Detachment, renunciation. (Glossary for the Vahinis)

Bhakti, and the attitude of Saranagati that is its final fruit, will give you great courage to meet any emergency; such courage is what is called Vairagya. (SSS Vol.1, p. 19)

Vairagya does not mean abandoning the house, leaving your surroundings, leaving your wife, leaving your children and living in a forest. That is not Vairagya. When we stay in the house, stay in the midst of our duties and perform our duties which we have to perform, having our minds free from desires and attachments to those duties, regarding all that we do as our actions in God’s pleasure, that would be called proper Vairagya. (SSB 1972, p. 33)

The aspect of gradually giving up desires is referred to as Vairagya in the language of Vedanta. Less luggage and more comfort makes travel a pleasure. When our ancestors referred to Vairagya, they meant that you must give up the luggage of your desires and wishes and thus make life less burden some. (SSB 1974,  p. 197)

Vairagyam, or detachment, means our giving up the feeling that things are permanent and capable of yielding supreme joy. The mind plays tricks with man and believes that some things are good and some bad, some eternal and some transitory. (SSS Vol.9, p. 202)

When fruit is ripe, it will fall off the branch of its own accord. Similarly, when Vairagya saturates your heart, you lose contact with the world and slip into the lap of the Lord. (SSS Vol.2, p. 121)

True Vairagya or renunciation may be described as turning your mind towards God, towards the permanent entity. This detachment and sacrifice must be developed into a very intense feeling. (DBG, p. 72)

Vairagya means detachment or renunciation; it is the detachment of the mind and the senses from the objects of the world. The mind covers the Self; therefore, the mind is sometimes described as a veil, it is the veil of ignorance, which covers the Atma. The mind, itself is tied down by the sense organs, and the sense organs are attracted to the sense objects and get bound up by them. Therefore, the first step is to control the sense organs, for this, detachment is essential.

Once you have estab1ished detachment from the sense objects, then the sense organs will no longer be able to bind the mind. A mind, which is free from control of the senses, will become pure and transparent; it will no longer exercise its covering influence on the Atman. When the veil of the mind dissolves, the Self has a vision of its Self. Then you become immersed in the unity of all existence and enjoy the Amanda, which is your true nature. Gita has taught that Vairagya, renunciation, is essential for realizing the Atma. (DBG, p. 74)

Vairagya means giving up association with objects, while recognising their inherent worth. Vairagya consists in enjoying without attachment things, which were previously enjoyed with attachment. (SS Aug 88 , p. 205)

It is common for us to think of Vairagya (detachment). A small example to illustrate the point. Supposing a person died. He is taken to the burial ground and either cremated or buried. While this process goes on, others watching the ritual suddenly begin to think ‘what a pity! Is it not a fact that all our bodies will meet the same fate one day or the other?’ Thus, Vairagya suddenly dawns on them. This is not true Vairagya. This is ‘smasana vairagya’(detachment in the burial ground). This is only a temporary phenomenon. A housewife, while undergoing labour pains before delivering a child, unable to bear the pain, decides not to have a child again. This is called ‘prasoothi vairagya’ (vairagya born out of labour pains). This is also temporary. If. However, a female child is born to her by chance, she would like to have a male child next year. Similarly, man undergoes many vairagyas daily. When his desires are not fulfilled, he is frustrated and therefore develops a feeling of vairagya. All such vairagyas are only temporary.

Vairagya is two types - Manda Vairagya (mild or light detachment) and Tivra Vairagya (intense detachment). Supposing somebody wants to undertake a good work. He does not get himself into action straight away. He will go on postponing it thinking ‘let us do it tomorrow, day after tomorrow, after one week, after sometime’, etc. They waste their time like this. Supposing they wish to do some bad deeds. Then, they decide to do it then and there, thinking that tomorrow will be too late. Vairagya will be in the forefront for undertaking such bad things. Thus, postponing good things and deciding to undertaking bad things immediately, is called Manda Vairagya. Now, about Tivra vairagya. It means that once it is decided that a particular act is good, sacred and permanent, no further dillydallying on it. Straightaway he will put it into action. He will not even go to sleep, till it is accomplished. Such a Tivra Vairagya (intense detachment)is very much necessary for man.

The Vairagya of Buddha And Harischandra

Lord Buddha laid a royal path to vairagya. Once he realised that human body was perishable, Divinity is eternal, Truth is important and Non-violence is the guiding factor, he immediately renounced his wife, son and kingdom. He went to the forests and deeply contemplated on the Eternal Truth till wisdom dawned on him. Emperor Harischandra had to work as a watch-man in the burning ghat, by force of circumstances to persevere on the path of truth. He was, from the beginning, travelling on the path of vairagya. One day, the dead body of a very wealthy person was brought to the burial ground by his friends and relatives for cremation. It was placed on the funeral pyre and lit. There after all of them returned to their respective places. The nature of the dead body is such that, when the spinal cord in the body is exposed to the heat for sometime, the body rises up to a little height. That is why, before lighting the funeral pyre, a big wooden log is placed on the chest. In the instant case, all the relatives and friends of the deceased person had already left for their homes. Only Harischandra felt as though the dead body rose and Sat upon the pyre! He was astonished! ‘What! His life come back into this dead body?’ Thinking like this, he went near the dead body and it dropped down. Then Harischandra started thinking within himself thus:

While life force was still active

Thinking the illusory world as real,

Rooted in attachments ‘My wife’ and ‘My child’

Was this body steeped in delusion,

Now it is cognised to the unsatiable fire

‘Neither the wife nor the son can rescue him’.

He was sorry for the pitiable and forlorn condition of the dead body, which once belonged to a man rolling wealth. Thus situation took him to greater heights of Vairagya. (BhaG, pp. 150-153)