Monasteries are the result of this idea, and this Buddhistic practice was
adopted by the first Christian church, since which time the real purpose
and intention of the monastery and the nunnery have become lost in the
concept of sacrifice or punishment. The Christian monk almost invariably
retires to a monastery, not for the purpose of consciously attaining to
that enlarged area of consciousness which insures liberation, _mukti_, but
as an "outward and visible sign" that he is willing to undergo the
sacrifice of worldly pleasures at the behest of the Lord Jesus. Thus, the
real object of retirement is lost, and the sacrifice again becomes in the
nature of a "bargain."
In the Bhagavad-Gita, we find these words:
"Renunciation and yoga by action both lead to the highest bliss; of the
two, yoga by action is verily better than renunciation of action. He who is
harmonized by yoga, the self-purified, self-ruled, the senses subdued,
whose self is the self of all beings, although _acting_, yet is such an one
not _affected_.
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