Children, the goal of human life is everlasting peace and freedom. When this awareness becomes deeply rooted in the mind, the desire for worldly objects will fall away. That said, we cannot call this sacrifice. Sacrifice becomes complete only when we give up the ‘I and mine’ attitude.
More than what we renounce, what matters is the attitude behind the act. If our own child falls sick, we will take him to the hospital. If we cannot find any vehicle to take us there, we will walk to the hospital with the child, even if the hospital is far away. We will be ready to plead with any number of people in the hospital in order to get our child admitted. If there is no private room available, we will go to the general ward and lie down on the floor with our child.
We will take many days off from work to nurse our child back to health. But all these troubles, which are for the sake of our own child, cannot be considered acts of renunciation.
Sacrificing one’s own pleasures and comforts to help another person is renunciation. Working hard, enduring hardship, and using the money thus earned to help a poor person is renunciation. When the child from a neighbouring house falls sick, and we are ready to stay with her in the hospital without expecting anything in return, not even a smile, we can call it renunciation.
Actions done without the attitude of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ for the welfare of the world and as an offering to God are the noblest instances of renunciation. Such self-sacrificing acts open the doors to the world of the Self. Only such actions can be called karma-yoga. In contrast, giving up anything with an attitude of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ is not worthy of being called a sacrifice.
There was once a rich man who wanted to become a sanyasi. He donated all his wealth to many noble causes benefiting people. Then, he became a sanyasi, went to a mountain top, built a small hut there, and started staying in it.