'Inner Vairagya'

[Guest guest]

min d of the King. Vairagya is the opposite of Raga (attachment). Vairagya

is dispassion. Vairagya is detachment. Vairagya is indifference but not hatred

to sensual enjoyment here and hereafter. One Datta Guru Nrisimha Bharathi was

once visited by a devotee but the devotee saw the Guru sitting on a soft silk

cloth and he thought to himself "What kind of Guru is this who seeks the

comforts of life thus?" but nevertheless paid respects to the Guru. The

following night he had a dream in which thousand scorpions bit him and he came

running to the Guru next day morning and the Guru said "Son, Both the

scorpions' bites and the soft silk cloth are one to me"...The devotee was

stunned as He hardly opened his mouth both about his nightmare and about his

previous thought! Vairagya is the second concept in Sadhana

Chatushtaya—Viveka, Vairagya, Shadsampat and Mumukshutwa. Sadhana= spiritual

practice and Chatushtaya= The four Vairagya is born of Viveka, or

discrimination between Nitya and Anitya (Eternal and non-eternal), Sat and Asat

(Real and unreal), Tattwa and Atattwa (Essence and non-essence). Viveka comes

through selfless service done in several births and through Puja and Aradhana

(worship and adoration of God), and through the Grace of the Lord. From

Viveka is born Vairagya. It gives spiritual strength. A man of Vairagya has no

attraction for the material world. So Vairagya is a supreme, inexhaustible

wealth for spiritual aspirants. Vairagya aids concentration of mind (Samadhana)

and generates burning Mumukshutwa, or strong yearning for Liberation or

Emancipation, or Release. Raga is attachment to objects. Wherever there is a

little pleasure, there is Raga. Wherever there is pain, there is

dislike. Like and dislike are inter-related. Raga-Dwesha is also one of the

important afflictions, according to Patanjali Maharshi. The five afflictions

are Avidya (ignorance), Asmita (egoism), Raga-Dwesha (like and dislike) and

Abhinivesha (clinging to life). First, there is ignorance, the original Avidya.

>From this is born egoism, Asmita, and from Asmita is born Raga-Dwesha, and from

Raga-Dwesha, Abhinivesha, or clinging to this life. Vairagya is of different

types or degrees—Mridu, Madhyama and Teevra (mild, moderate and intense).

Intense Vairagya only will help the aspirant to stick to the spiritual path.

If it is of a dull type like Smasana Vairagya, the mind will simply be waiting

to get back the objects that were renounced previously, and the aspirant will

get a downfall. He will not be able to climb again to the heights he formerly

reached. So, the aspirants should be careful. Even though their Vairagya is of

a mild type, they should try to make it moderate and then intense.There is a

common saying among Hindus "Let noe your vairagya be Smashana Vairagya or

Prasuthi Vairaagya"...this means that let it not be temporary. Smashana

Vairaagya--The vairagya which people have when they attend a funeral service of

their beloved and then forget the next day about the ephemarility of life though

highly philosphical the day of the funeral. Prasuthi Vairagya is even more

funny--The woman who gives birth to a child says to herself that this will be

her last child and she will

have no more unable to bear the pangs of birth but once home she thinks of the

sexual pleasure with her husband and forgets the previous resolve and the pain

and does the act to produce another child! Vairagya comes through looking

into the defects of sensual life. Sensual pleasure is not real happiness. It is

illusory, transient, impermanent. It is mixed with pain. So, again and again by

looking into the defects of sensual life, Vairagya dawns. It should be

strengthened through the study of spiritual books, Satsanga, Vichara

(discrimination) and

enquiry. Vairagya should be born of discrimination,

enquiry and analysis. By these, the mind is weaned from sensual enjoyments and

rendered thin like a thread (Tanumanasi) and only then is Vairagya lasting.

Again and again you will have to make enquiry. Physical nudity and external

penance do not constitute real Vairagya. Real Vairagya should come from

enquiry, Vichara. All these material objects do not give us lasting happiness.

They lead us unto pain and sorrow. Such deep enquiry, again

and again persisted in for a very long time, produces lasting Vairagya.

Vairagya is the real wealth for an aspirant. It helps him to do real Sadhana.

It makes the mind introvert. Vairagya puts a brake to the extrovert tendency of

the mind. Even if the mind runs towards objects, at once Vairagya will point out

that there is pain there, that sensual enjoyment is the cause for rebirth and

intense suffering. So the mind is bridled, and gradually through intense

practice, it is established in real, lasting, sustained, intense Vairagya.

