Renunciation is a Glorious Thing
Who is a real hero? He who has controlled his mind and senses, who has annihilated the Vasanas, Samskaras, cravings, who has attained Self-realisation, is a real hero of heroes. A liberated sage, a dynamic Yogi, a realised Bhagavata, is the real hero of heroes, indeed! Ordinarily, ignorant people of the world say that he who has renounced the world is a timid man who cannot earn his livelihood. This is a sad and terrible mistake. It is very difficult to renounce family, children, relations, possessions, property, wealth, One in a million only can take to renunciation. Now, take out all the leaders of the world and put them in solitude for a year in a forest. They will feel like fish out of water. They cannot remain. They will run back to the world within a week without informing their Guru. Such is their spiritual strength!
The life of a Sannyasi is the best kind of life in this world. A true Sannyasi is the true monarch of the three worlds. Even an aspirant is the Emperor of the three worlds. Lord Krishna says: Only wishing to know Yoga even, the seeker after Yoga goeth beyond the world of Brahma (VI. 44).
This world is full of difficulties and troubles. No one save a Yogi or a Jnani is free from these worldly miseries and anxieties. Go wherever you like. It is all the same.
For a passionate man, there is much pleasure in this world. He runs after money and woman. His mind is intoxicated, perverted and clouded.
For a Viveki or a man of discrimination, this world is a ball of burning fire.
Lead a life of Vairagya and renunciation. Then and then alone can you be happy.
You must show extreme contempt towards worldly objects. Treat all earthly possessions and sensuous enjoyments as dung, poison, dust and straw. Turn the mind away from them. Then only will you get Jnana.
This world is a mere Mela of two days, and this body is a mere appearance for two seconds. Even if you become the sole monarch of the whole world, you cannot enjoy real bliss and peace. by the worldly affections, by the avarice of wealth, the acquirement of women and jewels and by the attachment to external fleeting forms and beauties, the mind gets fattened, while indifference to them thins it out! (Yoga Vasishta).
The Mahabharata says: Desire is not gratified by indulgence. On the other hand it increases like fire after a pouring of ghee over it. All the wheat and maize grown in the world, all wealth, all cattle, all women even, will not be sufficient to gratify the desire of one person. Knowing this, a wise man should control his mind.
To attain to an exalted state of spirituality, you should in the first instance fully realise the glory of life in the Spirit or the Soul. Then only will you have the requisite strength to kick and spurn this world mercilessly and take to a life of meditation on the Atman and of renunciation. Constant remembrance of and meditation on the following Slokas of the Bhagavadgita will help you to a great extent in the attainment of your goal:
He whose self is unattached to external contacts, and findeth joy in the Self, having the self harmonised with the Eternal by Yoga, enjoys happiness exempt from decay (Ch. V-21).
That in which he findeth the Supreme Delight, which the purified Reason alone can grasp, beyond the senses, wherein established, he moveth not from the Reality; which, having obtained, he thinketh there is no greater gain beyond it; wherein established he is not shaken even by heavy sorrow (Ch. VI-21, 22).
The Yogi who thus, ever harmonising the Self, hath put away sin, he easily enjoyeth the infinite bliss of contact with the Eternal (Ch. VI-28).
When the dweller in the body hath crossed over these three qualities, whence all bodies have been produced, liberated from birth, death, old age and sorrow, he drinketh the nectar of Immortality (Ch. XIV-20).
Every moment you should be ready for Sannyasa. The very longing for Sannyasa shows that there is growth of spirituality. Deluded people bring various vain arguments: Mohammed was a householder. Nanak was a householder. Rama married. Krishna married. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa married. Delusion! Even if you are a Jnani, you will have terrible downfall when you come in contact with worldly persons and worldly things! Many Sannyasins have fallen. Many Yogis have fallen!
The Bhagavata says that actual fire is not so dangerous, heated iron is not so dangerous, burning charcoal is not so dangerous, as the company of worldly persons!
Worldly people always speak against Sannyasa, against renunciation and Tapas! Even a cobra is not so very dangerous as these deluded people!
