Virakthi & Bhakthi

When one loses a part of one’s being, as our heroine did when her mother left this mortal coil, one faces a choice. The most common way to deal with the death of a loved one is virakthi, disinterest bordering on disgust for life. It is usually more mildly translated as renunciation. This feeling of virakthi is a key element in Buddha’s incarnation. The Virakthi Marga, or the path of renunciation, is the path Buddha chose when he saw the pain and suffering life had to offer, particularly at the juncture of life and death. This is indeed the simplest path to realization, though it seems difficult. To quote a maheeyan -
"You are wrong if you say that detachment is difficult. In fact, it is simpler and easier to be detached than to be attached. Now look here! I hold this handkerchief in my hand. I hold it tight in my grip. It is a strain holding it like that for a long time, i.e. holding the handkerchief in the grip. On the contrary, it is very very easy to simply drop it. Is it not? Now, you will know that attachment is difficult while detachment is easy."
Buddha was not the only one to follow this path. In a subtly different way, King Janaka did as well. Janaka, also known as Videha (“one who has no attachment to this body”), reached the path of virakthi not by encountering death, but through remorse. When he studied with the sage Yagnavalkya, a question about his previous incarnation arose. Though the sage was reluctant to answer, he eventually informed Janaka that his wife in this lifetime was his birth mother in his previous life. Utterly shocked and struck by the absurdity of this possibility, Janaka began to treat his queen as his mother and gave up all attachments to worldy things. Anything is possible. And if anything is indeed possible, then in the event that the possibility is distasteful, attachment to anything must therefore be distasteful. Thus he pursued spiritual wisdom with such a lack of passion that he sat studying with his guru even when his city was thought to be burning.

There is another way. There are many other ways. Virakthi was the first to hit our heroine, but it evolved. Out of virakthi was born bhakthi. Out of disgust was born love. In her pain, she sought out her heart, the same Giridhari she had confiscated from the Goswamis in the dawn of her life. “Maara Saavura Giridhari,” who had stood impudently on the furniture – her jhoola – playing his flute at her and casting his spell on her, making her dance and sing without rest. That same Giridhari they had tried to take away from her only to see that her spirit parted with her body and ran away with the little idol when they did so. She would ask her Krishna where he took her mother. She would scold him for taking her away. She would not talk to him – that would show him!

Stay tuned.