Vivekananda explains the idea of renunciation as follows

Creativity Poetry & Quotes
#61

Money and Yoga is a different topic. Even among the Himalayan gurus in the past there was the tradition of gurudakshina : it was something like “Now get married and you will teach Yoga until the end of your life”, “Build me a house”, “Now get a job and give me this amount of money, so that I can carry on teaching and sustaining my family/ashram…”, “Give me a cow…”. Even in the ashrams, usually disciples gave everything they had or earned to the guru who was in charge of the community.

Giving teachings and receiving money is not something necessarily sacrilegious though it is easy to denature Yoga this way, it depends on the cases. There are different modalities of payment for instance everyone gives a chosen amount in an envelope, there can be a price fixed according to the income aso… There are the examples of Theravada monks teaching Theravada Buddhism for free but they are sustained materially by the lay community.

A few years back, I had Sanskrit classes for free with a teacher in a Vedantic centre. He is a nice man with a realization of a guru IMO. He is retired with a good pension, he asked nothing but he did not need to get extra money to live neither. Even in this case, we, students, used to offer money discreetly in an envelope though it was a difficult time for me financially. We did not take him for granted, and probably he gave most of the money if not everything to the Vedantic centre for its functioning.

Philippe

#62

[QUOTE=Suhas Tambe;43144]Here is another unsolicited advice:

If asana is the first step, guru is needed to demo, review, correct, advice and encourage. You can’t see your back, guru will. If you would also do pranayama, guru is needed even more to explain the subtle processes that can’t be seen with naked eyes. As you advance, there will be trials and errors, then you will need guru to keep you on the track; there will be scriptures to gain wisdom from, you will need guru to interprete; there will be powers, guru will help you avoid temptation to mis-use them; a true guru will also know when to retire from your path to let the inner guru to take over.

HOWEVER, its a two-way relationship. Someone is your guru, because to him/her you are a disciple. Duties and responsibilities of disciple go hand-in-hand. One of them is not to judge a guru with your limited thinking. If so required, you can always give up the discipleship, but there should be no disrespect for guru, for whatever little you have got from him/her requires gratitude.

We also need to remember that guru need not be a ‘bearded person in orange robe’ every time. A book, a situation, a friend, a natural event, a dream- there are many ways. If you are a desperate seeker, guru arrives.[/QUOTE]

Good Points Suhas …I’m listening x

#63

lol yep I just to do that. but it make my brain tamasic and rajasic.A bad combination of active and slow.So Im traying vegetarian now as much as I can.

#64

kool Information Phillipe yeah it made perfect sense.

#65

I read somewhere that after you reach certain level of awareness you most likely are by yourself to continue the journey.

#66

If you are serious about spiritual development. Here is what you should do

  1. Research the ashrams around the world and find one that appeals to you
  2. Go there and spend about weeks or months there. If you are happy with
    the ashram and find you are developing, then stay there. If not, then find another
    ashram and spend time there. Repeat this until you find the right ashram for you.

If you currently have too many wordly responsibilities to go to an ashram, but are serious about going to an ashram later on in your life when responsibilities lessen, then you can at least begin your preparations now

  1. Start a regular routine of spiritual practice at home. Wake up early in the morning and meditate and then go to sleep early at night and meditate. Also include yoga posture and breathing exercises in your program. Maintain the spiritual lifestyle by practicing yama and niyamas in your life(observing a high moral lifestyle) and being mindful and aware throughout the day. Read spiritual literature to inspire.
  2. Identify your wordly desires and work on them as much as you can. It is important that when you go to the ashram you have less baggage of wordly desire. If you are full of wordly desire when you get the ashram(sex, career, relationships) you will struggle.

The above will only take you so far. It is foolhardy to look at this as living a spiritual lifestyle, this is rather a preparation for a spiritual lifestyle. If you are serious about enlightenment, then you will at some stage or the other, have to renounce wordly life completely and become a monk.