers. Thats an interesting point because we often hear about how optimism -- the walt whitman kind of optimism -- the optimism that can convert strangers into friends. Pessimism converts loved ones into strangers -- another clue that thats what has happened to the narrator.

He tries to escape his life, his friends, his loved ones, his now. And instead befriends the highway. A new path.  A renunciation, a sanyasa. This new path looks enticing, sexy -- like a girl with comfortable, air-conditioned arms. Phone booths which can be used to call his friends now appear like jewelry -- present not for the sake of connecting with the old loved ones, but as show pieces merely present to decorate the new enticements.

The radio helps in the escape. The songs playing give the false feeling that the narrator is not running from life, but being free. Doing something romantic -- something connected with love and passion. The narrator is moving.

The last few lines are beautiful: