Wednesday, August 21, 2013

(August 21,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Attaining Desirelessness

Attaining Desirelessness
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 24: True Spiritual Living by Swami Krishnananda

The discipline of dispassion, is a part of the education of the mind, by which it is purified and enabled to return to its essential nature. The vairagya, or the spirit of renunciation that yoga speaks of, is a very subtle attitude of consciousness, and it is not merely any kind of outward conduct or behaviour. It is not an abandonment of things in the pure physical sense, though a safe distance from attractive physical objects may be conducive to this internal discipline of dispassion. Physical distance does not prevent the mind from desiring and, therefore, a mere physical isolation is not the entire meaning of renunciation. It is an inward transformation that has to take place, by which consciousness – or in its more pronounced form, mind – does not relate it to its objects.

The object of sense can be physical or conceptual, and one can be attached to a conceptual object even though there may be no physical object. As far as attachment is concerned, it makes not much difference whether its object is physical or purely psychological, because inward reveries of the mind are as dangerous as outward possessive attitudes. The mind can be in the thick of enjoyment even inside a monastery or a nunnery, and what binds us is this craving of the mind, and what makes us take rebirth is this craving of the mind. It is a mental potentiality, a predisposition of the mind towards something, that causes rebirth.

When Patanjali, lays great emphasis on the requisite of vairagya, or renunciation, he intends to convey to us the message that bondage – from which yoga tries to free us – is not merely in a physical location of objects of sense, but in a connection of consciousness with these locations of objects and an appreciation by the mind of the characters of these objects. We cannot enjoy an object unless we appreciate it, and this appreciation is the recognition by the mind of certain characters or values in the object which itself is lacking.

The love that we feel towards an object is an indication that those features which we see in the object of our attraction are absent in us, and we try to make good the lack by a connection that we establish inwardly, psychologically, between ourselves and the object. Can we love an object eternally, for all times – from birth to death? That is not possible. We jump from one thing to another thing. Today this is desirable, tomorrow another thing is desirable; and the mind has found that the object which attracted it yesterday is inadequate today. And with all its experiments, it finds that it cannot find or acquire what it lacks, because the mind is incapable of knowing what it really lacks.

There is an infinite shortcoming in the mind and, therefore, finite objects cannot bring it satisfaction. When there is an awakening into this fact, it tries to discover the causes of its failure and take to right methods, by which it can gain what it has really lost and what it really seeks. But the mind is wedded to the senses. The senses begin to tell it once again the very same thing that they conveyed to it earlier, and we once again begin to interpret the causes of our suffering in this world in terms of the objects of the world; and there is a possibility, then, of our entering into a muddle, which is the state of mental confusion.

This is what is described in the first chapter of the Bhagavadgita, in which condition, on one side we feel that we are in need of light, advice and guidance from a higher power, a greater source of wisdom; but on the other side we cling to our own views, as Arjuna did. He was seeking advice from Bhagavan Sri Krishna, but he was also arguing on behalf of his own feelings and opinions, as if they were right. In this confused state, the mind can get into an entangled situation where partly, or outwardly, it may appear to be engaging itself in a pious adventure of even the practice of yoga, devotion to God, etc., but it can become, unfortunately for it, a totally sidetracked movement, a direction which it takes by the guidance of the senses, and it can imagine that it is moving in the right direction though it is moving in the opposite direction.

Vairagya, or the spirit of renunciation, is a mastery that we gain over the objects of sense, and is not merely a forgetful attitude of the mind in respect of objects of sense. What are the objects of sense? Drishta and anusravika are the words used: that which is seen, and that which is heard – both these are objects. We can cling to objects which are seen with the eyes, and also cling to things which are only heard by our mind.

What is vairagya then, which the yoga speaks of? It is a vitrshnata, or a feeling of inward desirelessness, towards everything that is seen or capable of being seen, and everything that is heard of, even through the scriptures or by other sources. Acharya Sankara says that even the pleasures of Brahmaloka are to be despised by a desireless mind, as they are mere dirt which have no essence in them.

Attraction is impossible unless both cooperate – the object and our own mind. The object has to be placed in a proper context, it must reveal certain characters, and those characters and that context should be the very same thing that our mind is lacking at that particular time. Then we are attracted by it. That is why we cannot be attracted by the same thing always, because the mind changes when we advance in age or in experience.

Knowing all these things, the viveki, or the man of discrimination, gets disillusioned.  For certain reasons which are to be explained, the whole world is full of pain only. It is not a place of beautiful enjoyment or an occasion for exciting pleasures. There is something very terrible about things.

All this is a precaution that masters of yoga give us, so that we may not get caught up by the very same forces from which we try to gain freedom, because freedom is an inward adjustment of consciousness towards the natural order of things. Our harmony with the universe is real freedom.

The joy of the Atman, the Supreme Self, reflects itself in all these manifestations – right from the delight of Brahma, or creator, down to the grossest physical object of sense – in various degrees. What is giving us joy, pleasure, is this Atman present in things. We are happy wherever the Atman is manifest. Where the Atman is not manifest, we cannot feel joy. The Atman is not an object, of course, and yet it is capable of getting revealed in some degree through the objects. Completeness, or an absence of any kind of want, is the character of the Atman.

Excerpts from:
Chapter 24: True Spiritual Living by Swami Krishnananda

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