Vairagya is of two grades: Para (supreme) Vairagya and Apara (relative)

Vairagya. Para Vairagya comes after one attains Self-realisation. The whole

world then appears like a straw. This gives intense spiritual strength.

new roman"> Without Vairagya there cannot be any real spiritual progress. In

Vedanta it is the only vital, fundamental Sadhana. If you have Vairagya, all

other virtues will come by themselves.

roman"> Patanjali Maharshi says: Abhyasavairagyabhyam tannirodhah—"the mind is

controlled by meditation or Sadhana and Vairagya." They are the two wings of the

aspirant to soar high into the realm of Immortal Abode. The same thing Lord

Krishna also says: Abhyasena tu Kaunteya, vairagyena cha grihyate—"the

mind is

controlled by practice and dispassion and intense detachment." By Vairagya, the

mind is detached. He who works in a detached way is not bound by Karma

(action). So it is the aspirants’ duty to cultivate this one virtue, or

Sadhana-anka-Vairagya. Vairagya is, doubtless, a mental state whereby the

mind does not run into sensual grooves. It moves towards Atman, towards God.

Queen Chudalai ruled a kingdom, and yet she had absolute (Para) Vairagya. Even

amidst the temptations of the world, she had mental Vairagya, through Vichara

and wisdom. So she was not affected in the least by the attractive objects of

the world, whereas her husband, Sikhidhwaja, went to the forest, renouncing his

kingdom, and yet he was not established in Vairagya. He was attached to the

body; he was attached to his Kamandalu (water-bowl). A man may get attached to

any object.

roman">You see a 'Vairagi', the common type one comes across. His whole body is

smeared with ash, but he will fight for a rupee if he finds you giving a rupee

to another 'Vairagi'. This is his mental state. So by external appearance you

cannot tell that one has Vairagya. Vairagya is a mental disposition. Sri

Ramanuja does not belong to this extreme type of Vairagya—wearing only a rope

loin cloth. He lived amidst luxurious things, but his mind was not polluted. He

had that mental state of Vairagya, detachment, indifference, born of Viveka.

 

roman"> Lord Krishna says that He is not in favour of extreme asceticism:

Karshayantah sareerastham bhootagramamachetasah, Mam chaivantahsareerastham

tanvidhyasuranischayan—"They torture all the elements in the body and Me also

who dwells in the body". Lord Buddha also tortured his body in the beginning

but later on he found out that there was not much spiritual progress, and then

he came to the golden medium, the middle path. So we should go by the middle

path always. The body is an instrument for attaining Self-realisation. So you

should not torture the body. Whatever is needed for the body, you should have.

One more thing about the moon, moon is not a true light, but stands in the sky

of our night to bear witness that the solar light, our god, is still shining. It

thus also symbolizes the human body, which is surely not the light of spirit,

yet in its structure and in its outward countenance, it reflects and bears

witness to the divine spirit that animates it, the god hidden within. A man's

spirit shines out on his face as the sun shines on the moon.

roman"> This is a profound thing to realize about the moon,--that it types our

lower nature, which reflects the higher. But the most sublime element in the

spiritual symbolism we are trying to depict comes next in the development of

our theme. This is the eternal meaning connected with the sun's light on the

moon that we are desirous of impressing in unforgettable vividness upon the

imagination. This is the great fact which we would have you call to mind

whenever you gaze upon the silvery orb from night to night. As the young

crescent fills with light and rounds out its luminous circle, it is writing our

spiritual history! It is preaching to us uncomprehending mortals the gospel

truth about our own divinization. The growing expanse of light on the moon, we

repeat, is the sign, symbol and seal of our own transfiguration into godhood!

