December 2019 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami-- Viveka and Vairagya

[Srivatsa Ramaswami]

December 2019 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami-- Viveka and Vairagya

I am planning on leaving for India on 27th Nov,  for a six month stay. Since I am not sure when I would get internet connectivity I thought of sending this newsletter earlier. While in India I am scheduled to teach a 100 Vinyaskrama TT program consisting of 60 hrs of asana/vinyasas 20 hrs pranayama and 20 hrs of Yogasutras all in Feb. In January I will be teaching a 20 hr program on Yoga Yagnyavalkya where we will go through the entire text verse by verse. These two programs are sponsored by Yoga Vahini in Chennai. I may also teach a weeklong program in New Delhi. During the year I intend to do few more 100 hr TT programs in Vinyasakrama yoga. One may be in Canada with the six chapters of Bhagavatgita. In July/Aug I may do the same program at LMU with yoga sutras. In October I am scheduled to do this 100 hr program with 20 hrs of Hatayogapradipoka at Centered City Yoga in Salt Lake City, Utah, where I taught a weeklong program with Samkhya Karika text recently. I will be posting these programs in my website as the programs are confirmed. For the first time I will be teaching Brahma Sutras for yoga practitioners at Chicago Yoga Center in Sep 2019.My website link

www.vinyasakrama.com/Events

Viveka and Vairagya

When I was young, my mother or grandaunt once in a while would give me a bowl of rice grains and would ask me to remove many small stones  and 'unhusked' rice grains. One day I asked my grandaunt why should we remove the small soft stones which were few in number. She said once  those stones would get into the kidneys they would become kidney stones and later may block the urinary passage causing enormous pain. From that time onward I used to meticulously remove these stones. Of course much later in my life I realized that kidney stones have a different origin. 

Separating what is undesirable from what is desirable that we do all the time is viveka. vivichyata iti vivekaH, is the vigraha vakya. viccheda is to separate two things that are intertwined. We do it all the time at all levels-- separating garbage everyday and throwing it out. Separating what is favourable (anukula) from what is unfavorable (pratikula), separating right action (dharma) from wrong action ( adharma), separating truth (rtam) from untruth (untruth) is what the intellect or buddhi does all the time. Then the astika philosophers like the samkhyas yogis and vedantis also use their discriminatory power to separate ephemeral (asatya) from eternal (satya), the self (atma) from what is not the self (anatma). The samkhyas base their philosophy on the separation of purusha or the real self from the prakritic person. The yogis talk about unwavering viveka, of keeping in the mind constantly, without distraction (aviplava)  the distinction between cit and citta. The vedantins talk about keeping the distinction between the anitya or the impermanent person and the nitya or the  immortal self  (nitya anitya vastu viveka). The intellect is the instrument all human minds are endowed with which has the capacity of viveka or discrimination. But the astika philosophers use that unique capability to separate the real self from what all beings falsely consider to be themselves. Normally we all use  that discriminatory power  (viveka khyati) on mundane matters

The three nivritti sastras, Samkhya yoga and Vedanta, use the word viveka strictly from the point of view of distinguishing between prakritic body mind complex and the immortal purusha, the subject, the real self; prakriti.purusha viveka or distinguishing between prakriti or the physical self here and purusha the immortal 'real' self. The vedantins especially the advaita school refer to 'nitya anitya vastu viveka' or the distinction between nitya here the atman/brahman the eternal source of everything and anitya the ephemeral.

Viveka should lead to the appropriate action. In our daily life when we distinguish between what is favorable and what is not, we take action to distance ourselves from what is considered as not favorable. That is called vairagya. Vairagya is absence of intense desire or raga. Raga comes from the root ranj to be glued to. The prefix 'vi' meaning vigata or that which has left. So viraaga would mean 'without intense attachment'; of course it does not have a negative connotation like hatred. Vairagya is the state of having viraga,-- viraga bhavah vairagyam. We all develop vairagya all through our life. One may have a sweet tooth and on seeing a high A1C level one may develop vairagya for candy or ice cream. 

Some philosophers see that life is full of misery, which may not be the view held by the majority. Samkhyas refer to life here as dominated by duhkha or unhappiness, Yoga Vasishta refers to life both in the past and in the future as predominantly unhappy most of the time (15/16). Mahabharata extols the virtue of vairagya by stating that all the pleasures of the world, all the heavenly bliss referred to in the scriptures are not comparable to even a sixteenth part of the sukha or agreeable mental state of desirelessness or vairagya. 

