Detachment in the Bhagavad-Gita

“When he [, the virtuous person,] renounces all desires and acts without craving, possessiveness, or individuality, he finds peace.” Bhagavad-Gita 2:71

“Always perform with detachment any action you must do; performing action with detachment, one achieves supreme good.” Bhagavad-Gita 3:19

"If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind." 12:12

"Disinterested, pure, skilled, indifferent, untroubled, relinquishing all involvements, devoted to me, he is dear to me. He does not rejoice or hate, grieve or feel desire; relinquishing fortune and misfortune, the man of devotion is dear to me. Impartial to foe and friend, honor and contempt, cold and heat, joy and suffering, he is free from attachment. Neutral to blame and praise, silent, content with his fate, unsheltered, firm in thought, the man of devotion is dear to me. Even more dear to me are devotees who cherish this elixir of sacred duty as I have taught it, intent on me in their faith" 12: 16-20




*I’m writing this blog because, in many ways, I don’t get it.  Why is detachment and dispassion such a focus in Hindu and Buddhist teachings?  Raised in a Christian, Western culture I was told to believe the opposite.  The central mindset and call to action is to worship and love--two very emotional, attached actions.  As I’m currently reading through the Bhagavad-Gita I’m forced wrestle with what ‘detachment’ means and how it can be helpful to our every day lives.

Broadly and summarily, religion are sets of ideas that help us navigate life and reality as we understand it.  Some of the worst maelstroms in life to avoid are:

• Regret/Guilt/Shame--negative feelings about the past
• Disappointment/Anger**--negative feelings about the present
• Fear/Dread--negative feelings about the future

Christianity and many other religions tend to deal with these emotions through doctrines on:

• Forgiveness-- “What’s wrong has been dealt with.”
• Providence/Predestination-- “It was meant to be.” “It will all work out.”

One way of looking at it is that Hinduism/Buddhism tends to take a much more personal role in dealing with negative emotions.  It isn’t God that is the one that will fix everything nor is reinterpretation of the problem. We must be separating ourselves from the cause of the pain--desire.  On some level we’ll always be disappointed by reality, however you can’t be disappointed if you never wanted anything in the first place.  This is the Eastern solution--don’t desire, be detached and you can’t be hurt.

In many ways, I’m resistant to this thinking.  I want to feel deeply.  I want to love.  I want to be attached.  And I should.  But, I also need to learn from the wisdom of the ancients.  There is truth and power in detachment by:

• Realizing that emotions are both involuntary and a choice.  They’re a choice in so far as we have the ability to reinterpret and refocus our minds.
• Gain perspective.  Are we going to care 10 minutes, 1 month, 1 year, 10 years down the line?  What would this situation look like from someone else’s perspective?  From an aliens?  From a deity’s?
• Strive towards objectivity.  Our emotions aren’t reality.  They’re but one possible interpretation of reality.  
• Pain and loss are inevitable. Life is in Buddhist terms 'dukkha', often translated as suffering. Everyone you love will die, your material wealth is transient, life is disappointing. Spiritual maturity is making a transition from the dependence on the ephemeral outside world for happiness--relationships, material wealth, comfort--to an unshakeable internal state of blessed felicity. That requires one to disconnect one's self on some level from the pain and disappointment of life to make it through.

It is interesting, though, that even in the very first verse above, and other context verses, might be paraphrased as something like, “Don’t feel because it feels good to not feel.”  Or, “Don’t desire anything...Except desiring to not desire.”

Now, I know I have much to learn about Eastern philosophy and I’m sure there are solid apologetic explanations of the above objections, but even without having figured it all out I know that practicing detachment from negative emotions has improved my life.  I shall continue and hope to both grow in understanding and in constitutional fortitude to be able to.

Your feedback is welcomed.


Online version of Bhagavad-Gita: http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/ 



*Please be fully aware that I’m a complete greenhorn concerning Eastern religions.
**Anger can be towards the past or future, too.




