UPARATI -
SELF WITHDRAWAL
Uparati is
satiety; it is resolutely turning the mind away from the desire for sensual
enjoyment. Rather, it is cessation for worldly longings.
Some define
Uparati as renunciation of all works and taking up Sannyasa.
This state
of mind comes naturally when one has practiced Viveka, Vairagya, Sama and Dama.
Sri Sankara
defines Uparati in His Viveka Chudamani as follows:
"The
best Uparati, self-withdrawal, consists in the mind function ceasing to act by
means of external objects".
Uparati
implies an inner satisfaction gained through constant discrimination and
unshaken faith in the spiritual fact that the experience of true bliss and
plenitude is to be had only in the Atman.
The mind of
the student who is established in Uparati will never be agitated when he sees a
beautiful object. There will be no attraction. He will have the same feeling
when he sees a woman as when he looks at a tree or a log of wood.
When he
looks at delicious fruits or palatable dishes he will not be tempted. He will
have no craving for any particular object or dish and will never
say "I want such and such food".
He will be satisfied with anything that is placed before him. This is due to the strength of mind he has developed by the practice of Viveka, Vairagya, Sama and Dama.
Further, the
mind experiences a wonderful calmness and transcendental spiritual bliss by the
above practices.
It does not want these little illusory pleasures. If you have got sugar-candy, your mind will never run after black sugar.
You can wean
the mind from the object to which it is attached by training it to taste a
superior kind of bliss.
Continued.....
Love.
