VIVEKA CHUDAMANI
Swami Madhavananda
Part 3
21. Vairagya or renunciation is the desire to give up all transitory enjoyments (ranging) from those of an (animate) body to those of Brahmahood (having already known their defects) from observation, instruction and so forth.
22. The resting of the mind steadfastly on its Goal (viz. Brahman) after having detached itself from manifold sense-objects by continually observing their defects, is called Shama or calmness.
23. Turning both kinds of sense-organs away from sense-objects and placing them intheir respective centres, is called Dama or self-control. The best Uparati or selfwithdrawal consists in the mind-function ceasing to be affected by external objects.
24. The bearing of all afflictions without caring to redress them, being free (at the sametime) from anxiety or lament on their score, is called Titiksha or forbearance.
25. Acceptance by firm judgment as true of what the Scriptures and the Guru instruct, iscalled by sages Shraddha or faith, by means of which the Reality is perceived.
26. Not the mere indulgence of thought (in curiosity) but the constant concentration of the intellect (or the affirming faculty) on the ever-pure Brahman, is what is called Samadhana or self-settledness.
27. Mumukshuta or yearning for Freedom is the desire to free oneself, by realising one’strue nature, from all bondages from that of egoism to that of the body – bondages superimposed by Ignorance.
28. Even though torpid or mediocre, this yearning for Freedom, through the grace of theGuru, may bear fruit (being developed) by means of Vairagya (renunciation), Shama (calmness), and so on.
29. In his case, verily, whose renunciation and yearning for Freedom are intense,calmness and the other practices have (really) their meaning and bear fruit.
30. Where (however) this renunciation and yearning for Freedom are torpid, therecalmness and the other practices are as mere appearances, like water in a desert.
