Vairagya

Vairāgya (Devanagari:वैराग्य, also spelt as "Vairagya") is a Sanskrit term used in Hindu philosophy that roughly translates as dispassion, detachment, or renunciation, in particular renunciation from the pains and pleasures in the material world. The Hindu philosophers who advocated vairāgya told their followers that it is a means to achieve moksha.

Etymology

Vairāgya is a compound word joining "vai" meaning "to dry, be dried" + "rāga" meaning "color, passion, feeling, emotion, interest" (and a range of other usages). This sense of "drying up of the passions" gives vairāgya a general meaning of ascetic disinterest in things that would cause attachment in most people. It is a "dis-passionate" stance on life. An ascetic who has subdued all passions and desires is called a "vairāgika". [Apte, "A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary", p. 891.]

In Hindu texts

The concept of Vairāgya is found in Patañjali's "Yoga Sūtras", where it along with practice (abhyāsa), is the key to restraint of the modifications of the mind (YS 1.12, "abhyāsa-vairāgyabhyāṁ tannirodhaḥ"). The term vairāgya appears three times in the "Bhagavadgītā" (6.35, 13.8, 18.52) where it is recommended as a key means for bringing control to the restless mind.

Notes and references