literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org

Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

Date: Mon May 19, 2003 7:50 am
Subject: Vairagya is Different from Boredom or Ennui

http://www.sulekha.com/chpost.asp...ilosophy&show=0&cid=59682

Rish writes at hindunet.org - forums - general discussion:

(excerpts):

Does this mean that once one gains moksha life becomes boring?

What makes life interesting and exciting, what defeats the fact that
we have probably experianced the same emotion or feeling that we are
experiancing now, thousands of times before in countless previous
lives, and still makes this life, fresh and new.

========================================

Sitaram replies:

I am trying to investigate the difference between vairagya, which is
essential to moksha, versus boredom. I would like to offer the
following two stories about rivers for your consideration as
illustrations of processes which DO result in a form of dispassion or
vairagya, but do not result in boredom or ennui.

Our goal is not for life to be ever exciting and interesting. Our
goal is equanimity, an even-keeled spirit in the face of all
pleasures and sufferings.

It is unfulfilled desire or yearning which draws us back to wombs and
rebirth again and again.

Consider Lord Krishna's words in the Gita (paraphrased):

It is inevitable that pleasures and sufferings come to every embodied
being, but he who meets both pleasure and suffering with equanimity
(a balanced spirit) is a true yogin.

Although I possess all things and lack
nothing, yet I am constantly active. If I were to cease my activity
for the briefest moment, then countless worlds and beings would
perish.

Although Lord Krishna needs and desires nothing, it is a sense of
duty or dharma towards those many worlds and beings which inspires
the ceaseless activity.

========================

In the story which follows, the boy repeatedly rides the river for a
period of years. He becomes quite used to the experience, but does
not become bored. In fact, it is the experience which he gains from
the constant repetition of the experience which builds into his
ultimate enjoyment or bliss.

Here is the story.

A boy lives near a small, quick-flowing river, and every day he takes
his canoe and tries to navigate the complex of swirling eddies,
smooth-flowing pour-overs, and frothy standing waves. In the boy's
first attempts, he paddles frantically, but still bashes against
rocks, takes on water, and even sinks his canoe a few times. But as
he keeps trying to navigate the river, he begins to learn where all
the really nasty spots are, and how to build up momentum prior to
entering a rapid, so he can use the momentum to carry him through the
standing waves. Eventually he stops capsizing, and only takes on a
little water every now and again.

This could be the end of the story, but the boy falls in love with
this river that has humbled him many times, and for which the boy has
learned great respect. Nothing gives the boy more pleasure than
steering his craft down the currents - it is rather meditative. Over
many summers, the boy refines his strokes, so that he makes
navigating even the trickiest rapids look easy. The boy is still
attentive and respectful of the river - he knows it has the power to
kill him if he is distracted at the wrong moment - but he also learns
to trust the river. One day the boy notices that he no longer worries
about whether he'll successfully navigate the rapids; rather, he
dances joyfully with the river, pushing gently with his paddle almost
unconsciously, letting the river do almost all the work. At the end
of the previous paragraph, the boy knew the river in his mind, but
now, he knows the river in his heart; the soul of the river and of
the boy have touched.

==============================

Brahman is Bliss. We, who are creatures of Brahman, ought to be in a
blissful state always; yet, except as children, we grow increasingly
unhappy as we grow older and seek to find remedy in philosophical
tracts. Our scriptures insist that Vairagya (non-attachment) is an
essential practice for achieving this goal.

In this connection, I want to share with you the following extract
from the book 'Illusions' by Richard Bach.

" Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great
crystal river.

The current of the river swept silently over them all - young and
old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way,
knowing only its own crystal self.

Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks
at the river bottom,

for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current was
what each had learned from birth.

But one creature said at last, "I am tired of clinging. Though I
cannot see it with my eyes,

I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and
let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom."

The other creatures laughed and said, `Fool! Let go, and that current
you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and
you will die quicker than boredom.'

