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have become powerful but they are restless and unhappy. And those who have only done research in religion have no doubt attained peace but they are weak and poor. Thus the sadhana, the search that has been carried on so far is imperfect, partial. So far there has never been a full and complete sadhana for truth.
I want to see power and peace in their perfection. I want a synthesis, a harmony of religion and science. This will give birth to the perfect individual, to the perfect culture, to a people rich in inner values and in outer achievements. The individual is neither the body nor the soul but a combination of the two. Therefore anything based on any one of these alone is incomplete.
Question 2
THE SECOND QUESTION: WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ABOUT RENOUNCING WORLDLY LIFE? IS SANNYAS, BECOMING A SEEKER, ONLY POSSIBLE IF ONE RENOUNCES THE WORLD?
There is no conflict between the world and sannyas. It is not the world but ignorance that one must renounce. Giving up the world is not sannyas. The awakening of knowledge, of self-knowledge, is sannyas. This awakening leads to a renunciation, not of the world, but of attachment to it. The world stays where it is and as it is but we are transformed. Our outlook is transformed. This transformation is very fundamental. In this awakened state we do not have to give up anything. What is useless and superfluous automatically drops like the ripened fruit from a tree. Just as darkness disappears at the coming of light, at the dawn of knowledge impurities pass away and what remains thereafter is sannyas.
Sannyas has nothing to do with the world. It has to do with the self. It is the purification of the self. It is just like the purification of alloyed gold.
Looking at life from the standpoint of self-ignorance is samsara, worldliness; looking at life from the standpoint of self-knowledge is sannyas. There fore whenever anyone says to me that he has "taken" sannyas it seems false to me. This "taking" of sannyas creates the impression it is an antagonistic act against the world. Is sannyas something that can be taken? Can anyone say he has "taken" knowledge? And will any knowledge taken like
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