Dispassion - What we need?

When Dispassion appears in the mind, it opens the gate to Divine Wisdom. From dissatisfaction (with the sense-objects and worldly sense-enjoyments) comes aspiration. From aspiration comes abstraction. From abstraction comes the concentration of the mind. From the concentration of the mind comes meditation or contemplation. From contemplation comes Self-realisation. Without dissatisfaction or Dispassion, nothing is possible. Just as cultivation in a stony land or saltish earth becomes absolutely fruitless, so also Yogic practices an inquiry of the Soul done without Dispassion becomes fruitless. Just as water, when it leaks into the rat-holes, instead of running into the proper channels in agricultural fields, becomes wasted and does not help the growth of plants, grains, etc., so also, the efforts of an aspirant become a wastage if he has not got the virtue Dispassion. He gets no spiritual advancement.

Intense Dispassion 

There must be intense Dispassion in the minds of the aspirants, throughout the period of their Spiritual practice. Mere mental adhesion will not do for success in Yoga. There must be intense longing for liberation, a high degree of Dispassion plus capacity for Spiritual practice. The crocodile of sense-hankering for sense-enjoyments and sense-objects will catch the aspirants by the throat and, violently snatching away, will drown them half-way.

Hope and Anticipation

Hope and anticipation are the opposite of Dispassion and Give up. They fatten the mind. To be perfectly hopeless is a very high state for a philosopher. It is a very bad state for worldling. They always say with contempt: “He is a hopeless man.” Worldlings and philosophers move towards diametrically opposite poles.

The Chain of Affection

Delusion proceeds from affection. It is a common observation that a person is distressed if the cat eats his domestic fowl; but when his affections are not touched, for instance, if the cat eats a sparrow or a mouse, he expresses no sorrow. You must, therefore, root out affection, which is the cause of vain attachment.

At the back of affection and love, there is grief and sorrow. Affection is mixed with sorrow. At the back of pleasure, there is pain. Pain is mixed with pleasure. Man sows the poisonous seed of sorrow under the name of love, from which quickly spring up shoots of affection which contain a fire dangerous as lightning; and from these shoots, grow trees of sorrow with innumerable branches which, burning like a heap of covered straw, slowly consume the body.

The knot of affection is strengthened by long indulgence. Affection has entwined its threads around the hearts of human. The principal means to get rid of affection is to consider that this is a fleeting existence. In this wide world, how many millions of parents, wives, children, uncles and grandfathers have passed away. You should consider the society of friends as a momentary flash of lightning and, revolving this often in your mind, enjoy felicity.

Reference

Mind – Its Mysteries and Control by Sri Swami Sivananda