But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at
once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks. Yet, in
time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him
free from the bottom, and he was bruised , but hurt no more. And the
creatures down stream, to whom he was a stranger, cried,
`See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies. See the
Messiah, come to save us all!'

And the one carried in the current said, `I am no more messiah than
you.

The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true
work is this voyage, this adventure.' But they cried the more:.
`Saviour!' all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked
again he was gone, and they were left alone, making legends of the
Saviour."

==================

And here are some other little excerpts of interest regarding boredom
vs. vairagya...

=========

http://www.srividya.org/Articles/About_Meditation.htm

Sometimes the meditation goes wonderfully, absolutely no problems,
I'm in seventh heaven, walking on the rainbows, with the Mother
leading me with Her little finger and showing me different worlds.
They are singing for me, they are dancing for me - an aesthetic state
of union with God. And sometimes nothing happens. It is just routine.
Where does boredom come from? Because you have an expectation that
something is going to happen, and when that something does not
happen, then you are bored. It's not helping you, and you lose
interest in the meditation. So you have to understand that
expectation is the cause for the disappointment. Expectation is the
cause of the boredom. So what is it that you have to do ? You should
have no expectations whatsoever about how the meditation is going to
proceed. If you have no expectations, no disappointments. If you have
expectations, you will have disappointments.

http://www.mimersbrunn.se/arbeten/59.asp

A routine daily life in this humdrum world generates boredom very
soon. Undertaking Pilgrimages on such occasions will reinvigorate the
mind, in the same way as recharging a battery that is rundown. How
can a place of Pilgrimage contribute to this? No doubt, God exists
everywhere, but He is Manifest more tangibly in these places of
Pilgrimage even as milk is drawn through the udder, though it
permeates the entire body of the cow in a subtle form.

We have hundreds of such pilgrim centres spread all over the land.
Usually they are situated in a beautiful natural location like the
sea shore, the bank of a river, the foot or the top of a hill, in a
valley or inside a forest. Very often they are associated with saints
and sages or with important spiritual and religious events. Visited
by millions of devout, Pilgrims over hundreds of years, they will
have acquired a spiritual charge and aura, which will naturally
affect those that visit them with faith and fervour. It is believed
that they contribute to the lessening, if not the destruction, of our
sins. That is why Pilgrimage has been advocated practically in all
the religions of the world.

As regards the rules to be observed in undertaking pilgrimages, they
can be summarized as follows: fixing up an auspicious date for
departure; fasting and self control on the previous day; shaving,
bath, worship of Ganesha and the nine planets as also the family
deity; religious resolve; performing worship and giving gifts at the
pilgrim centres according to the local custom; and after returning,
worship of the deities mentioned earlier.

It is incumbent on the part of the pilgrims rather to think of God
than paying any attention to the irregularities or corruptions
obtaining in the place. Though it is necessary to bring such things
to the notice of the competent authorities', the chief objective of
pilgrimage should not be sacrificed in the process.

It is interesting to note here that the Hindu scriptures have
provided for a method by which those who are unable to undertake a
pilgrimage by themselves, can get its merit through a substitute.

Such a person who acts as a substitute is expected to give the ritual
bath to an image made of kusha grass and treat it as the original
person making the pilgrimage.

http://home.talkcity.com/homepopup.html?
url=/GaiaWay/infinite_freedom/Nisargadatta.html

195. "The very facts of repetiton,

of struggling on and on

and of endurance and perseverance,

in spite of boredom and despair

and complete lack of conviction

are really crucial."

