Ash is a lesson in detachment and renunciation

When you enter a shop and select the thing you want, you have to pay the price; when you sit for an examination, you have to write the answers to questions, to the satisfaction of the examiner; when you seek to learn swimming, you will have to enter the water and struggle with the strokes.

When Bhasma (holy ash) is given, doubt haunts some people whether Swami is wishing that the recipient should be a Shaivite (devotee of Shiva)! It is a symbol of the indestructible basic substance which every being is. All things become ash; but ash remains ash, however much you may burn it. It is also a sign of renunciation, of sacrifice, of Jnana which burns all karma consequence into ineffective ash. It is a sign of Ishvara, and I apply it on your brow, to remind you that you too are Divine. It is a valuable Upadesha (instruction) about your identity. It also reminds you that the body is liable any moment to be reduced into a handful of ash. Ash will be a lesson in detachment and renunciation. (SSS Vol.7)