Inner Vairagya

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Dhadhi Sankhkha Thusharabham

Ksheerodharnava Sambhavam

Namami Shashinam Somam

Shambhor Makuta Bhooshanam

 

 

 

 

 

King with burning curiosity asks: Who is your sixth guru?

 

Dattatreya replies divinely: The moon. The moon waxes and wanes and

yet never loses its essence, totality, or shape. From watching the

moon, I learned that waxing and waning-rising and falling, pleasure

and pain, loss and gain-are simply phases of life. While passing

through these phases, I never lose awareness of my true Self.

 

Moon's waxing and waning is the metaphorical anent here.The crux is

however the concept of 'Inner Vairagya'. This is acheived by

transcendency over the ephemerality. Moon rules over the mind-

Manasthu Hinagu, thus Vairagya the concept attached to mind is

braoched upon by Dattabhagavan.

 

Vairagya is the main component Dattatreya's teaching which He

emphasises time and again.

 

Vairagya does not mean just relinquishing family and sitting in the

forest. Vairagya means the very relinquishing the 'relinquishing'.

This ultimate Avadhutic relinquishing is what Dattatreya seeks in

portraying the elements as His Gurus. This is precisely what He

drived home into the 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.

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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'

 

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!