SOME THOUGHTS ON ATMA-60

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SAI RAM Dear Brothers and Sisters,

(continued from posting no.59)

We were trying to understand as to what is meant by Viveka in the previous posting. To recapitulate, it involves the discrimination between the Eternal and the ephemeral, and of the Real from the unreal. When

Viveka actually dawns, difference between the Eternal and the transient begins to be experienced directly as something between, say, milk and water. Sages are said to have attained Self-realisation through the faculty of discrimination

(Viveka). Viveka can be said to be the first step in the ladder for Self-Realization.

 

Let us now take up the next qualification or quality expected of a seeker who is thirsting for Self-realization. It is called Vairagya meaning Detachment or dispassion. Absence of desire for the enjoyment of the fruits of one`s actions in this as well as the other world is

Vairagya, as postulated by Acharya Sankara. Once the real is sifted from the unreal and the eternal from the transient with the help of Discrimination (Viveka), attraction for the unreal and ephemeral naturally ceases. If the hankering for the enjoyments persist in the mind, dispassion is absent . Dispassion calls for total negation of

Raga or attachment. Vairagya, in fact is another name for mental detachment.. The mind of those who develop true dispassion entirely ceases to have any thirst or attachment for the various forms of enjoyment extending upto the abode of

Brahma, the creator. Turning their back upon the unreal and the transient, they remain constantly immersed in the thought of the Real and the Eternal. This is what constitutes Vairagya. So long as this type of dispassion does not appear, the discrimination of the seeker is to be considered as deficient. When discrimination is complete, the awakening of dispassion is inevitable. Detachment and dispassion are the natural result of true discrimination whereby the seeker recognises that the pleasures resulting from material gains are impermanent. Dispassion and spiritual awareness are like two wings of a bird, says Acharya sankara in his Vivekachoodamani. Unless both are present in one at the same time none can attain Self-Realization. Dispassion is the rein by which mind is to be controlled (Vairagyena Grihyate), says Lord Krishna in Gita. Viragya calls for complete cessation of attractions and hankering for objects of this world. For one possessed of dispassion, joy and sorrow fail to produce any unhealthy reaction on his mind, according to

Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. In fact dispassion towards towards objects of enjoyment of this world and next is one of the ingredients of Knowledge itself according to the Gita.

 

 

Vairagya should not be construed as an unintelligent suppression of all desires nor does it mean a deliberate repression of every instinct. Detachment from the world of objects only means, not to cultivate a clinging attachment to the joys arising from the perishable objects of the world. By so controlling the dissipation of mental energies which are normally wasted by a mind running after finite objects and by shunning all passing excitements, the seeker comes to discover in himself a new vein of dynamic energy for applying in the fields of self-perfection. Swamy Vivekanda says, " the intelligent programme of a life of refusing to indulge even when it is available, so that the energy so saved may be profitably applied in scaling heights in self-development and self-mastery, without and within, is called

Vairagya " .

(to be continued)

With Loving SAI RAMs,

G.Balasubramanian