The Power of Dispassion: The road towards 'Being'

"I am passionate about my career!" "I am passionate about music!" We hear such statements very often. "What’s your passion? What is it you can die for?" someone asked me a few years ago. It has been ingrained in our thoughts that we have to be passionate in our lives. For without passion, what will you pursue? How can one live, love, or pursue without passion?

There seems to be a need to unlearn and tinker with our thoughts here.

There is always a raw emotion behind every pursuit. When efforts are poured into an idea or dream, it is called a focused pursuit. Every focused pursuit leads to a result.

Being passionate means to be heavily invested in the emotion and the result of actions. No doubt, this is a wonderful trait to have. But what happens when the result is not positive, or worse, very negative? The passionate person is thoroughly shaken, and it takes a long time to get back to normalcy.

On the other hand, being dispassionate means to be heavily invested in the work and not in the result. It needs to be noted here that dispassion does not take away any bit of the raw emotion that the pursuit demands. It intensifies the emotion by focusing only on the work. The result simply follows. Therefore, a dispassionate person remains unaffected by the outcome because he/she has grown a supreme sense of confidence through detachment from the result.

For instance, recall the incident with Sri Rama. He was completely unruffled even as he was asked to leave his own kingdom!

Another advantage of being dispassionate is that it takes away any anxiety that breeds due to attachment to the result. What happens if a student does not fear the result of his exam? He ends up giving his best as he is free from all limitations of his mind! Similarly, when an individual renounces the result and pursues action for the sake of action and pursues knowledge for the sake of knowledge, he is void of any limitation in his mind.

A business or a company cannot renounce its result. The very existence of a business depends on the profits it generates. But an individual working in a company is not a business. He can survive without expectation and without attachment to the result. He is complete in himself. Alignment with oneself and the universe within is much more significant than aligning with society or the workplace.

Let’s rely on the Bhagavad Gita and take in Sri Krishna’s teachings on passionate action and its repercussions.

In Chapter 14 of the Gita, Sri Krishna deals in detail with the three modes of nature—Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. These are called the three gunas (trigunas). Guna in Sanskrit refers to characteristic or mode; therefore, the three modes. The Gita defines Sattva and Rajas as below:

Sattva is a characteristic that is knowledge-driven. The body, mind, and thought are in the pursuit of knowledge and not attached to the result of the pursuit. Sattva leads to happiness. People who attain this mode are conditioned by happiness and knowledge.

Symptoms of Sattva:

• Relentless pursuit of knowledge

• No attachment to result

• Dispassionate actions

• Goodness in speech, action, and thoughts

• Knowledge-driven life
  

Rajas is a characteristic that is driven by passion. Passion is said to be born of desires. This mode is bound by passionate, materialistic action that always expects a favorable result. Rajas leads to action. Therefore, this nature is conditioned by action that is heavily vested in the result.

Symptoms of Rajas:

• Increased passion

• Great attachment to action and its result

• Restlessness due to anticipation of a favorable result

• Aggressive activity

• Uncontrollable desire and greed
  

We, as humans, have all three gunas within us. What we give prominence to is a soulful decision only we have the capability to make. A lion cannot choose to be less aggressive when hungry. A bird cannot consciously choose not to fly and migrate for survival. An animal cannot willingly control its instincts. However, a human can! We can witness our thoughts! This supreme power to witness our mind's happenings, as a third person, empowers us to supervise it and direct it in the Sattva way of living!

You don’t have to take my word for it. Try it yourself. Sit alone, close your eyes, and watch your thoughts come and go without dwelling on any thought. The magic will begin!

So the answer to the question "What can you die for?" should ideally be: There is no need to die for something, as long as we can live fully and only for it! Don’t you think?

Source:
References from Bhagavadgeeta – Chapter 14.
तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्प्रकाशकमनामयम् । सुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति ज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ ॥ १४-६॥
रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम् ।तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम् ॥ १४-७॥
सत्त्वं सुखे सञ्जयति रजः कर्मणि भारत ।१४-९
सर्वद्वारेषु देहेऽस्मिन्प्रकाश उपजायते । ज्ञानं यदा तदा विद्याद्विवृद्धं सत्त्वमित्युत ॥ १४-११॥
लोभः प्रवृत्तिरारम्भः कर्मणामशमः स्पृहा ।रजस्येतानि जायन्ते विवृद्धे भरतर्षभ ॥ १४-१२॥