Vivekachudamani - Post 35

  Verse 29   

वैराग्यं च मुमुक्षुत्वं तीव्रं यस्य तु विद्यते ।
तस्मिन्नेवार्थवन्तः स्युः फलवन्तः शमादयः ॥ २९ ॥

 

vairāgyaṃ ca mumukṣutvaṃ tīvraṃ yasya tu vidyate |
tasminnevārthavantaḥ syuḥ phalavantaḥ śamādayaḥ || 29 ||

 

(Calmness and other practices have their meaning and they bear fruit indeed, only in him who has an intense spirit of renunciation and yearning for Liberation.) 

 

In the previous sloka it was said where vairagya and mumukshutva are there; there alone samadi satka sampatti will become fruitful. This is positive presentation; anvaya.

Now he presents in negative form; vyatireka; where vairagya and mumukshutva  are not there; in that person even if he has got samadhi satka sampatti , concentration is there, intelligence is there; all these qualifications are there also, they are like mirage water. 

 

One cannot get moksha through mere shad Sampatti. Make sure that you are a seeker. Then alone it will become a spiritual pursuit, when mumukṣatvam and vairagya are there. 

 

Therefore he says; mumuksutvam vairagyam cha. So when interest in moksa and disinterestedness in all other things, they are tivram. When they are intense, yasya tu vidyate; in a particular person, the other qualifications will become valid. 

 

There are many seekers who, having practised for long the six requirements such as calmness and so on, complain that they have not progressed at all. 

 

The practices of Vedanta are not a training  in ethics or morality. These great qualities are mainly to create an ethical and moral atmosphere in the psychological field of the neophyte. There are many spiritual cowards who ask, 'Merely by living an honest life can we not reach the perfection which is explained as godhood?' This question has become very common these days and people in confusion and perhaps intellectual fatigue refuse to make a thorough study of the sastras. 

 

Such people claim for themselves a 'true living' in their honest endeavours in life. They say, 'I am very dutiful, I earn honestly, I look after my home and my dependants and to the extent I can afford it, I share my wealth with others in a spirit of charity, I believe that I am a nobler soul than those who practise the so-called spiritual discipline.' 

 

This wrong notion has been blasted by Sankara in his  statement that the qualities of self-restraint, self-control, purity  and so on, can bear fruit only when they are in an individual who  has a complete sense of detachment born out of discrimination  and a burning aspiration to surmount the limitations of his mortal  existence. 

 

So in the pilgrimage through life whenever they come across a ditch of hatred or amount of challenge, they sit back fatigued and weary and blame religion and their own philosophy based upon hollow and meaningless ethical living. 

 

Since spiritual evolution is not the outcome of their 'pure' living, whenever the scheme of things around them changes, they find themselves lost. 

Without spiritual stamina, no one can stand up to the threats and onslaughts of circumstances in life. It is, therefore, that sama, dama and so on, cannot bear fruit unless they grow in a heart watered by detachment and ploughed by an intense wish for Liberation.

We see people who say, I am controlling my senses, I exercise restraint on my desires, I practice Titiksha etc.

All these qualities are good in themselves and those who practice any or most of the six qualifications deserve huge appreciation.

But being in the world, without renouncing the world, without dispassion for everything in this objective world, liberation is a far-fetched dream.

Without Viveka, Vairagya and Intense craving for liberation, mere practice of the six qualifications, that too in various degree, will never lead oneself towards the ultimate purpose of human birth- Liberation.

Sage from Ananda kutir says,

 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-realization. Without dissatisfaction or Vairagya, nothing is possible.

Just as water, when it leaks into the rat-holes, instead of running into the proper channels in agricultural fields, becomes wasted and does not help the growth of plants, grains, etc., so also, the efforts of an aspirant become a wastage if he has not got the virtue Vairagya. He gets no spiritual advancement.

 

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. 

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"

 

Love.