Renunciation

What are the marks of those whom I’d consider worthy of being accepted as true renunciates? They would be those who have achieved noteworthy progress toward the attainment of the following virtues:

1. They have no, or very few, attachments or desires.
2. They are without anger. (Anger appears in the heart when one’s desires are thwarted.)
3. They accept without prejudice whatever life gives them, and live by the principle, “What comes of itself, let it come.”
4. They never seek to justify or defend themselves, but accept all judgment by others dispassionately, as experiences given them by God for their higher good.
5. They keep in their hearts primarily the company of God.
6. They are indifferent to others’ opinions of them.
7. They work without personal motive, to please God alone.
8. They are impersonal in the sense of wanting nothing for themselves, but never in the sense of being indifferent to the needs of others.
9. They see all beings as striving toward the attainment of Satchidananda: ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss, no matter how presently misguided the efforts of some people may be. Thus, they feel kinship with everyone, and with all life.
10. They accept nothing as their own, but only as being “on loan” to them, for the benefit of others.
11. They view pleasure and pain equally, as opposite (or dual) expressions of eternal, divine bliss.
12. They have meditated daily for years.
13. Because they are always happy in themselves, they are impervious to insults, outer suffering, failure, defeat, or disaster. They strive to live the ideal that Paramhansa Yogananda voiced when he said, “You should be able to stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds!”
14. They strive to love God unceasingly, and ever more deeply, in a spirit of utter openness to be guided by His will.