After Enlightenment, What? One may come to a realization of one’s true identity, that sense of not-twoness that has been spoken of by (among others) Buddha, Jesus, Ramana or Krishnamurti. Such an awakening will thenceforth shape the remainder of one’s entire life. It will have a profound impact upon what one considers to be “right livelihood,” or one’s relationship to “family.” But one will discover—once again—that there is no external “authority” to whom one can turn for guidance. Buddha did not know firsthand the life of the breadwinner. Even though, as a prince, he deserted his father’s royal estate, the knowledge that he would be welcomed upon return to his comfortable home could not have been but a solace to him. And while, as a young man, he fathered a child, he had abandoned such familial responsibilities thereafter. Jesus, during the eighteen unaccounted years said to begin with his teens, may—being the son of a carpenter—have been a laborer. And it is possible that he may, as well, have been a husband or parent during this period. However, recent historical conjecture suggests that those “missing” years might have been spent wandering abroad in India, where he adopted his radical spirituality. It is possible too that he never knew the life of a workingman or of a householder. Ramana Maharshi left home, upon illumination, at about age 16, and was evidently chaste, neither a family man nor a worker, throughout his long lifetime.
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