It has often been asked if it is necessary for one to renounce his or her worldly responsibilities in order to practice yoga. Confusing and, at times, even contradictory notions seem to prevail in the minds of many who are about to undertake the study of yoga. Having reoriented the yoga technique as a system of education to suit the modern man and his environs, it becomes necessary to bring about similar changes in the social concepts of yoga.
Vairagya or non-attachment is regarded as one of the two contributing factors of success in yoga. That a mind full of inhibitions, complexes, prejudices, passions and attachments can hardly apply itself in full measure to any given purpose of life is a psychological fact. And when such a purpose happens to be the highest, it is both irrational and unscientific to overlook the endless chain of difficulties such a mind is capable of creating in its trial and experience of that ideal.
Now, it is imperative that the attitude of non-attachment through which the ultimate in yoga has to be achieved should likewise be of the highest and, therefore, of the purest category. Consequently, what should determine the nature of one of these means for the attainment of yoga is an unambiguous definition and a true interpretation of Vairagya. This has become more necessary at the present stage where old values have given way to the new and the structure of society has virtually so changed that any imposition of old and orthodox social ideology and technique of yoga will not only fail to enthuse the modern man but will even evoke resentment.
In so far as yoga is concerned, the spirit of Vairagya has been grossly misinterpreted by its dubious association with and literary rendering as renunciation. But renunciation, in fact, is Sanyasa and not Vairagya. The truth is that renunciation or Sanyasa has little to do with yoga. Students of yoga should not be guided by popular illusions but only by the correct interpretations which have the sanction of the traditional authorities.
Patanjali - the compiler of the yoga philosophy - and his illustrious commentators have clearly defined Vairagya as that intellectual-cum-spiritual quality which is attainable only through such mental habituation to non-attachment as is awakened by the virtue of discrimination, indifference and enlightenment.
Yoga has rightly defined and interpreted true Vairagya as desirelessness, dispassion or detachment to enjoyments perceptible or otherwise. That such a psychological condition as detachment - more truly non-attachment - is, for all practical purposes, both a scientific accessory of and an achievement in yoga is undoubted. The issue, therefore, which needs clarification, is not so much about its virtue as about its nature for the reason that the former is solely dependent upon the latter.
Nowhere in the authoritative texts on yoga, has it been recommended that the yogin should renounce this world physically by throwing to the winds his or her personal responsibilities, home and society. Nor is any student of yoga required to do so as a condition precedent to the study of yoga.
In fact, yoga positively does not subscribe to nor encourages any sham of outer detachment, especially through such exhibition of physical non-possession and personal alibi as keeps one free from legitimate social and civic responsibilities thus, allowing wide margin for indirect attachment, indulgence and inner duplicity. It further holds that so long as one is in the flesh, one has certain physical needs and these needs, in turn, impose legitimate responsibilities and duties which have to be met. What guarantee is there that any act of physical renunciation (Sanyasa) has power to bring about intellectual indifference towards the objects of enjoyment? Just because a beggar has no money and a bachelor no wife, it does not necessarily follow that the former has cultivated non-attachment (Vairagya) towards wealth or that the latter is free from attachment to women.
Yoga, therefore, holds that all sophistic methods like the leaving of one's home, the wearing of yellow robes, the air of aloofness, etc. and the dispossession of worldly objects are various shades of untruth and do no good in the achievement of the highest so long as the mind retains traces of attachment - impurity either as repressed passions or desire-potentials (Samskaravasana). So, unless and until these evil propensities are removed, it is hypocritical to parade detachment through the mere non-possession of the objects of enjoyment. That physical non-possession ultimately leads to non-attachment is psychologically unsound; on the contrary, the reverse has been found to be true.
According to yoga, what is scientifically essential to the achievement of any given objective is the opportunity and environment for the mind which may enable it to fully concentrate on its objective. To this end, physical possessions and desire for enjoyment are conceived as mental distractions and Vairagya has been recommended as the only alternative. What is, however, true is that physical possession of the object of enjoyment could interfere in such a mental pursuit only when there exists some sort of attachment to these possessions. But if this psychological tie were in effect snapped - through the cultivation of mental non-attachment to such objects of enjoyment - no amount of physical possession could disturb the mind engaged in the realization of its highest objective. It is thus evident that during the entire period and process of the achievement of the highest - whatever that be, in yoga the experience of absolute consciousness - what is rationally and scientifically required is non-attachment rather than non-possession where the need for the latter ceases with the existence of the former.
Non-attachment, therefore, is an essential psychic trait which must be cultivated not only by the students of yoga for the purpose of achieving yoga but by each and every citizen of this world for creating and maintaining an equitable and enduring social order towards which all that is civilization and culture is striving for ages without success. The key to such a success is the yoga virtue of non-attachment wherein all human misery born of selfishness, passions, prejudices and attachments shall have no place.