http://www.imprint-academic.demon.co.uk/T2000/05-02.html

356 The Binary Structure of Human Consciousness in Indian Metaphysics
R.Sinari (Professor Emeritus, Department of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India). Undoubtedly
the most profound insight (anschauung) in Indian metaphysics is
contained in its portrayal of the binary structure of human
consciousness. This binary structure comprises two parameters -
consciousness veiling itself (this has given rise to the problem of
self-deception in our time) and consciousness's tending toward its
own possession, its own comprehension, its own grasp in all its
essence. The terms used by Indian metaphysicians for the veil of
consciousness are maya, avidya, ajnana, abhasa, brahma, etc.
Consciousness, it is emphasized by Vedanta metaphysicians, veils
itself not only to entertain a belief that its life in the world -
its phenomenal existence - is real, but also to assume that all its
attachments to the world must continue as if it is not going to
separate itself from the world, even with death. Self-deception, Self-
veiling, Self-oblivion, on the one hand and Self-transcendence, Self-
knowing, Self- realization, on the other, are the binary metaphysical
core to which human consciousness is `condemned.' Consciousness's
self-veiling (or self-deception) is not just a sort of `lying on
oneself' as Raphael Demos tried to show; nor is it equivalent to what
Sartre has graphically described as mauvaise foi (bad faith); nor is
it simply a phenomenon to what psychoanalysis alludes to as the `The
Splitting of the Ego.' Self-veiling, for Indian metaphysicians, is
lived by us as a tension generated by the dual spectacle of
our `throwness' (the term used by Heidegger in his analysis of
Dasein) in the world and our quest for self-identity. The peculiar
nature of this tension is that our whole subjectivity is involved in
it, it is as Sankara said, atman's (consciousness) realization of
being `pure' and `in bondage of the world' simultaneously. Needless
to say, there are no computational techniques for the determination
of this tension. The unveiling of the self, according to Indian
metaphysicians, is a process assuredly brought about by techniques
like meditation, contemplation and various forms of yoga (the return
of the individual self to its original abode of universal self,
Brahman or Being). This writer, however, would want to argue that
there is no dissolution of this tension and thus no dissolution of
consciousness's fundamental self-veiling. The theory of self-
deception in Demos, Sartre, in Psychoanalysis, and even in
Kierkegaard and Heidegger are best understood if we grant that Human
consciousness is ontologically elusive, it is immersed in the world
and in the pleasures the world provides and yet has moments of
boredom, depression, ennui and despair, it has the unique capacity of
being worldly-otherworldly, phenomenal-transphenomenal, bound-free at
the same time. The only reason for this state is that it has cordoned
itself all through its history with an undetachabale veil (maya). The
veil is as real as the consciousness itself.

===================================

http://www.spiritcommunity.com/vairagya.htm

In enjoyment there is fear of disease; in social position, the fear
of falling off; in wealth, the fear of (hostile) kings; in honour,
the fear of humiliation; in power, the fear of foe men; in beauty,
the fear of old age; in scriptural erudition, the fear of opponents;
in virtue, the fear of traducers; in body, the fear of death. All the
things of this world pertaining to human beings are attended with
fear; renunciation alone stands for fearlessness.

-Vairagya Sakatam of Bhartrihari.

Vairagya is mental detachment from all connections with the world.
That is all. A man may live in the world and discharge all the duties
of his order and stage of life with perfect detachment. He may be a
householder. What if? He may live with family and children. But at
the same time he may have perfect mental detachment. He can do his
spiritual Sadhana. That man who has perfect mental detachment while
remaining in the world is a hero indeed. He is much better than a
Sadhu living in the Himalayan caves because the former has to face
the innumerable temptations of life every moment.

Wherever a man may go, he carries with him his fickle, restless mind,
his Vasanas and Samskaras. Even if he lives in solitude, still he is
the same worldly man, if he is engaged in building castles in the
air, and thinking of the objects of the world. In such case even the
cave becomes a big city to him. If the mind remains quiet, if it is
free from attachments, one can be a perfect Vairagi even while living
in a mansion in the busiest part of a city like Calcutta or Bombay.
Such a mansion will be converted in a dense jungle by him.

