Dear All,
The detachment referred by Acharya above is termed as vairagya in the path of wisdom or even dispassion.
Vairagya is the second of the 4 qualifications of a spiritual aspirant in the path of Jnana/wisdom.
The first is Viveka or discrimination between real and unreal.
Once the discrimination is made, then the second qualification of detaching from / disassociating from / dispassion about what has been identified as unreal, is the second qualification of an aspirant.
The glittering world full of objective pleasure/ temptation is all unreal. Any thing that cannot exist permanently as it exists at one point of time is unreal or ephemeral.
Only when the mind withdraws from its attraction for all unreal things in the world, can one develop more satwic qualities, can develop more focus on the object of meditation, can reduce the flow of thoughts and can ultimately hope to be be face to face with the object of meditation, i.e., can have a glimpse of inward experience of the object of meditation - God.
As Chinmaya puts it, the vairagya or detachment has to be at mental level and not at physical level. What does this mean?
A sanyasi may discard dressing, just sit with one single piece of cloth or kaupyana, may put his body to rigorous sacrifice, reduce food, reduce sleep and take up intense austerities to achieve the goal of Realization. But all his austerities at physical level may fail totally if the sanyasi happens to see a beautiful woman passing by with lustful thoughts even for a moment. His detachment has been at physical level whereas the mind is still a beast.
On the other hand, Janaka did lead life of a king, enjoying all the pleasure of a king, lived in palace and dressed as a king but was a truly realized soul. His renunciation was at mental level and not at physical level.
Thus, enjoying the worldly comforts itself is not a sin. All that is required is a perfect understanding at all times that these worldly attainments, woman or wealth or attire or power etc. are not our ultimate goal, nor are they permanent and valid for all times in our life.
The real transformation is within, the real withdrawal is within, the real experience is within, the real peace or joy is always within, never ever in the outside world. This can be achieved only on withdrawing ourselves mentally from the world, at least during our sadhana/meditation, to begin with.
Love.
PS - Speaking of austerities at physical level, we take up fasting during Ekadasi, Shivaratri, take up difficult pilgrimages undergoing lot of hardships, attend akhanda bhajans sacrificing sleep etc.
All the above austerities are indeed very important and very noble ideas.
However, the basic purpose of taking up all these hardships are to purify our mind, detach our mind from world and attach to God.
Author recalls his childhood days when his own grand mother, fasting on vaikunta ekadasi, used to take him along with her for 2 to 3 continuous movies of Sivaji!!!!!!!!!
Any sacrifice/fasting/other hardships without focussing our mind totally on God is like taking up right thing with incomplete focus.
A night of fasting should see the devotee totally focussed on his/her chosen God, totally detached from the world and immersing on Godly thoughts to an extent as though that night is the last night given to us for living with our Lord and after that night, we may not exist at all!
Love.
PS - Speaking of austerities at physical level, we take up fasting during Ekadasi, Shivaratri, take up difficult pilgrimages undergoing lot of hardships, attend akhanda bhajans sacrificing sleep etc.
All the above austerities are indeed very important and very noble ideas.
However, the basic purpose of taking up all these hardships are to purify our mind, detach our mind from world and attach to God.
Author recalls his childhood days when his own grand mother, fasting on vaikunta ekadasi, used to take him along with her for 2 to 3 continuous movies of Sivaji!!!!!!!!!
Any sacrifice/fasting/other hardships without focussing our mind totally on God is like taking up right thing with incomplete focus.
A night of fasting should see the devotee totally focussed on his/her chosen God, totally detached from the world and immersing on Godly thoughts to an extent as though that night is the last night given to us for living with our Lord and after that night, we may not exist at all!
Love.