The spark of divinity implanted in our organisms must, to

use one Biblical figure, gradually leaven the whole lump; to use another, must

illuminate the whole bodily house. Grandly do the texts of the Egyptian Book of

the Dead express the features of this process. Horus in his resurrection is made

to say, after enumerating the bodily members one by one: "There is no member of

my body that is without a god." He means in effect that there is no portion of

his nature that has not been divinized, i.e., purified, raised, transfigured

with spiritual radiance. And this states the whole purpose of human life. The

god came to dwell within us in order to transform our lower natures and lift

them up to a harmony of vibration with his own ethereal personality. As we gaze

upon the lunar crescent and see it go on toward the full, the vision should

fortify us with the profoundest and sublimest truth about this mortal existence

of ours, viz.: that we are in process of filling our very bodies with the

mantling glow of an interior hidden light, which will

steadily transform our whole nature with the beauty of its gleaming. The sight

of the crescent (from Latin crescere, to grow) should thrill us with the

realization that little by little, life by life, divinity is creeping over us,

spreading through us! The growing light on the moon is nature's sure pledge of

our deification! Here is inspired writing of revelation by the hand of Nature

herself. In this same great Egyptian Ritual (The Book of the Dead) there is

the statement that "Osiris enters the moon on the sixth day." This has not

heretofore been seen as of any pointed significance, because the symbolism has

not been understood. As the moon types the woman, lunar typology was made to

match feminine functions, and the three dark days of the moon were extended to,

or represented as, five, to equate the five days of the feminine period. As the

ovum, the seed of life from

above, descends into the womb for fecundation at the end of the period, it was

used to type the descent of the god into incarnation after a period of pralaya

or non-existence in a world of form, and the typism was transferred from the

woman to the moon, her astronomical counterpart. Or the moon-goddess was simply

figured as menstruating. I have alluded that the moon and woman are mutually

representative in the typology. Now, to indicate that these parallelisms are

not mere poetic fancies, but that they are grounded on actual affinities in

nature, let us see if there is any actual bond of relationship between them. At

once we are confronted with an amazing confirmation of the connection. The very

basic functions of woman as female are controlled and timed by the 28-day cycle

of the moon. There is nothing that can be added to this bare statement, but

there is an

infinite amount of thinking that can be done about it, to great profit. The

great mystery of life is the mystery of sex, and here is one of the most

startling phenomena connected with it all. Also, like Pythagoras'

intoxication with the Music of the Spheres (Wisdom), the Indian Sages were

infatuated with Knowledge. Many scientific truths were cognised by them in

higher states of consciousness which came to be known as the Vedas. One such

sage was Vararuchi, who discovered the interrelationship between numbers and

letters of the alphabet. Moon is considered very important in Sidereal

Astrology and mental strength depends on the strength of the Moon in one's

natal chart. 5 Lessons which Chandra Deshika gives-- Lesson 1-- Wax and wane

but still shine and remain! This is a life lesson. There will be ups and

downs in life but still one must shine like the luminous moon and provide

cooling and healing rays to others. Lesson 2-- Take the worst and give the

best Moon has no light of its own but rather takes the energy of the sun and

gives it to others. In other words it faces the brunt of the sun yet gives cool

rays to the people in the night. One must be like that. This is unfortunately

not followed by most people. They just show their frustrations and try to suck

people's energies. Lesson 3--Embrace imperfection Moon though beautiful

is known for its patches on its surface. This seems like an imperfection in its

immaculate design but the moon is not worried it still gives the light and

rather the spots add to its beauty. If one possesses any physical defects one

should not brrod over it rather make it the beauty of one's life.Let it be a

beauty spot not an eye sore. Rather there is nothing called

eyesore...everything is a 'mind-sore' or a 'mind-beauty'

roman"> Lesson 4---Light the path When the stars in the horizon are more

powerful and bright than the moon yet they are far away from the earth and

hence they do not give light as much the moon which gives sun's light. Yet it

does great service to the earth by providing cooling and healing rays in the

night.When the rich do not serve the poor serve the poor with whatever

resources you have without complaining. This metaphorical anent can be culled

from this lesson. Now one can substitute the words 'rich' and 'poor' with any

other concept too. Lesson 5--Be

beautiful yet humble! The moon is very beautiful and shiny, yet it is not

too hard on the eyes like the sun. It is however a great devotee of Lord Shiva.

It adorns His head and hence Lord Shiva is called Chadrashekara,

Chandramouleeswara and other assorted appellations.Though he remains strewn all

over His body with ashes the moon gives its divine beauty by adorning the God of

Yogis', Shiva's, Divine Countenance. My heart leaps up when I behold

A crescent in the sky; Its shadowed globe is night by night In fourteen

segments, each more bright, At last in utmost splendor dight;-- My deity!

The hidden Lord it manifests; The sun-bright god rides on its crests; In that

grand light

man ever, ever rests -------------------William Wordsworth Om Ayieem Hreem

Shreem Shiva Rama Anagha Dattaya Namaha!

DSL Something to write home about. Just $16.99/mo. or less

Photos Ring in the New Year with Photo Calendars. Add photos, events, holidays, whatever.