Post script:


Categories of things that one could be detached from, written to consider what contexts detachment might be helpful:

• Relationships - As Shakespeare put it, "Tis better to have loved and lost [your mind through suffering a ridiculous amount of emotional pain and anguish] than to have never loved at all." Relationships are worth it. People are worth it. The pain is worth it. Don't detach.
• Emotions - See above. What a shame and a loss if we can't fully experience all the fullness of the possible emotions that humans are capable. Tis a blessing even to sorrow. A friend, Sara, recently shared this quote with me by Antonio Porchia, "Man, when he does not grieve, hardly exists."
• Reality - I'm going to go a head and say that life is better lived in reality. Perhaps that's debatable, but not for me (most of the time ha).
• The experience of the moment - Detach from experiencing fully the moment? Living every breath? Every heart beat? Thought? Experience? NEVER!!
• "Fruits of actions" - Much of what the Bhagavad-Gita refers to as needing to be detached from is the consequences of our actions. The author(s) are not the first I've heard this from. Bill Bright, a conservative Christian and founder of Campus Crusade for Christ put it like this, "Act in the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results up to God." Things will not ever work out like we think they will. Those kinds of expectations are a sure fire recipe for disappointment. The Bhagavad-Gita advises us to not worry about that. Just worry about doing the right thing--our "sacred duty" or dharma. Beyond that things, by faith, just have a way of working out. :)

Perhaps the best summary (for me) is to be detached from expectations. Is there something you must have in order to be happy? Some thing? Some person? Some event? Then you're a slave to it. Detachment, of a certain kind, is freedom. If things go well, then all the more reason to be grateful and blessed. If they go poorly, how can we be disappointed if we had no expectation of how they'd go in the first place?


Post post script:


A Christian friend objected, "How is hope or faith different from expectations?" Where's the room for hope?  Must we be divorced from hope to not have any attachment to the fruit of actions?

Post post post script:

I like the word 'independence' better than 'detachment'.  It implies the ability to love and enjoy without being controlled and at the whim of life, which can be full of negativity and suffering.

Bible Verses that Can Be Conversation Killers

There are people that may misread what I'm writing saying that I'm trying to be disparaging to the Bible. Not at all. I'm trying to open channels of dialogue and there are particular interpretations of these verses (interpretation and original intent are different, as you well know) that can be walls to crucial conversations between ideologies/religions.  Some of the below is largely straw man, but nevertheless I've felt the influence in a number of conversations.

Let's keep the dialogue open.

Let's learn from each other.

And, "Come now, and let us reason together." --Isaiah 1:18a

• 1 Corinthians 1:18-25,  "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
  and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."  Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.  For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
• The dangerous interpretation/application: "You won't get it. So, why bother talking?"
• Better possible interpretation/application: The foolishness isn't that we should be illogical.  It's that power humbled itself (Phil 2).  It's that our mind, wisdom, faculties are finite and that there's a bigger, grander truth outside of ourselves.

• 1 Corinthians 2:14, "The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit."
• Dangerous interpretation/application: "You can't get it.  You don't have the ability."
• Better possible interpretation/application: We can't do it alone.  We need others to understand.

• 2 Timothy 4:3, "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
• Dangerous interpretation/application: "You only believe what you want,anyway.  So why bother discussing?"
• Possible better interpretation/application: Examine your own itching ears, not others.  And as the later context admonishes, "Always be sober-minded."

• Romans 9:20-21, "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?"  Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?"
• Dangerous interpretation/application: "Don't ask questions."
• Possible better interpretation/application: Have intellectual humility.  In light of the nature/nurture debate, recognize much of people's weaknesses are not their fault and be patient with them.

• Job 40:2,7-8, "Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?  He who argues with God, let him answer it...Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.  Will you even put me in the wrong?  Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?"
• Dangerous interpretation/application: "I'm a bug.  I can't get it.  I shouldn't question."
• Possible better interpretation/application:  The universe doesn't always need to make sense to be true.  It doesn't need our approval.  It stands outside of us.  Don't condemn the universe just to be right.  Don't set yourself above reality as its judge.

• Jude 1: 18b-19, “'In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.'  These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit."
• Dangerous interpretation/application: "Everyone else is lost and incapable of being reasoned with.  Their god is their stomach."
• Possible better interpretation/application: Watch your own desires.  Consider your own motivations for believing what you do. Do as the later context says, "Have mercy on those who doubt."

• 2 Peter 3:3-4, "Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
• Dangerous interpretation/application: "Your not getting it was predicted.  No point in talking."
• Possible better interpretation/application:  Not everyone has to agree with you.  That's okay.  Peace is still possible.

• Isaiah 55:9, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
• Dangerous interpretation/application: "I can't even get it.  You certainly can't.  No point in trying."
• Better possible interpretation/application: Don't follow the example of others who do not forgive and are not faithful (based on context).

• Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."
• Dangerous interpretation/application: "Don't think.  Just blindly trust."
• Better possible interpretation/application: As the later context says, "Be not wise in your own eyes."

Thoughts? Reactions?  Other scriptures?  Where did I go wrong in interpretation/application?