Dreams and Visions of Sannyas

Some months ago, when the realization that I would soon be taking sannyas first dawned upon me, I received an important dream. Someone presented me with a Swiss army knife, saying,  “This is what sannyas is, to cut off all attachments.” I replied, “That is not the kind of sannyas I will take. My vision of sannyas looks like this.”  And at this, I saw myself with an inexhaustible basket of seeds of bodhichitta (awakened heart). I was walking across the entire world sowing seeds of bodhichitta without ever looking back to see what had become of them.

In my vision of sannyas, there is room for family and the relational aspect of life. Sannyas as I see it is ultimate relatedness, ultimate compassion, because the true sannyasi is intimately related to all beings. Sannyas for me is not the renunciation of relationship but the creation of unlimited and unconditional relationship which sees all beings in equal vision.  Vasudev kutumbakum—the whole world is my family.

Then last night, after writing the sannyas vows and linking them up on the blog page, I dreamed that I was about to die. I had contracted a serious condition which had started from a flower-like structure at the base of my spine and had now spread to the crown of my head. As a result I would die shortly and many friends were coming to receive blessings from me. This extremely auspicious dream speaks of the radical transformation indicated in the sannyas vows, which are being integrated into my being. May these dreams and visions shed light on the path of fellow seekers!