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True renunciation

CHENNAI : Vairagya (dispassion) is the most essential requisite for spiritual progress and spiritual texts have dealt with this exhaustively. It is a mental state and an inner experience and poses the greatest challenge to human beings by its implied demand — to relinquish any desire and longing for worldly attractions.

It is not that renunciation is possible when one distances oneself from sense objects and has no association with them. A person can be in a forest and far away from worldly life; but if his mind longs for sense objects then he has not renounced the world at all. Conversely, a person in the midst of worldly life can live a life of renunciation, if in one's mind one does not long for sensual pleasures.

The story of how Saubhari, a Rg Vedic Jnani and a great sage with yogic power and penance, got tempted in the midst of his penance in the Yamuna river and opted for worldly life, illustrates the strong attractions of this world, said Sri K. B. Devarajan in a lecture. It took him many years to realise the emptiness in such a life and he once again strove to attain salvation.

Azhwars and Acharyas besides being living examples of the spirit of Vairagya have shown the ways in which this mental attitude can be consciously cultivated through constant practice while cautioning against the difficulties in this effort. The hymns of Azhwars focus on the Lord and show that this is the only way to gain renunciation. When the ultimate bliss is the opportunity to serve the Almighty, there is no other desire pertaining to worldly life. Preceptors such as Pillai Lokacharya and Vedanta Desika have pointed out that the strength of spiritual progress rests on Vairagya. This is attained through Viveka (discriminating wisdom) by which one understands the distinction between the eternal and the perishable, real and unreal, etc. Every Jivatma has to contemplate on its relationship with the Lord.

The mind is controlled by practice and Vairagya helps one attain concentration. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna explains in unambiguous detail the uprightness that is integral to renunciation.

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