A dispassionate man has a different mind altogether. He has a
different experience altogether. He is a past master in the art or
science of separating himself from the impermanent, perishable
objects of the world. He has absolutely no attraction for them. He
constantly dwells on the Eternal or the Absolute. He identifies
himself every moment of his life with the witnessing consciousness
that is present in pleasure and in pain, in joy and in sorrow, in
censure and in praise, in honour and in dishonour, in all states of
life. He stands adamantine as a peak amid a turbulent storm, as a
spectator of this wonderful world show. He is not a bit affected by
these pleasant and painful experiences. He learns several valuable
lessons from them. He has, in other words, no attraction for pleasant
objects and repulsion for painful ones. Nor is he afraid of pain. He
knows quite well that pain helps a lot in his spiritual progress and
evolution, in his long journey towards the Goal. He stands convinced
that pain is the best teacher in the world.

Let me sound a note of warning here. Dear aspirants! Vairagya also
may come and go, if you are careless and mix promiscuously with all
sorts of worldly-minded people. You should develop Vairagya,
therefore, to a maximum degree. The mind will be waiting for golden
opportunities to get back the things once renounced. Whenever and
wherever the mind hisses or raises its hood (for the mind is verily
like a serpent), you should take refuge in Viveka and in the
imperishable fortress of wise, dispassionate Mahatmas. There are
different degrees in Vairagya. Supreme dispassion comes when one gets
himself established in Brahman. Now the Vairagya becomes perfectly
habitual.

A man can develop inner mental detachment from pleasure and pain
while living in the world. He should see that he is not carried away
by the pleasant experiences of the world. He should not cling to
them. He should simply remain as a silent spectator. If he thus
practices for some years, every experience will be a positive step in
his ascent in spiritual ladder. Eventually he will be crowned with
sanguine success. He will then have an unruffled mind. He will have a
poised mind also. A dispassionate man is the happiest and the richest
man in all the three worlds. He is also the most powerful man. How
can Maya tempt him now?

PRASNOTTARI of Sri Sankaracharya

Q. 1. Who is really enslaved?

A. One who is attached to the objects of the senses.

Q. 2. What is freedom (or liberation)?

A. Non-attachment to worldly objects.

Q. 3. What is the most horrible hell?

A. Your own body.

Q. 4. What is the path to heaven?

A. The total annihilation of all desires.

Q. 5. What is the gate to hell?

A. The opposite sex.

Q. 6. What leads to heaven?

A. Non-violence or harmlessness to all creatures.

Q.7. Who are the enemies?

A. Our own Indriyas. They are our friends when subjugated.

Q. 8. Who is really poor?

A. One who has many desires.

Q. 9. Who is rich?

A. He who has full contentment.

Q. 10. What is nectar?

A. Delightful desirelessness.

Q. 11. What is the real betters?

A. Egoistic sense of "mineness" and "thineness."

Q. 12. What is that which intoxicates as if it were wine?

A. The opposite sex.

Q. 13. Who is the most blind?

A. One actuated by lust.

Q. 14. What is the deadliest of all poisons?

A. All sensual enjoyments.

Q. 15. Who is miserable for ever?

A. He who is attached to worldly enjoyments.

Q.16. What is beyond the reach of everybody's knowledge?