Even in an advanced stage of life, people remain in their house with family, wives and children, but take fancy to say: I have got mental detachment; I am a mental Sannyasin. Ah! There is a terrible attachment in them! Sannyasa has its own glory and splendour. Sannyasa is extremely necessary. One may say: I do not need orange-coloured robes. Still Sannyasa is necessary. Sannyasa has got its own psychology. All arguments against it are false! The Mundaka Upanishad will tell you how necessary Sannyasa is. The world has not produced a greater genius than Sankara, the greatest Sannyasin! Why did Ramakrishna Paramahamsa take Sannyasa? No use of argumentation and logic; mere vanity of the intellect! Sannyasa is necessary though you may have Advaitic Realisation. Totapuri, Ramkrishna's Guru, though he had Brahmic Realisation, took Sannyasa. Why did Mandana Misra take Sannyasa? Yajnavalkya had the highest Realisation, but yet he took Sannyasa. Why? The world has not produced a greater sage than Yajnavalkya. Study his instructions to his wife, Maitreyi! Sannyasa destroys all worldliness, all evil Samskaras, and establishes you in Divine Meditation. You must come out of the house and wander about begging for alms and fix the mind eternally on the Infinite Absolute. Then only can you have the choice either to take or not to take the orange robe. Do not content yourself with saying, I have no attachment, I am a mental Sannyasin. You will weep afterwards. Study the Mundaka Upanishad. If Sannyasa is not necessary, why should there be four Ashrams? Were the makers of such rules mere fools? How can you understand the glory of Sannyasa, while remaining in the house and the office, clubs and hotels? How can you know the glory of the destruction of Maya, Realisation of God? You want to eat, drink and enjoy all day and night! You are immersed in sensual pleasures. There is no dispassion. That is why you are afraid to renounce the world. You try to justify your worldliness through foolish arguments!
You are afraid to bear suffering; you always wish to be carried away by sense-cravings! How can you know the glory of Sannyasa? The deluded attachment to men and women, friends and relatives, money and gold, has to be ruthlessly burnt to ashes!
All the so-called duties of the world have to be kicked away for the sake of that glorious state of Self-realisation.
The Mahabharata proclaims that for the sake of Self-realisation the whole world should be renounced without any hesitation.
Why do you roll in this miserable Samsara? Are you not ashamed? If you have real manliness, you must break the chains of earthly bondage, the bondage of birth and death, old age and disease, hunger and thirst! That is courage, that is heroism! That is real manliness. Do not be cowards; start now; fight against worldly delusion against the mind and the senses!
The parents nowadays are irresponsible. They are deluded and think they are educating their children, allow them to rot in delusion, worldliness and passion! If there are five sons, the parents want all their sons to become barristers and judges! There is vanity at the root of all this. O man! if at least one of your sons has the glorious fortune to open his inward eye, realise the futility of life in the world, renounce all his desires and attachments and take to the wise path of Self-realisation, he has done the greatest duty to his parents; he has opened the doors of Salvation to seven generations before and seven generations after in his family; he has become a centre of worship and adoration to all his country-people! What is the use of physical service, fighting for social and political freedom, when everybody is locked up in the jail of egoistic delusion? What is the use of beating the air, thinking it is drum? Even so is all this activity and business of life in this world which is only an airy nothing in reality, but is taken to be a solid true existence by the gross-minded ones. Therefore, exert and try to realise your Self!
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Sadhana Without Vairagya Goes To Waste
When Vairagya appears in the mind, it opens the gate to Divine Wisdom. From dissatisfaction (with the sense-objects and worldly sense-enjoyments) comes aspiration. From aspiration comes abstraction. From abstraction comes the concentration of the mind. From the concentration of the mind comes meditation or contemplation. From contemplation comes Samadhi or Self-realisation. Without dissatisfaction or Vairagya, nothing is possible.
Intense Vairagya Necessary For Moksha
There must be intense (Tivra) Vairagya in the minds of the aspirants, throughout the period of their Sadhana. Mere mental adhesion will not do for success in Yoga. There must be intense longing for liberation, a high degree of Vairagya plus capacity for Sadhana (spiritual practice). Then only they will get Nirvikalpa Samadhi and Moksha. It was only Raja Janaka and Prahlada who had Tivra Vairagya (intense dispassion). This kind of Vairagya is necessary for quick realisation. It is very difficult to cross the ocean of Samsara with a dull type of Vairagya. The crocodile of sense-hankering (Trishna) for sense-enjoyments and sense-objects will catch the aspirants by the throat and, violently snatching away, will drown them half-way.
How To Develop Vairagya
Those who do not develop the painless Vairagya inherent in one's self and that with great felicity and happiness are, at best, but vermins in human shapes.
When a bee finds that its feet are stuck in the honey, it slowly licks its feet several times and then flies away with joy. Even so, extricate yourself from the mind's sticking and clinging to this body and children-honey owing to Raga and Moha through Vairagya and meditation and fly away from this cage of flesh and bone to the Source, Brahman or Absolute.
