Genuine sannyasa requires complete detachment from material desire; mere costume changes without inner transformation are self-deception.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: ...no more desire of material enjoyment, he is fit for sannyāsa. Anyone who sees, "Oh, this car is very nice. This beautiful wife is very..., very beautiful woman is very nice," he should not think of taking sannyāsa. Viṣa-bhakṣaṇād apy asādhu [Cc Madhya 11.8]: "Such desires is most abominable, more than taking poison." To commit suicide by taking poison is most abominable thing, because he's going to be a ghost.
He'll be punished to become a ghost, those who commit suicide. Or, if one is suddenly killed and he has so many desires, he becomes ghost. Therefore viṣa-bhakṣaṇa, taking poison, and die untimely, is most abominable. Or commit suicide.
By the material law also, to attempt to commit suicide is criminal. You know that? Devotees: Yeah. Prabhupāda: Yes. It is criminal. [Transl. What happened? Why are you not cleaning up as the platforms are being completed?] If you take sannyāsa... Just like there are so many sannyāsīs, for filling up the belly. Wherever you go they give some alms.
But in..., outside India, who cares for the sannyāsī? Then why you should be eager to take sannyāsa and cheat yourself? You cannot cheat others, but you can cheat yourself. Hṛdayānanda: Outside India a sannyāsī will starve. Prabhupāda: [laughs] So I do not know why our disciples are so anxious to take sannyāsa, at least those who are outside. Everyone comes: "Give me sannyāsa." What is the idea? Jayapatākā: Freedom from authority. Prabhupāda: Eh?
Eh? Who cares him, for authority? Jayapatākā: No, they..., they don't want to take order as brahmacārī. If they're sannyāsī they think they can do as they feel. Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They all want to become leaders. Prabhupāda: So what kind of leader? If you cannot lead others, what kind of leader? Jayapatākā: That's why a brahmacārī should... Prabhupāda: If you mislead them, if you mislead them, then what is the use of taking leadership? Jayapatākā: That's why that system where a brahmacārī is recommended for one year and then he proves himself by doing some extraordinary preaching work is a very good system.
Otherwise, anyone just comes and by pressurizing and begging and pleading, then they try to take sannyāsa. Then they don't stay to the path. Prabhupāda: Sannyāsa means ultimate success, because this human life is meant for becoming disgusted with this material life: "No more." Material life means to take a body and enjoy this material, āhāra-nidrā, sleeping twenty-four hours, eating like elephant, and sex life like a monkey, these animals. This is material life: eating, sleeping, mating, and always afraid of. This is material life.
And human life means to take freedom from these four things: no more afraid, no more sex, no more hankering after eating or sleeping. That is success. Everyone... You'll see in the sparrow in the morning, they're enjoying sex.