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Develop detachment

CHENNAI: The crux of spiritual discipline is control of the senses and the mind because they are the instruments with which a person interacts with the world. One may wonder why the scriptures caution against indulging the senses and what the harm can be in allowing the senses to engage in their respective areas of interest. In the Vivekachudamani, Sankara cautions that “a sense object is more virulent than the poison of a king cobra. While the latter kills only him who swallows it, the former brings about the death of one who merely looks at it.”

It is the mind which remembers the pleasure that the senses derive from their objects of perception. The mind starts craving for the joy that it had earlier experienced and it is this craving that is the root of desire. When the mind is unable to fulfil its desires it results in anger, and jealousy about others who enjoy such pleasures; when its desire is fulfilled the mind derives only momentary happiness and soon there is greed for more and more of the same sensory joys. The more a person enjoys wealth, position and power, the more he gathers only frustrations and disappointments because the mind is insatiable and cannot find fulfilment in pursuit of worldly power and pelf.

In his discourse, Sri Goda Venketeswara Sastri said a human being could find peace of mind only when he disengages himself from the world by disciplining his senses. This is without doubt a very difficult job because by nature the senses are outward bound and this propensity has to be curbed by rigorous discipline consciously. Sankara underscores what a Herculean task it is by noting that only he who is free from sensory attachment has the capacity for liberation from bondage, and not anyone else even if he is an erudite scholar in the six Sastras. Thus dispassion (Vairagya) towards the world is the key to spiritual progress.

One can see that in times of facing the vicissitudes of life a person develops detachment. But, this does not last. As in the case of the fox that condemned the grapes that it couldn’t reach as sour, a person’s Vairagya born out of frustrations will be short-lived. The mind can experience lasting peace only when there is total detachment.

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