I remain convinced that no one can pursue another person to such a radical idea as leaving a home permanently to become a Sannyasi unless there is a serious inclination on the part of the individual being persuaded.
For example, any amount of persuasion would not lead me to a spiritual way of life because I personally do not appreciate it. Case would have been different if he was not in touch with the world or if he was uneducated.
Let us take the example of a clinical trial to examine this point. “A clinical trial is a carefully designed and executed investigation of the effects of a drug (or vaccine) administered to human subjects. The goal is to define the clinical efficacy and pharmacological effects (toxicity, side effects, incompatibilities or interactions) of the drug”. Such a trial is normally performed on those who are terminally ill and have lost all hope of a cure through available medicines. However clinical trails are with many risks though there may be miracles of healing and cure. ‘Informed consent’ is a term used for giving permission to undergo such a trial after having learned its risks and chances.
After an informed consent is given, you could administer a patient with the medicine under test. This is alright if the patient is capable of considering its merits and demerits. According to me, he is under a clinical trial but what if he was grownup enough and knowledgeable enough and had given an informed consent? It will be too easy to get a poor, uneducated to get enrolled for a clinical trial because informed consent or not, such a person is unlikely to think deeply. Probably, he has been too desperate to experiment the spiritual medicine; ‘patient wished for a medicine and doctor prescribed the same’.
We have to assume my brother had given an informed consent to those who put him on a clinical trial of spirituality. Because in this case, my brother was an educated, intelligent individual; a busy journalist writing brilliantly. He had been also educated to graduation level in English literature with a partly completed Post Graduation. That’s the reason I remain convinced that none could have persuaded an educated, grown up, responsible, and loved by all individual like him to give up the material life and that he must have been personally convinced about the glory of spiritual life and becoming a Sannyasi.
It is like this; the reason for me coming to Dubai has been my brother-in-law. Today I wish I stayed back in that Indian Job in a world renowned company. He persuaded me and I refused initially, finally I decided to come when I faced a minor issue in the company. But is it correct to say that he is responsible for my coming? I always had the choice to refuse. The decision was entirely mine and I am the one responsible.
Let me continue my retrospection into how events unfolded with regards to his abandoning us, his so called ‘family’; the story of our separation, hope, and loss.
