For some reasons, becoming a lifetime monk (sannyasin) has become out of style with perhaps the exception of the BAPS sampradaya. They are large in number and somehow seem to attract new monks regularly. I'm wondering if anyone has insights about how you would encourage somebody to consider it as an option. Yes, there is societal pressure, and parental pressure against it, but in the end, especially in some branches of our great faith, considered one of the 'greatest' (I mean in a humble way) a person can endeavor. If you really want to go 'all in' in service to humanity, wouldn't this be an excellent choice? Thoughts?
For a sannyasin, the whole world is his family literally and there are no bondages of any sort restricting him. Because of this factor of no distractions of any sort, they are capable of giving great good to the world. This is especially crucial in this dark age of Kali Yuga.
Buddha was a sannyasin, and so was Shankara, Vivekananda, Prabhupada , Satguru Sivayasubramaniyaswami, Yogananda, Sivananda, Chinmayananda and so on who developed institutions which serves the world .
The Rajarshi or householder-saint is however considered superior to the mere monk, as the monk is dependent on his material sustenance on the Rajarshi.
Rama, Krishna, Sita, Janaka, Lahiri Mahasaya, Brahmarshi Prem Nirmal, Guru Hargobind, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are examples of Rajarshis who attained both enlightenment as well as material prosperity., and are considered as ideals in society.