How does a man come to have vairagya (dispassion)?
A wife once said to her husband: “Dear, I am very anxious about my brother. For the past one week he has been thinking of becoming an ascetic, and has been busy preparing for that life. He is trying to reduce gradually all his desires and wants.” The husband replied: “Dear, be not anxious about your brother. Pie will never become a sannyasin. No one can become a sannyasin in that way.” “How does one become a sannyasin then?” asked the wife.”Thus” exclaimed the husband; so saying, he tore his flowing dress to pieces, took a piece and tied it round his loin, and told his wife that she and all of her sex were henceforth mothers to him. He left the house, nevermore to return. (104)
Renouncer and householder
Once a devotee named Rao, who always saw Maharaj engrossed in normal chores like cooking and tending cows, asked in a lighter vein, “Swamiji, what is the difference between a householder and you? We worry about our children and you worry about your cows”. Maharaj promptly replied, “Rao, there is an important difference. If tomorrow the Headquarters sends me a postcard asking me to leave to another Centre, I just take my loin-cloth and leave.” He then made a gesture of wiping his hands sideways, implying finishing with a task for good (and not even taking the dust of that place). “Can a householder walk out of his home in this way?” he asked. (See: Bhagavad Gita 3.25, Attachment and Detachment)
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