Dispassion – Why and How?

If the mind is constantly thinking of coffee and if it gets pain when you do not get it, it is said that you have got attachment for coffee. This attachment leads to bondage. The practice of dispassion demands you to renounce this attachment for coffee. Mere giving up of taking coffee does not constitute the essence of “Dispassion” or “Vairagya”.

You need to have a comprehensive understanding of the real nature of Dispassion. A clean description of the actual dispassionate mental state of Sri Rama is given. Palatable dishes, refreshing beverages, affectionate father and mother, brother, dear friends, diamonds, pearls, flowers, sandal, ornaments, soft beds, gardens had no attraction for him. On the contrary, their very sight gave him intense pain. Dispassion includes celibacy in thought, word and deed.

Two kinds of Dispassion

Dispassion (indifference, non-attachment) is of two kinds, viz., (i) Dispassion on account of some miseries and (ii) Dispassion on account of discrimination between real and unreal. The mind of a man who has got the former type of Dispassion is simply waiting for a chance to get back the things that were given up. As soon as the first opportunity offers itself, the man gets the downfall and goes back to his former state. Sense of object does havoc in him with a vengeance and redoubled force from reaction. But the other man who has given up the objects on account of Viveka, on account of illusory nature of objects, will have spiritual advancement. He will not have a downfall.

How Dispassion Dawns

Note how Dispassion arises in the mind. The transitory and perishable nature of all things creates a sort of disgust in all minds and, in proportion to the depth and subtlety of nature, this reaction from the world works more or less powerfully in the mind of every individual. An irresistible feeling arises in our mind, viz., that the finite can never satisfy the Infinite within us, that the changing and perishable cannot satisfy the changeless and deathless nature of ours.

When you are not impressed with the idea of rich living, rich style of living cannot attract you. When you are impressed with the idea that meat and wine are not at all pleasurable, they cannot tempt you. In that case, if you do not get meat and wine or rich living, you will not be agonised at all in your mind. Why are you attracted towards a young, beautiful person? Because, owing to your ignorance, you vainly think you will get pleasure the person. If you have got Viveka, it will at once tell you that you will get immense pain through attachment. Then the mind will recede or withdraw from the object, person.

Reference

Mind – Its Mysteries and Control by Sri Swami Sivananda