Two Strategies—Vairagya and Abhyasa – I

The mind derives its power from our attachments and desires. Anything propelled by these two forces is indeed difficult to master. But as Sri Krishna has pointed out in the Bhagavad Gita, abhyasena tu kaunteya vairagyena ca grhyate. ‘The mind can be reined in by two forces, O son of Kunti—vairagya (detachment) and abhyasa (practice).’We cannot totally shut our senses, but we can certainly choose and control what we see, hear, and so forth. And our choices are ultimately a reflection of our values. Thus, the Mandukya Upanishad beseeches: Bhadram karnebhi shrunuyam devaha. ‘O gods, may only good fall on our ears; may only auspiciousness touch our eyes.’ That appeal to the Higher Power, in all its earnestness, is not mere platitude, or poetry. Neither is it an exclamation born of folksy superstition.We can appreciate that plea—and echo it from our own heart with appropriate sincerity—when we understand just how enmeshed we are, all of us, in the ‘play’ of desires, and the proportionate impurity and distraction they bring in our daily life. In the Mahabharata, Emperor Yudhishthir declares, ‘O kama (lust), I know your source; you arise from imagination’. Yes, all desires arise from our imagination. Here the speaker is not decrying the constructive power of the mind… its inherent, positive ability to see beyond what is immediately in front or imminent, to surmount clear and present challenges, or to discover new and meaningful possibilities. Rather, it is the unfounded, unbridled flight of fancy that is being denounced; the unintelligent assumptions that we have become so accustomed to; the unremitting expectations we impose upon everything. We see an object and start imagining that it will give us happiness. And when we do not get that happiness, we feel miserable. This indulgent, ignoble form of imagination arises from tamas—from idleness and laziness.