Real sannyasa means giving up wrong pursuits for right ones—unconditional service to Krishna regardless of comfort or consequence.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Sannyāsa Initiation Lecture — January 26, 1973, Calcutta 730126IN-CALCUTTA [27:14 Minutes] Initiations_730126IN-CALCUTTA Prabhupāda: ... and sat means om tat sat, the Absolute Truth. Sannyāsa. [aside:] So stop that sound. So renouncement, simply giving up something, is not very good idea.
You must have something better. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate [Bg. 2.59]. If you get something better, then you give up something inferior. Our Vaiṣṇava philosophy, renouncement means renouncement of sense gratification.
The Māyāvāda sannyāsa means karma-tyāga, simply reading Vedānta philosophy, sāṅkhya philosophy, and everything given up. But our Vaiṣṇava philosophy is giving up the wrong thing and accepting the right thing—side by side. Simply if I give up, it will not stay very long time. If I simply by sentiment give up, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, "This world is false and Brahman is the real, reality," so there are so many sannyāsīs we see, they give up the so-called mithyā world and come to the Brahman realization by meditation.
By meditation, meditation... Then meditation means hospital and school. Because there is no Brahman, there is no reality. So after much meditation, comes to the conclusion that "Now I am a sannyāsī.
I must open school, college and daridra-nārāyaṇa sevā and goat-nārāyaṇa killing." This kind of sannyāsa has no meaning. Daridra-nārāyaṇa sevā, by killing goat nārāyaṇa. Goat is not Nārāyaṇa; simply daridras are Nārāyaṇa. If you accept one as Nārāyaṇa, why should you not accept the other as Nārāyaṇa?
So this kind of false sannyāsa is not accepted by the Vaiṣṇavas. Vaiṣṇavas, they accept sannyāsa for better activities. For better activities means dedicated life for satisfying the Supreme Lord. Mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja.
Anyone who has sacrificed his life for Kṛṣṇa, he's sannyāsa. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ, sa sannyāsī [Bg. 6.1]. Na niragnir na cākriyaḥ. One who has given up...