Renunciation does not mean giving up something, as is commonly believed. Attachment to anything – an object, a person…is rāga. The absence of attachment is Vi-rāga. The condition of being in vi-rāga, is vairāgya.
When it comes to Shiva – he cannot renounce anything since everything is in him. Whatever you see around you, and whatever you don’t see as well, every single atom in the Universe is part of the Universal Consciousness that is Shiva. So when everything is within you, there is nothing to renounce. And so Shiva depicts the ultimate Yogi, the ultimate renunciate.
And In this depiction, lies a very profound truth. That you and I cannot renounce or give up anything, since we are all part of each other, and are all interconnected.
“And so vairāgya is the freedom from the concept of externality.”
Swami Krishnananda
It is freedom from the thought that you are different from everything else. When you think that something or someone is outside of you…that is what makes you get attracted to, or give up the thing or person. When you realize that someone or something is a part of you, what is there to attach or attract or give up?
Contrast this with the general perception that one has to renounce the world, and material objects…it sounds escapist, or born out of some sort of controlling mechanism…not out of realisation of the true nature of the world.
Even science is just beginning to discover that reality is not what they thought it is. In fact, the more they prod, the more confusing (or clear) it gets. Newton, to Einstein, from gravity to relativity, and then to quantum physics…the nature of the understanding of reality has undergone drastic changes.
Noted Quantum physicist Carlo Rovelli says that the world is not made up of fields and particles, but of a single quantum field. The world is strange, but simple.
He further goes on to say that reality is now reduced to interactions – it is only in interactions that nature draws the world. which means, there is no “thing”, no object – the atoms of our body flow in and away from us, and we are all processes, for a brief time monotonous…
In simple English…the chair we sit on, to the computer that I type on, to myself – all exist only when perceived. If not perceived, we all don’t exist.
Sounds familiar?
Purusha – the consciousness, and Prakriti – the material world – the concept of dualism in Sanatana Dharma. Shristi – or existence, only comes into being when the inert Purusha interacts with Prakriti. Symbolically, when the eyes of Shiva open. When closed, he is in the ultimate meditative state – and the world does not exist.
It took science a hell lot of time to arrive at a conclusion that we knew thousands of years ago.
तम आसीत्तमसा गूळ्हमग्रेऽप्रकेतं सलिलं सर्वमा इदम् । तुच्छ्येनाभ्वपिहितं यदासीत्तपसस्तन्महिनाजायतैकम् ॥
Rig Veda
In the beginning, it was densest darkness spread all over like inconceivable ocean without symptom. Nothing existed all around except deepest darkness. The meditation of the Creator culminated in the evolving of the galactic bodies and the sky, stars, sun, moon, earth and the rest, and it all came into existence.
Sounds quite like the Big Bang yes?
A rationalist may say – all this is hogwash. I don’t believe this Shiva. I only believe what I see.
Well, do you?
Incognito, a book written by noted author David Eagleman goes into detail on the functioning of our brain. The book is an excellent read, but one section stood out. It spoke about the process of vision. As you know, the eyes don’t see, much like a camera lens doesn’t see. The brain ‘sees’, or rather interprets signals it gets and transmits meaningful information back to us so that we can ‘see’.
But here is what is interesting. When measuring the signals that went back and forth, from the eyes to the brain, they found that only 20 percent of the neural pathways from the eyes travel to the primary visual cortex; 80 percent come from other areas of the brain, such as those in charge of memory.
In other words, sensory information is not transmitted to the brain; it comes from it.
We don’t perceive what is out there. We perceive what our brain tells us.
It takes in various inputs from our five senses, and then stitches together a story for us to make sense of the world. We see a film, played back with a slight delay.
Interesting, isn’t it?