Vairagya

Bhagavad Gita • Chapter 3

The secret is not what you do but how you hold it—perform necessary actions without attachment, and liberation naturally follows.

Bhagavad Gita • Chapter 5

Both paths lead to liberation, but engaged action in yoga surpasses the mere abandonment of action.

Bhagavad Gita • Chapter 5

Renunciation without yoga leads only to suffering; the sage joined with yoga swiftly reaches the Infinite.

Mahabharata, Adi Parva

Devavrata took a lifelong vow of celibacy and renounced the throne so his father could marry Satyavati, earning the name Bhishma.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Chapters 2.4 and 4.5

When Yajnavalkya prepares to renounce worldly life, wife Maitreyi rejects wealth, asking instead for immortality. Yajnavalkya teaches that all love is really love for one's own Self, and immortality comes through knowing the Self, described as 'neti neti' - beyond all descriptions.

Arjuna & Krishna

Detachment doesn't mean feeling nothing — it means loving fully without clinging. The river touches both banks completely but doesn't stop flowing. We can give ourselves wholly to relationships while still being willing to release them when the time comes.

Uddhava & Krishna

The qualities of a true devotee—compassion, freedom from envy, equal vision, non-attachment—arise naturally through sincere devotion. They cannot be manufactured through effort alone but blossom through grace when the heart is turned toward the Divine.