Often people who have dispassion keep blaming the world. They are afraid of the objects of senses and keep running away from them. They think it is a big temptation. How can something tempt you if you are not under its control? The fear of temptation is worse.

 

The next Sûtra is Tatparam purusharakhyaterguna vaitrushunyam meaning “Due to the knowledge of the self, the person is in a higher state, being indifferent to the qualities”.

 

Once you know the nature of your being as total bliss, total pleasure, even the fear of the gunas, fear of the world, fear of the senses vanish. It is like a diabetic patient being afraid of sweets. Even looking at the sweet frightens them. It is forbidden, but one who has found sweetness in oneself, whether sweets are there are not there in front of such a person, it does not make any difference. This is paramavairagya or supreme type of dispassion where one is not scared or running away from the world, but being in the world is completely detached and centered.

 

People have very funny ideas about enlightenment. Every culture, every religion has got their own ideas about it. In Christian culture, a rich man cannot be enlightened. It is impossible. You have got to be in poverty to be enlightened. From the Christian point of view, Rama cannot be enlightened! Even a camel can go through a needle, but not a rich man!

 

Many years ago, once I was traveling from Bangalore to Delhi. I met a Christian priest in the airport. He just looked at me and I smiled back. He came to talk to me and said, “I feel like talking to you my dear brother. You seem to be a nice person.” He asked me if I believed in Jesus and I said yes. He was a little stunned. He asked me the question again and I said yes again. Then he asked if I was a Hindu. And I said “perhaps”. He then asked if I believed in Krishna and I said yes. He then said: “But how can Krishna be God? He is a butter thief. He was married. How can somebody be married and steal butter and all and be God? He is not the one who can give salvation. You know, Jesus is the only way. I was also a Hindu before and now I have become a Christian. From the time I have become a Christian everything is happening. Jesus is taking care of me. I tell you, you better become a Christian.”

 

How can Krishna be enlightened? Jains do not think that Krishna is enlightened. He created the war. Arjuna was going to go away, take sanyas and renounce the world. Krishna brainwashed him and brainwashed him and made him fight. Krishna was responsible for this huge war. How could he be enlightened? Stealing butter, having so many wives. Impossible!

 

Jains do not think that an enlightened person, sadhu, should ever wear clothes. Their idea of an enlightened person is one who walks nude. One who is not nude is a little less great. Who knows what will happen? What desires would come up in him? Whether they are free from lust or not, how would you know? What is the proof? Jain sadhus are nude. They do not wear any clothes. They are considered enlightened. This is their idea of enlightenment. They simply do not consider those as enlightened who eat two square meals a day. That too one who enjoys a meal is not at all enlightened. Can a saint eat chocolate? He is not a saint then!

 

Buddhists have got their own idea of who is and who is not enlightened. Somebody who sings, dances, looks at the whole world, pleasing the world is not enlightened. Someone who meets their family and sits with their family is definitely not enlightened. I have seen many of these so-called sanyasis. They are so afraid that they cannot meet their families. May be attachment will happen. They have run away from the family and fear that attachment for the family can come up anytime.

 

I know of a so-called sanyasi who would not meet his mother. He would meet everybody else but not the poor old lady who is his mother! What had she done? He would not meet her. She was 70 years old and would cry and cry. So-called sanyasis, nuns, brothers, fathers behave like this because that is the idea they have. See, when you can love everybody, why can’t you see your family members in the same light? Many sanyasis go through this difficulty in their heads about not seeing their family. These are all just concepts about enlightenment. The main essence forgotten is dispassion or centeredness. Being centered in spite of everything is the second essential principle in yoga. This is vairagya.

 

As you all know, there are three gunas or qualities. They are sattva, rajas and tamas. Three gunas come into our life in cycles. When Sattva comes, there is alertness, knowledge, interest, and joy in everything. When Rajo guna comes, more desires, selfishness, restlessness and sadness arise in us. When Tamo guna comes, delusion, attachment, lack of knowledge, lethargy, all this comes. These three come in life turn by turn. But one who is centered will watch, witness and just move through that very naturally, innocently, without being averse to it.

 

It is said: Yogaha karmasu kaushalam – the skill in action is yoga. Yoga itself means skill. Yoga is the skill to live life, skill to manage your mind, skill to deal with your emotions, skill to be with people, skill to be in love and not let love turn into hatred.

