Both the Path of Enjoyment and Renunciation are Artificial

The Supreme Lord, both when He came as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and when He came as Lord Krishna, taught us that the path to perfection is not to the path of denying the world. Both the processes of bhoga and tyaga, enjoyment and renunciation, are artificial. The natural, fullest, and healthiest perception of the world is to see how everything is the energy of the divine and to utilize everything in a spirit of devotion to the divine. Rupa Goswami, a saint from the seventeenth century, explains that to reject anything as material is incomplete renunciation.

Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita that the material world is His divine nature. It is not that the world is an illusion. Our perception of the world is an illusion because we do not see it in relation to God; we do not see that it is meant for the pleasure of God. Due to the false ego we are seeing everything in terms of me; I am the center. When we see that Krishna is the center, we can see everything in the world as a beautiful aspect of Krishna and every situation in the world as an opportunity to express our love for Krishna. And as we make spiritual progress on the path of bhakti, we realize this at every moment.

By Radhanath Swami