Don’t Dettach Yourself, Re-attach Yourself

Vairagya or “detachment” is one of the most common virtues we are told to embody on the spiritual path. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “Be detached!” as an instruction. Or people say, very proudly, “I am VERY detached.” But throughout my first few years in India that really confused me because it seems that if God has given us love and compassion and emphathy and initiative and creativity — we’ve been given these things by a perfect Divine, surely not just so we can ignore them and throw them away! But then I discovered one day that Bhakti is the mother of Vairagya and that explained everything to me. Bhakti is juicy devotion, full, intense exquisite devotion. It is inconceivable she could give birth to dry disconnected detachment. So I realized that I think the english translation of Vairagya is incorrect. I think it is not DE-tachment. But rather it is RE-attachment. When we get connected to Bhakti, when we get anchored in deep LOVE and oneness with the Divine (by whatever name or form or religion or path we follow) then automatically our attachment to little, little frustrations and challenges and desires will dissipate. So we become detached from the burden of our mind-numbing attachment to the general ups and downs, gains and losses, successes and failures of daily life because we have attached ourselves to that which is eternal, cosmic, perfect, Divine….

So don’t worry about trying to cultivate detachment. Focus instead on attaching yourself to the Divine with juicy, devoted love. The detachment to much of the rest will take care of itself.