[Advaita-l] Wrestle against Finitude

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

Shree Sriram

To me, vairaagya is nothing but clear understanding of
priorities in life and going after that, which is the
most important in Life.  We do this all the time. If I
have to achieve something and am willing to strive for
it, that should becomes my top priority.  If I want to
succeed even in the world, I should have the
discipline to go after that, what is prioritized, and
reject other things that take my mind away from what I
want to achieve. This is taught even in work place -
prioritize what need to be done for that day, for that
month, and for that year, etc, for efficient
management at work place. Discipline, which is part of
Shat sampatti, is essential to go after that we have
been prioritized, as the most important.  

The problem arises when viveka, the discriminative
intellect is not developed enough to know what is the
most important in Life, what is eternal and what is
ephemeral.  This comes with samskaara - the Munduka
sloka emphasizes this - 'Pariiksha lokaan karma
chitaan brahmaano...'- after examining that by finite
actions one cannot achieve that which is infinite, one
is advised to approach a teacher who is shotriya and
brahmanishhTa.  Capacity to recognize that the worldly
pursuits do not give me what I am seeking is the
eternal inexhaustible happiness makes me mature.  That
discriminative mind that can discriminate what is the
most essential in life,  which is called viveka, is
required to recognize the problem in order to reset
the priorities in my life right. 

Then vairaagya comes naturally when one has determined
that the worldly pursuits do not give the eternal
happiness that one is longing for. The more one is
convinced of this, the more he redirects his life
pursuits towards this higher goal. It is not based on
disgust but is based on what is the most important in
life. 

 Frankly there is nothing that is disgust about the
world. This does not mean, there are no disgusted
actions by the ignorant,  selfish individuals.  Nature
does not have any disgusted things but man makes them
so. World is what it is.  It is also not different
from Brahman.  That understanding is what is required;
but to see the Brahman in and through the world
requires a discriminative intellect. When we say He is
the upaadaana kaaraNa, the world is nothing but He
alone, in all forms and shapes, with all His glory,
emanating everywhere. Recognition of His presence in
the beauty of the flowers, in the abundance greenery
everywhere, in the flying of the birds, in the
squeaking sounds of the insects, in the smile and
crying of the babies, in  the love of the mother, in
the affectionate pat of a friend, in the smile of a
passer by, in the good and the bad and the ugly, in
the good Samaritans who are ready to help others, and
even in those who are so called bad, who complain or
who cause others to complain, in the working of the
whole world, some selfish and some selfless - by
seeing the whole drama of life by standing apart and
look at the whole life as by a stander - that is
discrimination intellect recognizing that which is
substantive Brahman vs. that which is superficial
superimpositions on that Brahman - that is vairaagya
born of viveka - giving up the unnecessary superficial
baggage by recognizing that enlivening entity in all,
that some thing that precious and substantive. The
giving up, viaraagya, I mean, involves looking beyond
the superficials, recognizing the beauty even in those
as part of His leela, as witnessing agent enjoying
beauty of the creation as His play – ‘pasyam me yogam
iswaram - Look at my glory Arjuna - All are in Me, but
I am not in them’ - understanding the essence of that
statement of Lord Krishna. Till that discriminative
intellect develops - it develops by constant study of
the scriptures with the help of a teacher and
reflecting on it and contemplating on it - shrotavyaH,
mantavyaH, nidhidhyaasitavyaH - the vairaagya also
comes.  Any forced vairaagya with the mind not fully
convinced will back fire later because vaasanaas have
not been sublimated, through karma yoga and jyaana
yoga.

Hari Om!
Sadananda

--- Sriram Krishnamurthy <asksriramjobs at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Wrestle against Finitude
> Note how Vairagya 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 fully
> aware of the magnitude of
> human sufferings in this miserable, relative world,
> you will naturally begin
> to discriminate between what is Real and what is
> unreal.
> 
> Om Tat Sat Brahmarpanamastu,
> Sriram