Do we act or react ?

A day of learning

Sadasiva Brahmendra sang," with the folded hand as pillow,with sky as blanket,the bare ground as bed and dispassion as wife, thus sleeps a renunciate in the blessed state of samadhi".

Once he was himself in that blissful pose of sleep on the ground in an open field. A farmer girl who was passing by, remarked to her friend ,with a sarcastic smile " what a sannyasi! He needs a head rest for his head. What type of renunciation is this?". 

This made sadasiva brahmenda think," how come I'm thinking like an ordinary man that the head has to rest above the level of the rest of the body in order to sleep? Unless I get rid of this attachment to the body, my sannyasa is not worth the salt. It is only Mother Goddess who has come in the form of this low caste woman to give me upadesa". Thus thinking, he removed his hand that was used as a head rest and lay on the ground without a head rest.

But the same woman who had commented earlier passed that way again ,saw the change in posture of the sannyasi and again gave a sarcastic laugh followed by an equally sarcastic comment," a sannyasi should know things for himself. Just to keep reacting to comments made by passers by does not speak well of renunciation!".

That was the day when sadasiva became an honest to goodness,non reacting, non acting, non responding inert like entity, sadasiva Brahman!