The ideal fulfilment of sacrifice, austerity and charitable acts.

OM tat sat, since the origins of creation, these three syllables have been used to designate the Supreme and Absolute Truth [God, the Supreme Person]. For the satisfaction of the Supreme, the learned sage priests have uttered them while chanting Vedic hymns and performing sacrifices.

Thus, spiritualists always begin their sacrifices, austerities and charitable acts by uttering the om, in order to attain the Absolute.

Sacrifices, austerities and charitable acts should be performed by uttering the word tat, if one wants to know the goal of these spiritual practices, which is to be free from the chains of matter.

The Absolute Truth is the goal of devotional practices, and it is designated by the word sat. These practices, sacrifices, austerities and charitable acts, in harmony with the Absolute, the Supreme Person, are to please Him.

But sacrifices, austerities and charitable acts performed without faith in the Supreme are ephemeral, no matter what rituals accompany them. They are called asat [illusory, perishable, ephemeral], and they are vain, both in this life and in the next.

The Lord reveals to us the most secret knowledge.

The perfect renunciation that leads to true freedom. The perfection of the act.

The sages state that renunciation is detachment from the things of this material world, disinterest in material pleasures, rejection of objects that arouse sense pleasure, and the natural rejection of materialism. This is the order of life of the hermit who walks with God.

The Lord says: True renunciation is practiced by one who renounces the fruits of the act. Man can taste the fruits of renunciation through simple self-control, detachment from worldly things and disinterest in material pleasures. Herein lies the highest perfection of renunciation.