What is renunciation?

If a yogi is the one who lives in a cottage at the bank of a river, then why cannot a turtle be a great yogi, who always lives at the bank of a river? If a yogi is the one who only eats plants and very little quantity, then why cannot a deer be a great yogi? These are not the things that make one a yogi.

Yoga is related to renunciation and non-attachment. What is understood as renunciation is to leave one’s house, give away all possessions and continue life with just a few amount of things. Renunciation means that one has no attachment. However, non-attachment is not measured in the more or less one has, but rather about one’s state of being. One can have a house, car and possessions while at the same time being totally non-attached. One does not have to escape the external world. Real renunciation is when one uses and enjoys material, but simultaneously accept their impermanence. There is no intense liking or disliking, and one remains non-attached. 

Escaping the world and being in the most quiet environment, one will still fluctuate between joy and sorrow, because it is all within oneself. However, finding the state of yoga, one participates in the world from a state of liberation.

“I am in the world but not concerned with the world. I am going through the marketplace, but not as a purchaser." - Kabir
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The yogi is the one who is always in harmony. The yogi is always non-affected by anything that happens around. There is no excessive enthousiasm, neither disappointed, the state of being always remains in balance.
One lives in the world but is not of the world, rather one is internally always connected with the higher consciousness. 

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