My friend and reader from Kerala posed another question days ago.
"Aiyya one more thing. In the previous day's post, you wrote about the most important thing _ in what state of mind we should be always. We can enjoy anything .smell taste or any such sentient thing. But when the need arises we should be able to shed and leave all of it. This means we shouldn't be attached to those we SEEM to enjoy. But you didn't write about _ HOW can we be there. In such a state. People normally are involved. Then only they can do things. Even in a single breath their will, energy, and prana are involved. You wrote about breath. But if you like to, pls write about HOW to attain vairagya. it will be so helpful to others. Even if you wrote it umpteen times, we learn from repetition the most. Bhakti, the mind science, reasoning ... everything and anything can help I think."
I replied to her that "to put it simply vairagya must be in the charts. I have a book on astrology where the author studies the charts of famous people. all the saints had vairagya in their charts." Paramahansa Yogananda had a good placement of Vairagya in his charts. Browsing through the net I came across a piece by Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh at https://www.dlshq.org/discourse/essence-of-vairagya/ that I shared with her. Swami Sivananda says "Viveka comes through selfless service done in several births and through Puja and Aradhana (worship and adoration of God), and through the Grace of the Lord. From Viveka is born Vairagya."
He gives the case history of a king and queen to clarify the means to upholding and being in the state of Vairagya amidst the turmoil of life and living.
"Queen Chudalai ruled a kingdom, and yet she had absolute (Para) Vairagya. Even amidst the temptations of the world, she had mental Vairagya, through Vichara and wisdom. So she was not affected in the least by the attractive objects of the world, whereas her husband, Sikhidhwaja, went to the forest, renouncing his kingdom, and yet he was not established in Vairagya. He was attached to the body; he was attached to his Kamandalu (water-bowl). A man may get attached to any object."
He writes on the state of Sri Ramanuja.
"Sri Ramanuja does not belong to this extreme type of Vairagya–wearing only a rope loin cloth. He lived amidst luxurious things, but his mind was not polluted. He had that mental state of Vairagya, detachment, indifference, born of Viveka."
Swami Sivananda mentions Lord Krishna's sayings and Buddha's Middle Path.
"Lord Krishna says that He is not in favor of extreme asceticism. "They torture all the elements in the body and Me also who dwells in the body”. Lord Buddha also tortured his body in the beginning but later on, he found out that there was not much spiritual progress, and then he came to the golden medium, the middle path. So we should go by the middle path always. The body is an instrument for attaining Self-realisation. So you should not torture the body. Whatever is needed for the body, you should have."
The Swami quoting Patanjali, reminds us about getting engaged and attached even to spiritual rewards.
"Patanjali says, “Everything is only pain for the wise.” Even Rasaswad (a blissful experience in Sadhana) is a hindrance. One gets false satisfaction and stops his Sadhana, thinking that he has attained Self-realisation. Only in Nirvikalpa Samadhi, there is the greatest happiness."