It is very difficult to wean some children. They suck the breast even when they are three or four years old. The mother applies some nim-paste to the nipples. The child is weaned quickly. Even so, you will have to get a medicine of nim-paste for the mind to get it weaned from sensual objects. Sit in a solitary room. Think of the miseries of this earthly life, its cares, worries, anxieties, hunger, thirst, sins, temptations, passion, fighting, fears, vanity, disease, death, old age, sorrow, grief, tribulation, loss, failures, disappointments, hostility, scorpion stings, mosquito bites, etc. This will serve as an efficient nim-paste to wean the mind from Samsara. You must think in the above-manner daily.
Remember constantly the pains of various kinds pertaining to this mundane existence. Moha will vanish if you repeat the following line of Chapter XIII of Gita several times daily: "Janma-mrityu-jara-vyadhi-duhkha-dosha-anudarsanam-Insight into the pain and evil of birth, old age and sickness." Always make the mind understand clearly that there is only pain in this world. Reflect often on the instability of this world. This is the first Sadhana for aspirants. They can thus develop Vairagya. The mind will be weaned from objects. Attraction for sense-objects will gradually vanish.
Renunciation Brings About Moksha
Shun the earthly objects as fire or poison or offal. Renounce all desires and cravings. This itself is Moksha (freedom).
Renunciation of desires brings about the annihilation of the mind. Annihilation of the mind brings on the destruction of Maya, because the mind alone is Maya.
Maya is enthroned in the imagination of the mind. How cunning she is! A Viveki knows her tricks well. She is awfully afraid of the man of renunciation and Atmavichara. She bows to him with folded hands.
Many have not understood what true renunciation is. Renunciation of physical objects is no renunciation at all. The real Tyaga (renunciation) consists in the renunciation of egoism (Ahankara). If you can renounce this Ahankara, you have renounced everything else in the world.
If the subtle Ahankara is given up, Dehadhyasa (identification with the body) automatically goes away.
http://www.dlshq.org/download/vairagya.htm
How to get Vairagya?
¾Vairagya Sakatam of Bhartrihari.
Song Of Jnana-Vairagya
Tu Gitawala Jnana Sunaja Krishna.
At first there is a tender emotion and warm affection,
Then it gross into glowing love, burning passion.
Through Sravana and Satsang comes admiration,
Then attraction, attachment, supreme love.
I want my dear beloved Krishna alone;
I want neither Mukti nor temporal blessings.
The world is unreal, full of miseries,
God alone is real, full of Ananda.
You are running after the unreal shadow,
You have forgotten the real substance.
You came alone (weeping), will go alone (weeping), no one will follow,
Do Bhajan, do Kirtan, this will follow,
Why do you fight in vain with your brothers? Fight with the mind and the Indriyas.
Why do you weep in vain for the death of relatives? Weep for the separation of the Lord.
The love between husband and wife is selfish love,
Brothers, sisters are united for selfish ends.
Death is ever waiting to devour you all,
That ‘tomorrow’ will never come, open your eyes now (wake up now).
Life is short, time is fleeting, (many obstacles to Japa and kirtan),
Apply yourself diligently to Yogic Sadhan.
This world is a mela for two days,
This life is a play for two seconds, (This body is a bubble for two seconds).
When one is in union with God, it is Samadhi,
The Yogi gets infinite bliss and knowledge.
Bhakti-Yoga is crossing river by boat,
Jnana-Yoga is crossing river by swimming.
A Jnani gets knowledge by self-reliance,
A Bhakta gets Darshan by self-surrender.
When there is one Vritti it is Savikalpa,
When there is Triputi-Laya, it is Nirvikalpa.
When one is in fourth Bhumika, it is Jivanmukti,
When there is no body-consciousness, it is Videhamukti.
When you are in a state of Turiya, it is Jivanmukti,
When you are in Turiyatita, it is Videhamukti.
When there is Svarupanas, it is Jivanmukti.
When there is Arupanas, it is Videhamukti.
When Jagrat appears as Svapna, it is Jivanmukti,
When Jagrat appears as Sushupti, it is Videhamukti.
How To Get Vairagya
(Remember these seven vital points)
- Hari Om, Sensual pleasure is momentary, deceptive, illusory and imaginary.
- A mustard of pleasure is mixed with a mountain of pain.
- Enjoyment cannot bring about satisfaction of a desire. On the contrary it makes the mind more restless after enjoyment through intense craving (Trishnas and Vasanas).
- Sensual pleasure is an enemy of Brahma-Jnana
- Sensual pleasure is the cause for birth and death.
- This body is nothing but a mass of flesh, bone, and all sorts of filth.
