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

[Amuthan]

namo nArAyaNAya!

dear SrI bhAskar (and others),
  notwithstanding my own shortcomings, i'll try to discuss some topics
related to vairAgya. there are only two ways to develop and sustain
vairAgya:

 1. to know for oneself that everything, - the notion of a personal
self, thoughts, emotions, sensations, the body, people and objects -
that all these are anitya and tApAnta. with this
samsAra-yAthAtmya-j~nAna as the support, by not clinging to any of
these phenomena as they present themselves to us, the mind will
gradually lose interest in and attain uparati from all vyavahAra.

 2. to devote oneself exclusively to bhagavad bhakti, seeing both
happiness and sadness as burdens and taking things as they come
without whining.

  all talk of vairAgya ultimately boil down to these twin factors of
j~nAna/bhakti and asparSa. thats the best that can be said. actually
implementing these is impossible without consistent effort. hard work
indeed, but we don't have any option other than trying them out.

  regarding inter-personal behaviour, though we have to be very strict
to _ourselves_ when it comes to being indifferent to all mental and
physical phenomena, when dealing with _others_, it is best to follow
the advice given in the yoga sUtra 'maitrIkaruNAmuditopekshANAM....' -
by being friendly to those who are happy, compassionate to the
unfortunate, happy towards the virtuous and indifferent to the rest .
it is extremely inhuman to be indifferent to *everyone* (unless one is
a saMnyAsI). it is sufficient for us to remain stone-faced only to
those involved in adharma.

vAsudevaH sarvaM,
aparyAptAmRtaH.

On 7/23/07, bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com <bhaskar.yr_at_in.abb.com> wrote:
> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> Thanks a lot for all the replies from the revered prabhuji-s.  I am ever
> indebted to these thoughtful insights.  But, my question was with more
> specific intention & towards practical implimentation of virtue of vairAgya
> in our day to day life.
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