A. A lover's heart.

Q. 17. Who is a beast?

A. One without knowledge.

Q. 18. Whose company should we shun off?

A. The company of the fools, the mean minded, the wicked and the
sinful.

Q. 19. What is at the root of degradation?

A. Begging.

Q. 20. What is at the root of becoming great?

A. Never to beg.

Q. 21. Who is really born?

A. He who has no birth again.

Q. 22. Who is really dead?

A. One who is not to die again.

Q. 23. Who is the greatest of all enemies?

A. Kama (desire), anger, untruth, greed and craving.

Q. 24. Who is not gratified by (all) objects of (enjoyment)?

A. Desire (lust).

Q. 25. What is at the root of all miseries?

A. The sense of "mineness" or I-ness."

Q. 26. Who are the real dacoits?

A. Evil desires.

Q. 27. Who is the beast of all beasts?

A. One who does not fulfil his duties and has no knowledge of the
Self.

Q. 28. What is fleeting like-lightning?

A. Wealth, youth and life.

Q. 29. What should be constantly thought of?

A. The illusory nature of the universe and the existence of Brahman.

Q. 30. What is real action?

A. That which is pleasing to Lord Krishna.

==================================

The Mysterious Palace of Brahman

The mason builds a house out of stones, small bricks, lime and
cement. He keeps big pieces of stones in the construction of the main
walls and puts small bricks and pebbles to fill up the crevices in
the wall, plasters the wall with lime and eventually puts a layer of
cement. He polishes the wall with finishing touches and gives a
colouring in the end to attract the eyes. Even so, the Divine
Architect, God, has constructed this human body with the help of
Prakriti. The bones represent the big stones; the muscles represent
the pebbles; the fat the bricks; dermis or white skin the lime; the
skin or epidermis the cement; the pigment of the skin the colouring
matter. Look at the marvellous skill of the Divine Engineer, Engineer
of all engineers. The muscles are fixed to the bones by means of
tendons. The joints are kept intact by ligaments. Deposition of fat
gives good shape to the limbs, trunk and abdomen and gives beauty.
The pigment in the skin attracts the eyes of the out lookers and
people are deluded by false beauty of the perishable body. They cling
to this body and through this clinging they are caught up in the
round of births and deaths.

The body is a mysterious moving palace. His Divine Majesty Brahman
dwells here. Brahman is the Immortal soul or Atma. Buddhi or
intellect is His Prime Minister. Mind is the commander. The ten
Indriyas are the soldiers or servants. The eyes are the marvellous
windows of the palace. Mouth is the way out. Eyes and ears are the
way in. The Devatas who preside over the Indriyas, eyes ears, nose,
etc., are the gatekeepers.

The nerves are the wires. Brain is the receivers It receives all
messages. It contains a wonderful switch-board also. Prana is the
electricity. The bones are the mountains. The veins are the rivers.
The bladder is the ocean. The bowels and urethra are the sewers. The
heart is the water-works. The arteries are the pipes. The astral
heart is the garden of Vrindavan, Susbuma is the Kunjgalli of
Vrindavan. Jiva is sweet Radha who wants to unite with Lord Krishna,
or Brahman, through Yoga Samadhi. Sahasrara, or the crown of the
head, is thplace where Radha and Krishna, the individual soul and
Brahman, unite. The different Chakras are the resting places with
Kadamba tree.

The body is made up of five elements. Bone is nothing but earth or
clay. Blood or flesh is nothing but water. The shining in the skin
and the eyes is nothing but fire. The Prana that moves in the
nostrils and lungs is nothing but air. This air rests on ether. Ether
is the support for all the other four elements. Air, fire, water and
earth have emanated from ether. When the body is buried, the bones
become one with the earth. They go back to their source. Through the
practice of Laya-Chintan if you reduce the earth into water, water
into fire, fire into air, and air into ether, the body does not
really exist. It dwindles into airy nothing. Through jugglery of Maya
you perceive this body. In reality the imperishable soul which is the
support for this body and mind really exists.

The body is inert and insentient. It remains as a log of wood as soon
as the Prana leaves the body. It appears to be sentient through
contact with Prana, mind and reflected intelligence, just as a ball
of iron appears to be a ball of fire through contact with fire. The
reflected intelligence, or Chaitanya, galvanizes the inert intellect
first, as it is very subtle, and as the intellect is in close contact
with it, and through intellect this inert body also is galvanized. So
the body moves, feels and does various sorts of actions. After all,
mortal flesh is clay, bone is only a modification of earth. O Man: Do
not cling to this body of flesh and network of bones. Give up
infatuation for this body. Destroy ignorance. Realize the Immortal
Self and be free.

The Lord is hiding himself in the inner chambers of this mysterious
palace. He is playing the game of 'hide and seek' with you. Find Him
out. Search Him out. Search Him in the chambers of your heart by
withdrawing the mind and the Indriyas from the external objects and
practicing concentration and meditation.

================

http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VIII/VIII_2_9.htm

Indifference - Vairagya

The word, vairagya comes from the Sanskrit and means indifference. By
Sufis it is called fana, and it is shown in the cross, the symbol of
the Christian religion.