- Place before the mind the fruits of Self-realization or life in the soul or Brahman or the Eternal, such as Immortality, Eternal bliss, Supreme peace and Infinite knowledge. If you remember the seven points always, the mind will be weaned from the cravings for sensual pleasures. Vairagya, Viveka and Mumukshutva (dispassion, discrimination from the real and the unreal, and keen longing for liberation from birth and death) will dawn. You should seriously look into the defects of sensual life (Dosha-Drishti) and into the unreal nature of worldly life (Mithya-Drishti).
There is no hope of immortality by means of riches. Such indeed is the emphatic and irrefutable declaration of the Upanishads. "Na karmana na prajayana dhanena tyagenaike amritatvamanasuh. Neither by rituals, nor by progeny, nor by riches but by renunciation alone one can attain immortality."
Hear again the forcible utterances of the same Chhandogya Upanishad:
"Yo vai Bhuma tat sukham na alpe sukham asti, bhumaiva sukham bhuma tveva vijijnasitavyah.
The infinite (the Great) is bliss. There is no bliss in what is small (finite). The Infinite alone is Bliss. But one should wish to understand the Infinite."
"Renunciation (Tyaga) certainly is to be preferred."
Mere outward giving up of thing is nothing. It is not real renunciation.
Real Tyaga or Sannyasa is absolute renunciation of all Vasanas and destruction of the heart knot (ignorance), the Chit-jada-Granthi.
Only a thirsty man drinks water. Only a hungry man eats food. Even so, a man who is spiritually hungry and thirsty will only drink the Nectar of Immortality.
Stages in Vairagya
There are four stages in Vairagya:(1) Yatamana:- This is an attempt not to allow the mind to run into sensual grooves;
(2) Vyatireka :-In this stage some objects are attracting you and you are endeavouring to cut off the attachment and attraction. Slowly Vairagya develops for these objects also. Then the Vairagya matures. When some objects tempt and delude you, you should ruthlessly avoid them. You will have to develop Vairagya for these tempting objects and it must also mature. In this stage you are conscious of your degree of Vairagya towards different objects;
(3) Ekendriya:-The senses stand still and subdued, but the mind has either Raga or Dvesha for objects. Mind is, in other words, the only sense that functions independently;
(4) Vasirara :-In this highest stage of Vairagya, the objects no longer tempt you. They cause no attraction. The senses are perfectly quiet. The mind also is free from likes and dislikes (Raga and Dvesha). Then you get supremacy or independence. Now you are conscious of your supremacy. Without Vairagya no spiritual progress is possible.
Vairagya is of three kinds viz., dull (Manda), intense (Tivra) and very intense (Tivratara). Dull Vairagya cannot help you much in the attainment of your goal.
Vairagya is the opposite of Raga, or desire. It is dispassion or non-attachment. It is indifference to sensual objects herein and hereafter. Vairagya thins out the fatty sensual mind. It turns the mind inward (Antarmukh Vritti). This is the most important qualification for an aspirant. It is the one and the only means to enter into Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
Vairagya that is born of discrimination is lasting and steady. If you seriously think of the various kinds of pain in this Samsara such as birth, death, worries, depression, suffering, disease, loss, hostility, disappointment, fear, etc., if you understand intelligently the defects of sensual life (Dosha Drishti), and the transitory and perishable nature of all objects of the world, Vairagya will immediately dawn.
Aspirants generally complain to me "Swamiji Maharaj, we are meditating for the last 12 years. But we do not know the reason why we have not made any substantial spiritual progress." This is due to lack of intense Vairagya only. The mind will be ever thinking of objects even during meditation. Intense Vairagya only can help the aspirant in attaining Self-Realization.
"Tarparampurushakyateh gunavaitrisnyam: Para-Vairagya or supreme non-attachment is that state wherein even the attachment to the qualities (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas) drops, owing to the knowledge of the Purusha." (Patanjali's Yoga Sutras : 1-16).
In ordinary Vairagya there is a trace of Vasanas and desires. But in Para-Vairagya all Vasanas, Samskaras and desires are fried in toto. In Para-Vairagya there will be no desire at all. Perfect desirelessness is Para-Vairagya. In the Bhagavad Gita you will find: "Objects fall away from the abstinent man, leaving the longing behind. But his longing also ceases, who sees the Supreme." (11-59).
Note how Vairagya arises in the mind. The transitory, evanescent and perishable nature of all things creates a sort of disgust in all minds and in proportion to the depth and subtlety of nature, this reaction from the world works more or less powerfully in the mind of every individual. An irresistible feeling arises in our mind viz., that the finite can never satisfy the Infinite within us, that the changing and perishable cannot satisfy the change-less and deathless nature that is ours.
