Greetings Reader,

There are some days when I wake up and think, “I'd love to change the world but I don't know what to do.”

My individual choices aren’t enough to make a difference and collective action doesn’t seem to move the needle.

The people and power-structures that prevent big systemic changes from being made are too deeply entrenched to displace.

What to do?

It can be discouraging. Some days I wake up and think, “I don’t wanna change the world. Let this dumb world save itself; I just wanna get outta here.”

Maybe I should just focus on my own liberation. Maybe wanting to change the world is just a material desire that I should renounce.

After all, yoga is all about letting go of our attachments, right?

The Sanskrit word vairāgya means renunciation; detachment from material desires that arise from the mind and senses.

Detachment usually doesn’t happen overnight. It takes practice.

Which is why this verses pairs vairāgya, detachment, with abhyāsa: suitable practice.

What kind of practice is suitable for cultivating detachment and achieving control of the mind?

The specifics vary from person to person, but the general idea is to systematically cultivate one-pointedness of mind.

And this is an important point that’s often overlooked: in yoga, a still mind doesn’t mean an empty mind; it means a focused mind, a mind that’s firmly fixed on an object of meditation.

In the yoga system, meditation has three stages, the first of which is dharāṇā: concentration.

Concentration is the hard part. It means bringing the mind back to your object of meditation every time it wanders off, which is not easy: if you practice for just 10 minutes and your mind wanders off every three seconds, you’ll have to chase your mind down and bring it back 200 times.

But with steady and dedicated practice over a long period of time, it’s possible to get that number down to 100 times.

And then, to 50 times. Then 20. Then 10, 9, 8 . . .

When you finally get to the point where your concentration is so intense that the mind can’t wander off, you’ve reached the stage of dhyāna: meditation.

At the stage of meditation, you don’t have to chase after your mind but you do have to make an effort to keep it still. Once again, steady and dedicated practice over a long period of time is required before the mind will stay put without any effort on your part.

When it finally does stay put without any effort on your part, you’ve reached the stage of samādhi: spontaneous absorption.

Okay, so let’s say that you’ve reached samādhi, your mind is still, and detachment has been achieved.

Now what?

Now you can direct your mind instead of being directed by the mind.

This is one aspect of mokṣa, liberation: freedom from the compulsion to chase after desires that arise from the mind and senses, otherwise known as the perfection of vairāgya: renunciation.

Which brings us back to the question of whether or not my desire to change the world is just a material desire that I should renounce.

The answer is, “No,” because my desire for a different world isn't a material desire; it's a spiritual desire.

Vairāgya means renunciation of material desires The spiritual corollary of vairagya, is āsakti, which means “deep spiritual or devotional attachment.”

Like stillness, detachment isn’t the same as emptiness; the absence of material desire creates space for spiritual desires, like the desire to change the world in a way that makes it more conducive to everyone’s spiritual upliftment.

In fact, you can't achieve material detachment without cultivating spiritual attachment. And the deeper your devotion to contributing to the creation of a world that's more conducive to everyone’s spiritual upliftment, the more time and effort you'll put into it.

Paradoxically, creating a spiritually uplifting society is also how we create materially uplifting society. A world that’s spiritually healthy is a world in that’s in harmony with nature, and a world in harmony with nature is a world in which all beings flourish.

The idea that material well-being follows spiritual well-being isn’t something I made up and my sense of how to make it happen isn't just a mental concoction; the blueprint for creating a spiritually uplifting / materially flourishing world is found in the teachings of yoga wisdom.

The bottom line is that detachment isn't indifference; it's spiritually informed mental health that supports a sustained effort to change the world.

None of this means that my individual choices will make more of a difference, that the collective actions I participate in will move the needle any further, or that I will mystically displace entrenched people or power-structures that prevent big systemic changes.

But spiritual activism isn’t about doing something because you expect a particular result; it’s about doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, even if your objective may not be reached within your own lifetime.

The mental equilibrium and ability to stay focused that proceeds from my meditation practice anchors me in my conviction that any little difference I make is a meaningful contribution to a movement that will outlive me.

The fulfillment of that movement’s goals may not be realized before I’m gone—maybe not until long after or, with luck, maybe just ten years after—but what really matters to me is that I live a life of engaged spirituality for as many years as I have.

What does "a life of engaged spirituality" mean to you? Write back and let me know.

Wishing you all good fortune,

- Hari-k

P.S: I hope you’ll join me for Practical Sanskrit for Yoga Teachers — a 3-hour mini-course designed to meet the real needs of teachers who want to level up their pronunciation, comprehension, and appreciation of the original language of yoga. CLICK HERE for complete information and registration.