[Advaita-l] Is vairAgya/renunciation a result of glumness??

[Dr. Yadu Moharir]

Namaste Sanananda-Ji:
   
  The person who ran away from his own wedding after hearing the word "sAvadAna" was Saint RAmadAsaswami, who provided guidance to King Shivaji.
   
  He practiced advocated advaita through Bhakti using it as a tool.

  Once when Shivaji expressed his desire to take "sanyAsa" he not only discouraged him for that but convinced him the significance of defending svadharma (kshatriyatva) and become the protector for the land of vedic culture.  Shivaji then conferred with the title "go braahmaNapratipaalaka ........."
   
  His teaching is extremely straight forward through advise to one's own mind. ("manaace shloka or manobodha").
   
  One clearly sees the importance of integrating spiritual aspects with vyavahaarika world with not just viveka buddhi and recommends oneself to evaluate (with bhddhi - intelligence), confirm (with viveka budhi) and then affirm that what he termed as "sat-sat-viveka-buddhi".  We can clearly see the clarity in his thinking.
   
  Just some additional thoughts pertaining to vairaagya.
   
  Dr. Yadu
  
kuntimaddi sadananda <kuntimaddisada at yahoo.com> wrote:
  Bhaskar - PraNAms - here is my understanding: 

True vairaagya comes with viveka - some incidences can
trigger the intellect to think deeply. Otherwise it
is called smashaana vairaagya - dispassion until
funeral is over. The statement of the Upanishad is
'pariiksha lokaan karma chitaan ..... tat
vijnaanaartham sa gurum eva abhigachchet...' 
‘when one realizes after examining his whole life of
experiences that he cannot achieve the ever lasting
happiness through result of any action or karma, he is
advised to approach a teacher for proper knowledge’.

Hence emphasis is vairaagya that is well founded by 
thought process of discrimination. It is recognition
that normal ‘rat-race’ will not give the happiness
that I am longing for - it can come with heavy
suffering or even light suffering- what is needed is
discriminative intellect. Buddha just saw once the
suffering of the individuals and Ramana witnessed the
death of a relative. Their minds took off, while we
see these everyday and nothing happens. There is
samskaara that is required for the mind to withdraw. 
In Mahabhaarat, Dhramaraja says to yaksha in response
to the question 'what is the wonder of all wonders' -
the response was 'we see people being born everyday
and people dying everyday; yet everybody operates as
though they are going to live here permanently and
that is the greatest wonder'. Dispassion can be
triggered by sorrowful events in life, not the other
way; sorrowful events need not be precursors for
vairaagya.

I heard a story – One seeker - he was marrying a girl
and priest said 'saavadhaan' as a part of ritual
before taking the seven steps. Suddenly he got a big
shock- someone is warning him - saavadhaan' - pay
attention to what you are doing - you are getting into
bondage for life! - at least that was what he realized
and took up sanyaasa immediately. What is required is
the full attention of the mind in recognizing what is
ephemeral and what is eternal and how much importance
should one give to the former. Bahuunaam janaanaamate
‘ for many it takes many lives for the mind to develop
that discriminative power. For those who are getting
exposed to advaita, that exposure is possible only
when you have that prepared mind. The more one dwells
on adviata, the more the mind get dispassion about the
ephemeral things. 


Hari Om!
Sadananda

--- bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com wrote:

the topic was
> about vairAgya. He said that vairAgya or dispassion
> is always a result of
> some grief in one's life. He took the examples of
> buddha, dhruva, ramaNa
> maharshi & argued, 


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