This indifference comes to every being and is the first step to his
annihilation, because not one atom can have its evolution without
annihilation. The lower beings, the mineral, vegetable and animal,
evolve towards the higher beings, and as man is the highest creation,
there is nothing for him to evolve to but this indifference, when it
comes, opens a way for him to God from whom he came.

This indifference comes to the child when she realizes that her doll
is not so interesting as she had thought and that it would be more
interesting to play with other children who at least are alive. So
first the child takes the doll and loves it. She carries it about and
if the dolly's hand is hurt the child wants some remedy. A bed is
needed to put the dolly in and a carriage is needed to take the dolly
out. But when the nature of the doll is understood it is thrown away.
And the child realizes that to play with children her own age is
better than to play with dolls which never speak.

So it is with us, the children of the world. Our likes and
infatuations have a certain limit; when their time has expired the
period of indifference commences. When the water of indifference is
drunk, then there is no more wish for anything in the world. The
nature of the water one drinks in this world is that one's thirst is
quenched for a certain time and then comes again. When the water of
divine knowledge is drunk, then thirst never comes again.

This indifference comes when the nature of the world is understood;
it is the higher knowledge. Then it is understood that all those
objects to which one attached so much importance, which one strove to
attain, to achieve, are not important. Before reaching that stage a
person attaches too much importance to his joys, to his sorrows. If
he is sad the whole world is full of sadness. If he is a little
joyful the whole world is full of joy - as if the sun would rise and
set according to his joy and sadness.

Indifference, however, must be reached after interest has taken its
course; before that moment it is a fault. A person without an
interest in life becomes exclusive, he becomes disagreeable.
Indifference must come after all experience - interest must end in
indifference. Man must not take the endless path of interest: the
taste of everything in the world becomes flat. Man must realize that
all he seeks in the objects he runs after, that all beauty and
strength, are in himself, and he must be content to feel them all in
himself. This may be called the kiss of the cross: then man's only
principle is love.

Vairagya means satisfaction, the feeling that no desire is to be
satisfied any more, that nothing on earth is desired. This is a great
moment, and then comes that which is the kingdom of God.

Why is God satisfied with the world whereas even man, when he reaches
a certain grade of intelligence, is not satisfied? Or is God not
satisfied? There are two sorts of dissatisfaction. The first is felt
when a man has so much given in to the external self that the world
can give him no more satisfaction. The other comes when the desire
for more experience, for more enjoyment ceases. This is called
Vairagya, this is indifference. Such a person is not unhappy. He is
happier than others. He has only lost his intense interest in the
world.

There is a story of a comedian who every day disguised himself in
order to fool the king, the Badishah, at whose court he lived. But
the king recognized him in all his disguises. The comedian then
thought that he would disguise himself as an ascetic. He went to a
cave in the mountains and lived there with two disciples, also
comedians. He fasted for long periods thinking that in this way he
disguised himself well. After forty days people, seeing his
disciples, began to speak of the sage living in the mountain. They
brought him presents: one hundred, two hundred dirhams. But he
refused all saying, "Take it away. "The sage does not want money or
presents."

His fame spread more and more. The king heard of him and became
anxious to see him. So he went to the cave, but for a long time the
disciples would not let him enter. At last he was allowed to come
into the presence of the "sate." The king said, "I have been kept
waiting very long before I could see you." The sage replied, "The
dogs of this world are not allowed to enter the house." The king was
very much insulted. He thought, "This must be a very great person."
He gave him a paper saying, "This parveneh for the support of your
disciples." A parveneh means a grant of land, but the word has two
meanings, it also means moth.

The "sage" said, "if it is a parveneh its place is in the fire." And
he put the paper in the fire which was burning before him.

The king went away and the comedian got up thinking, "Now I must tell
the king how I have fooled him." Then a voice came saying, "Your
feigned indifference has brought the king before you. If it had been
real indifference, We Ourselves would have come before you.

Get your own free IRC Chat room