174. Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 15, Verses 1-4 (Contd.) | Swami Sarvapriyananda

So it's a wonderful description of Samsara, our existence in this universe as this extraordinary upside down tree, a most wonderful tree, a most terrifying tree.

We are trapped in it, lifetime after lifetime.

And it is fueled by causality, karma.

Good, good, bad, bad, none escape the law.

And we are good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant.

We are going through these experiences.

Now he says that freedom from this existence is possible.

And you have to take the axe or the sword, the weapon of non-attachment, asanga shastra, and then cut this tree at its root.

Now, last time we discussed the weapon of non-attachment, the axe of non-attachment, asanga shastra.

Asanga, non-attachment, shastra, weapon, axe, sword, whatever you call it.

And we went in deep into the philosophical aspects of it, but essentially it is non-attachment, it is vairagya, it is detachment, it is dispassion.

Vivekananda put it powerfully, all spirituality begins with, it's a turning point, all spirituality begins with this cutting away.

It's an internal change in our attitude, from selfishness to selflessness, from desire to devotion, from distraction to concentration, focus, and from knowledge of the other to self-knowledge.

So, this is where the yoga, it becomes yoga.

Otherwise, without this one can practice focus.

It will become useful for one's life, for one's work, productivity, relationships, what not.

One can practice devotion and one will have faith in God and one will wish for fulfillment of worldly desires.

That also is possible.

Then what happens is religion becomes in service of this life.

But with detachment, non-attachment, renunciation, basically renunciation of worldly goals, in that case it becomes spirituality.

So, this is the asanga shastra.

Its formalized, its form is of monasticism.

But a spiritual person is, whether they are wearing orange or yellow or in the robes of a householder, they are all, they have to be internally, there has to be this detachment, this renunciation.

Renunciation, detachment, non-attachment, this asanga shastra has to be applied.

Otherwise, it's not spirituality.