Is practice alone enough? Patanjali says “No”. There are two oxen, which pull a cart. The two wheels of this cart are abhyasa (practice) on one side and vairagya (dispassion) on the other.

 

What is vairagya?

 

Drishtanu shravikavishaya vitrush’asya vashikara sanjna vairagyam meaning “dispassion is that state of supremacy of consciousness in the one free from the thirst of the perceptible and celestial enjoyment”.

 

The mind gallops towards the world of passion. You just keep quiet, close your eyes or open your eyes or do anything. Where does your mind go? It travels towards the sense of sight. You want to see something somewhere.

 

Or the mind runs towards he sense of smell, taste, sound and touch. Do you see that? Or it gallops towards something it has heard. It has never seen but it has read some thoughts. This craving for any of these experiences in the mind can stop you from being in the present moment.

 

Vairagya is that, when, for a few moments, however beautiful a scenery is, you say: “I am not interested at looking at it right now”. However good the food is, you say, “This is not the time. I am not interested in it”.

 

Even a few moments of retrieving our senses, the craving or thirst for objects and going back to the source is vairagya. Are you getting this? This is another basic requirement for meditation. Whenever you want to meditate, your mind should be in dispassion. Without dispassion your meditation is no good and cannot provide you the rest that you are longing for.

 

Your mind is tired and bogged down by galloping through desires. It is so tired. Just turn back and see all the desires you have had. Have they given you rest? No. They have only created a few more desires and the few more desires, which come, have they given you rest? No. They have given you more, for you to achieve more and have another trip on the merry-go-round. You are not just here, you just go round. You know, the merry-go-round has horses, which do not go anywhere. They just go round in the same place.

 

Stuck in this illusion, you travel miles and miles but go nowhere. This is what desire does to you.

 

There are two types of arguments even in this. “The sage has said that you should not have desires;

so I will not desire anything” is one argument. Now, saying “I do not want any desire” becomes another desire. Some people do this and that is beating around the bush. Some people are on a trip to destroy their desires.

 

Vitrushnasya vashikara sanjna vairagyam. The mind that gallops is an obstruction. An expectation in meditation is an obstruction. You have heard somebody’s experience of light coming and somebody coming from heaven and taking them by hand and you see it with your eyes close. All these ideas are the construction of fiction.

 

Your desire for pleasure or happiness makes you unhappy. You examine whenever you are unhappy or miserable. Behind that is your wanting to be happy. You got it? Craving for happiness brings misery. If you do not even crave for happiness, then you are happy. You crave for happiness and you invite misery. When you do not care for happiness, you are liberated and when you do not even care for liberation, you attain love. The first step is when you do not care for happiness. The second step is param vairagya or supreme dispassion when you do not even care for liberation. Then you are free. You are liberated.

 

Happiness is just a mere idea in the mind. You think that if you have this you are happy. If you have whatever you wanted, then are you happy? Vairagya is putting a stop to craving for happiness. That does not mean you must be miserable. It is not that. It does not mean you should not enjoy yourself, but the craving for joy, only when you retrieve your mind from it, only then can you meditate. Then yoga happens.

 

Your dreams and fantasies, just shatter them. All your dreams and fantasies, offer them to the fire. Burn them. What great happiness do you want to have? How long can you have it? You are going to be finished. It is all going to end. Before this earth eats you up, become free.

 

Free yourself from this feverishness that is gripping your mind.

 

Free yourself from this craving for happiness.

 

Look into every craving you have closely and remember you are going to die. Your craving for sweets, sugar, food. Ask yourself if you want to keep eating them. Ok, eat for as long as you like. See consciously, what can they do? Nothing. What else do you crave for? Beautiful views? Keep on looking at the view. How long you can go on looking?

 

Sex. How much sex can you have? Then you will see that there is nothing in it. How long? Few moments later, the body looks like styrofoam, that which was so attractive before.

 

What other thing? All these substances you see have limitations, but your mind is not ready for limitations. It wants unlimited pleasure, which the five senses cannot give you. It is impossible. You simply get burnt down, over and over again.

 

Skillfully handling the objects of senses and bringing it to the self is dispassion or vairagya.