“Vairagya” – Detached Attachment

Pre-word: “Vairagya”- Detached Attachment :

A key to equanimity and ecstasy.

Vairagya is a state of equilibrium where the mind has no prominent force of interest oriented about an object—physical or mental. This state of mind is neither an outcome of effort nor the laziness towards an objective.

This state is cultivated by understanding holistically (not intellectually) the nature of action and its relatedness in creating a sense of self or actor. Thereupon, realizing intricately the insignificance of this sense of self or actor in the life cycle of action, becomes the key to unlock this state of mind, called as Vairagya. This also loosens the side-effects of conditioning by actions.

On practical ground in day to day life, Vairagya—as a state of mind, appears a very complicated hypothesis which poses a direct conflict to motivational theories. However, this is only a superficial intellectually groomed mis-perception and requires one to dive deep into its experience to inquires its nature.

The reason for its complication is due to enforcement of a human culture which pushes the mind to be purpose driven, which is many times artificially created in the name of systems—social, political, commercial or religious. It is like going to a railway platform where noise level is high and complaining that sleep is a disease. So, until you get used to sleep in noise, it is not a bad idea to use ear plugs.

The other reason is individual, where one gets blind sighted by his or her own mind-stuff which is also a kind of noise and needs deeper level of self-questioning. Here the word “Self” means the type and level of thoughts about oneself which largely creates the image of self. Thus, the perimeter of basic question, who am I? is the mind-stuff of my activities, ownership and imaginations in relationship to others. This can also be called as ego.

This selfish ego becomes the basis of actions in a preferential way.  Now all actions are guided by compressed network is self-oriented thoughts. The flavors are obviously social, religious, commercial and so on which keeps the on-going engagement interesting. Therefore, it is not a bad idea to keep the earplugs on for some time to even understand the operation of this psychological self a.k.a. as ego.

This brings discriminative awareness (a.k.a Vivek) of true self vs artificial self or ego. This type of awareness is primary step of realizing Vairagya.  This awareness also brings about a silence in mind and clarity in mind-stuff.

Thus, vairagya is not about avoiding life or loose motivation or living depressed, which is a popular belief in many people’s mind. Rather, it is understanding of operational aspects of mind-stuff and its attachments or aversions. As a result of Vairagya, discriminative awareness is used as a scissor to cut unnecessary out of life. Hence a balanced state (a.k.a equilibrium) is reached in one’s lifestyle (a.k.a samatha bhav)