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The Spiritual Concept of Vairagya
The indifference and dullness towards life
We humans are creatures of diverse desires. Risen above our instincts, it is our desire-to-be which makes us survive first and foremost. After that, various desires make us survive better, have dreams and aspirations and make us do each and everything we do.
Without desires, there is not much we would do. Desires are fuels which make us sustain that which exists or pursue that which doesn’t yet exist.
Vairagya is both a concept and state-of-mind in Vedic and Post-Vedic systems of Philosophy. These systems of thinking are basically based on desires, their management, control and restraint— towards the attainment of salvation. Vairagya is about restraint, removal or being indifferent to desires.
It is told that desires are responsible for keeping us in worldly-illusions. It is because desires give birth to attachment, lust, greed, etc. that we do not get to see beyond the veils-of-maya and hence exist forever in a cycle of ignorance, unable to ‘realize’ the true. Getting rid of desires therefore is crucial to end the cycle of birth-death. Vairagya in this sense is the state of having removed the desires to eventually end up salvated. Whatever that may mean!