It is only when the mind, being divested of all its desires is indifferent to pleasure and pain and is not attracted by any object that it will be rendered pure, free from the grip of the great delusion like a bird freed from the cage and roaming about freely in the Akasa.
As soon as Vairagya arises in the mind, it opens the gate of Divine Wisdom. No true and lasting satisfaction comes from the enjoyment of worldly pleasures. Yet, people rush headlong towards objects, even when they know full well that the objects they are trying to seize are unreal and that the world in which they live is fraught with miseries of all sorts. This is Maya. When the mind rests in Atma then the only Nitya-Tripti, or eternal satisfaction comes. Because the Atman is Paripurna (All-Full). All desires are gratified by realization of Atma or Self.
Sometimes the mind gets disgusted with one kind of Sadhana. It wants some other kind of Sadhana. It rebels against monotony. The aspirant should know how to coax the mind on such occasions and to extract work from it by a little relaxation of mind. The cessation of Sadhana is a grave blunder. Spiritual practices should never be given up under any circumstances. Evil thoughts will be waiting to enter the gates of the mental factory. If the student of Yoga stops his Sadhana, his mind will become the devil's workshop. Do not expect anything. Be sincere and regular in your daily meditation, routine and Tapas. Do not deviate from the path you have chosen. The fruit will come by itself. Your efforts will be surely crowned with roaring success. It takes a long time to purify the mind and get one-pointedness. Be cool and patient my child.
This Jnanagni or fire of wisdom will consume all fruits of actions in toto.
Remember the sayings of the Gita
Meditation on the following Slokas of the Bhagavad-Gita will induce true Vairagya: "The delights that are contact-born are, verily, wombs of pain, for they have a beginning and an ending, O Kaunteya, not in them would rejoice the wise." ( Ch. V-22 ). "Indifference to the objects of the senses, and also absence of egoism, insight into the pain and evil of birth and death, old age and sickness." ( Ch. XIII-8 ). "That which from the union of the senses with their objects is at first as nectar, but in the end is like venom." ( Ch. XVIII-38 ). "Having obtained this transient, joyless world, worship Me."On the Whole, Life is Sorrow
Lord Buddha says: "On the whole, life is sorrow." You will find an echo of this statement in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras"Sarvam duhkham vivekinah-All indeed, is pain to a person of discrimination."
This is not the philosophy of the pessimists. This is wonderful optimism, as it induces deep Vairagya, weans the mind from sensual pleasures and directs it towards God, the Atman, to realize eternal and infinite Bliss.
"Mamsa-lubdho yatha matsyo lohasamkum na pasyati, Sukha-lubdhastatha debi yama-bandham na pasyati."
Just as a fish in its desire to eat flesh does not see the hook that lies beneath, so also man in his passionate desire to get sensual pleasure does not see the noose of death.
In the Bhagavad Gita you will find "Humility, unpretentiousness, harmlessness, forgiveness, rectitude, service of the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control, dispassion towards the objects of the senses, and also absence of egoism, insight into the pain and evil of birth, death, old age and sickness, unattachment, absence of self-identification with son, wife, or home, and constant balance of mind in wished-for and unwished-for events, unflinching devotion to Me by Yoga, without other objects, resort to sequestered places, absence of enjoyment in the company of men, constancy in the wisdom of the Self, understanding of the object of essential wisdom; that is declared to be the Wisdom; all against it is ignorance (Ch. XIII-8-12).
remembrance, and meditation on the following verses of the Bhagavad-Gita will help you not a little in the attainment of your goal.
"He, whose self is unattached to external contacts, and finds joy in the Self, having the self harmonised with the Eternal by Yoga, enjoys happiness exempt from decay." (Ch. V-21)
"That in which he finds the supreme delight which the Reason can grasp beyond the senses, wherein established, he moves not from the Reality; which, having obtained, he thinks there is no greater gain beyond it; wherein established, he is not shaken even by heavy sorrow." (Ch. VI-21, 22).
"The Yogi who thus, ever harmonizing the self, has put away sin, he easily enjoys the infinite bliss of contact with the Eternal." (Ch. VI-28).
"I shall declare that which ought to be known, that which being known immortality is enjoyed; the beginningless supreme Eternal, is called neither being nor non-being." (Ch. VIII-12)
"When the dweller in the body has crossed over these three qualities, whence all bodies have been produced, liberated from birth, death, old age and sorrow, he drinks the nectar of immortality." (Ch. XIV-20).
Worldly life is always attended with fear, whereas renunciation alone makes man absolutely fearless.
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