One may have viveka but not vairagya. It is basically due to samskara or old habits.   My sweet tooth samskara prevents me from sticking on to a strict regimen of no sweets. An alcoholic , a chain smoker or a drug addict has considerable difficulty kicking the bad habit however clear the understanding about what is not desirable. Duryodhana of the Mahabharata, a wicked but a great warrior/ scholar laments that even as he knows what is dharma or virtue is unable to follow dharma and likewise he knows what is adharma or vice but unable to resist from doing it. That is the power of samskara.

जानामि धर्मं न च मे प्रवृत्तिः

जानाम्यधर्मं न च मे निवृत्तिः​

jānāmi dharmaṁ na ca me pravṛttiḥ​

jānāmyadharmaṁ na ca me nivṛttiḥ

That is the power of samskara.

When a bairagi or a vairagi looks at the world and also what is promised in the scriptures like the heavens, she/he finds that the phenomenal existence is full of duhkha as discussed earlier. Then he or she tries to withdraw from the 'sensational' universe and become a recluse, even without the ultimate viveka of purusha and prkriti. But it is not easy. Vairagya has to be cultivated.

Vairagya can be or has to be cultivated. It is done in stages.

So one has to develop vairagya after obtaining the viveka. Viveka is described as viveka jnana by the samkhyas. The yogis refer to it as viveka khyati. The vedantins especially the advaita school refers to viveka as " nitya anitya vastu viveka'. Once my mind has the viveka about the nature of atman and prakriti, then according to these sastras one should develop vairagya or desirelessness. It has to be cultivated, an abhyasa. Mere intellectual understanding or viveka is a necessary first step but it has to be followed by diligent observance of vairagya. It is a process made of four steps. The first step is known as yetamana stage wherein the abhyasi takes  the objects of one of the senses. The outside world creates five different sensations, like vision or form, sound, taste smell and the tactile sensations. Some are overly attracted by sensations of forms like while watching a movie. Some are overly stimulated by sound like listening to music, say rock music. Then some have a great liking for tasty food and drinks. Smell also can be dominating in some. Desire for tactile sensation  for physical contact can be a consuming one for some. A yogi may analyze and find out the powerful attractions one has towards outside objects and slowly would develop vairagya towards those objects. A great Acharya, it is said used to like a sweet called 'halwa'. So he would ask his disciples to make halva and place it before hime. He would look at for a  period of time and without even touching it will ask it to be taken away. Likewise the practicing yogi wanting to develop vairagya may take one object of great desire and avoid it over a period of time. After a while he/she may lose the compelling desire for the object. This repeated attempt of avoidance is called the 'yetamana' state of vairagya. Once the yogi is weaned away from one sense object then it may be applied to all objects of all the senses and the yogi would reach the second stage of vairagya called 'vyatireka' vairagya. When the second stage is reached in which there is a complete vairagya towards all objects then the desires may still be dormant in the one more indriya the eleventh indriya which is manas or the mind. Then the yogi with deep meditation will be able to eradicate the desires completely from the mind and that state is known as vasikara vairagya. 

These vairagyas pertain to the external worldly and other heavenly objects. Then the yogi is able to remain contained within oneself one's prakriti. Iswarakrishna in Samkhya karika calls it as prakritilaya. वैराग्यात् प्रकृति लयः vairāgyāt prakṛti layaḥ​  

Patanjali calls this as apara vairagya or a lower level vairagya. 

दृष्टानुश्रविकविषय वितृष्णस्य वशीकार सम्ज्ञा वैराग्यम्​

dṛṣṭānuśravikaviṣaya vitṛṣṇasya vaśīkāra samjñā vairāgyam.   

So the apara vairagi or bairagi deeply sensible to the fact that everything from the outside universe is predominantly unfavorable producing endless duhkha or pain develops vasikara vairagya or withdraws completely into his prakriti (vairagyat prakriti layah). But this Vairagya according to Samkhya Vedanta and yoga will not deliver from repeated death and birth, again an undesirable future. So these philosophies proclaim that the real self variously called atma, purusha, drashta, jna is pure awareness, is  eternal . That purusha should be distinguished  from prakriti (prakriti purusha viveka jnana) and thereby develop vaiagya towards one's own prakriti.That vairagya is the higher (para) vairagya that would  deliver kaivalya, moksha. The individual prakriti made of three gunas, five bhutas and the 13 indriyas is not the real self. With this knowledge the yogi develops a dispassion towards one's own prakratic entity. With this the mind achieves vairagya not only toward the outside universe but also towards one's own prakritic person. Apara vairagya or lower level desirelessness is towards the external universe. Paravairagya is a desirelesness towards not only the external universe but also the prakritic person, which after all is part of the prakriti, external to the real Self.