“Is it possible to acquire knowledge without the guru? And is it possible to acquire knowledge without renunciation? In the same way, the Vedas and Puranas sing that there is no chance of happiness and peace without devotion to Shri Hari.” (Dohavali, 137)

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बिनु गुर होइ कि ग्यान ग्यान कि होइ बिराग बिनु।
गावहिं बेद पुरान सुख कि लहिअ हरि भगति बिनु।

binu gura hō’i ki gyāna gyāna ki hō’i birāga binu
gāvahiṁ bēda purāna sukha ki lahi’a hari bhagati binu

1. Win a contest

“The Sanskrit word is vairagya. Not to be confused with any sort of prescription medication for aging males, this is a vital aspect within the higher circles of spiritual life, transcendentalism, mysticism, dharma, or whatever your preferred term.

“In other words, vairagya is for when you are beyond the foundation of dogmatic insistence commonly found in followers of religion. The word has a literal translation of lack of attachment. We could say vairagya is renunciation. It is the removal of a need for sense enjoyment.

“I don’t mean to brag, but I think I have the most vairagya of anyone I know. If you put me on a nonstop flight that goes for fourteen hours, I can sit there, in economy class, in the middle seat. I don’t need conversation. I will stay by myself. No handheld devices. No movies playing on a screen. No book and no video games.

“I can survive any similar situation. I barely require food. I can sleep on the hard floor. I am fine in either winter or summer. Seriously, go ahead and test me. I think I will come out on top against anyone you can find.”

2. Torture yourself

“I am instilling a spirit of vairagya because I feel that is the proper atonement. I know that there is another corresponding Sanskrit term, tapasya. This vairagya goes hand-in-hand. I am removing attachments precisely because I have spent so much time in attachment.

“The attachment brought only misery. Whatever outcome I wanted rarely manifested. Whenever there was success, I expected the same to occur in the next iteration. When that did not happen, the frustration mounted. In this way, I was stuck in a perpetual cycle of disappointment.

“The root cause was attachment, so now I am sufficiently punishing myself. This will hopefully teach me a lesson. I will learn the proper way. I will have a lasting memory of pain and suffering, such that I will not want to repeat the same mistakes going forward.”

3. Realize the knowledge taught by the gurus

This is the actual purpose to vairagya. There is a reason that vairagya accompanies jnana, which is knowledge. There should be both knowledge and renunciation. This is the special facility for the human birth.

The dogs can acquire some knowledge, but not to an advanced level. The monkey lives in the forest, without a proper dwelling, with no attachments holding it down, but we would not consider that to be vairagya. To be without attachment is possible only when there is an intentional decision in that direction, when there is otherwise the potential for attachment.

Vairagya helps to reinforce the principles taught within jnana. The end result is worship of the lotus feet of Shri Hari, who is worshiped as Rama by saints like Goswami Tulsidas. This kind of worship is known as bhakti, which is devotion.

It is said that jnana and vairagya are like sons to the goddess of devotion, Bhakti Devi. When there is the sound of glorification of Hari, such as in bhagavata-katha, the two sons become new again. While they were previously old, tired, and without hope, just by hearing the glories of the Supreme Lord they get a new lease on life.

वासुदेवे भगवति भक्तियोग: प्रयोजित: ।
जनयत्याशु वैराग्यं ज्ञानं च यदहैतुकम् ॥

vāsudeve bhagavati
bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ
janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ
jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam

“By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Shri Krishna, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.2.7)

Shrimad Bhagavatam explains that simply by implementing bhakti, the requisite jnana and vairagya appear automatically; a separate endeavor is not required. The pride I take in my renunciation will not do me much good, and neither will the desire to needlessly torture myself.

Everything passed down is for creating a solid, stable, and secure structure of a culture of life. That culture has the sole purpose of pleasing the Supreme Lord. In devotion, I can use whatever I have around me. The vairagya that I previously dreaded or exploited is now a facility for breaking through barriers of time and circumstance, in always remaining fixed in consciousness at the one who is attractiveness personified.

In Closing:

Facility given to me,
Way to always see.

Hari’s lotus feet,
In life’s mission to meet.

Bhakti in culture bound,
Jnana and vairagya found.

Separate endeavor not needed,
All good qualities in devotion seated.

Categories: dohavali 121-160, the three

Tags: god, hare krishna, poem, poems, poetry, religion, renunciation