Calm Caves

61 Calm caves
It is interesting how in both Eastern and Western spirituality great renounced persons would often perform their prayer and worship in the caves of the mountains. It is in the spirit of simplicity and renunciation—simplicity in that it’s completely natural, it is provided by God Himself. There is no need to pay any rent or to work for accommodation. In fact, the ancient scriptures say, “What is the use of so much effort to build houseswhen there are so many caves in the mountains? What is the use of pillows when you have two arms to put your head on? Why struggle for all kinds of clothes when there’s bark of trees you could wear?”

If we look for happiness in accumulating material wealth or property, then it’s an endless cycle of aspiration and frustration. The more we make our life simple, the more it becomes natural to be God conscious. The idea is, when life becomes very extraneous with efforts for obtaining mundane things, it distracts our attention away from our spiritual pursuits.

So, when great saints and sages would come to these caves, it would be to disassociate themselves from the modes of passion and ignorance, to detach themselves from the passionate world of greed and lust, and in that situation to be able to completely put their full attention into prayer and the chanting of the Holy Names and the study of scriptures.

– Radhanath Swami

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