vairāgya

Vairāgya, along with abhyāsa (practice), is one of the two essential ingredients for the restraint (nirodha) of the changing states of the mind (vṛttis). Where abhyāsa is the effort to cultivate steadiness, vairāgya is the ability to release what pulls us away from that steadiness.

Vairāgya isn’t about rejecting the world. It’s about loosening our grip on results, on rewards, and even on the things we believe will bring us spiritual success.

Two Kinds of Desire

Patañjali identifies two kinds of attachment:

• Drishta: the pleasures of this world—the things we’ve seen, experienced, and come to crave.
• Anushravika: the pleasures we’ve only heard about—subtle desires for spiritual attainments, mystical experiences, or heavenly rewards described in sacred texts.

Both kinds of desire can distract us from the path of yoga.

Two Kinds of Detachment

Patañjali also describes two levels of vairāgya :

• Apara vairāgya, the more accessible form, involves turning away from the obvious distractions of daily life: what we’ve seen and experienced (drishta).
• Para vairāgya, the deeper form, invites us to let go of even the subtlest attachments like the longing for spiritual powers or heavenly rewards (anushravika, or “heard about” in scripture and story).

This higher vairāgya isn’t cold or indifferent. It’s a freedom from the grip of both worldly temptations and spiritual ambition.

Vairāgya and the Intellect

In the Sāṅkhya tradition, which informs Patañjali’s yoga, vairāgya is considered one of the refined states of buddhi, the higher intellect. It doesn’t arise from force or suppression. It comes from clarity. When we truly see that nothing we cling to—no object, role, sensation, or experience—can fully satisfy the heart, letting go begins to feel natural.

A Shift in Perspective

Some scholars suggest that Patañjali inherited and reformulated Buddhist ideas of renunciation. But rather than organizing detachment around heavenly realms or cosmological hierarchies, he reframes it through the guṇas—the basic forces of nature in Sāṅkhya philosophy.

In this light, vairāgya becomes less about turning away and more about turning inward. It’s a steady movement toward freedom from the patterns that bind us.