39. Why We Fail To Practice

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After understanding what Vairagya/equanimity means, the next obvious step is to try and put that attitude into practice. So, I tried to practice it in win-lose situations of day-to-day life. But after several days, when I stopped for a self-checkup, I observed that I am still where I was weeks ago. I didn't seem to have progressed in the effort of being detached or equanimous towards the results. With some analysis and troubleshooting the cause for this stagnation became evident. A peculiar behavior of the mind was responsible for this failure. Everytime an undertaking goes wrong or right, mind always tries to say that that particular undertaking is an exception and detachment cannot be practiced for that.

To explain this in detail I will use the example of a cricketer. Suppose a cricketer in the Indian team has read about vairagya, and about taking victory-defeat equally. He is now determined to practice equanimity. And the following are some of the ways in which his mind works out an exception for not practicing equanimity.

India loses a match against Australia by 80 runs.

Justice for exemption from detachment: "What a shameful loss. How can I not feel bad about it? If there was at least a good fight I would have tried to be detached from a loss. But not now. What a shameful performance. Sob..."

India loses a match against Australia by 8 runs.

Justice for exemption from detachment: "Oh, we were so close to victory. How can I not feel bad about it? If it was a big margin I would have tried to be detached from a loss. But not now. If one loses after putting so much effort and being so close to victory how can he be possibly be detached? That is not possible!"

India loses a match against Australia by 20 runs.

Justice for exemption from detachment: "Loss is fine, I am detached from the result. But how can I face the press and people with equanimity? I don't think anyone can do that. I am worried only for that. Otherwise I would have been perfectly equanimous with a loss"

India wins a match against Australia by 80 runs.

Justice for exemption from detachment: "What a wonderful day! I scored a century. And the strong Australians were literally crushed by us. How can I not feel excited about it. Ditch equanimity. Let us have a party"

India wins a match against Australia by 8 runs.

Justice for exemption from detachment: "Hurray, what an exciting match, we won! We gave such a terrific fight, how can I possibly be calm now? Ditch equanimity. Let us have a party"

Now replace the cricket match with a day-to-day activity, and the cricketer with yourself. And just observe if this is true or not. You may be a student writing an exam, an employee working on a project or a housewife trying to cook a new dish. Or it may be happenings of bigger proportions - may be about an illness, getting a big bonus, about the death of a family member, about losing a job etc. At all circumstances mind says the same "How can I possibly practice detachment for this?"

And there is a master justification - "My problem is unique. No one has this type of problem. No one can ever be detached in such a situation. If someone else had this problem they would have suffered more than me." This implies to say that "Practicing detachment for my type of problems is not at all possible. Actually I am doing better than everyone else, others would have crumbled if they had this problem. So, I am already great. What I am doing is the upper limit of detachment, no one can do better than this.". Really bewildering the way mind works!

This way, the present moment is always an exception for us. The current event is always exempted from spirituality. "If this this this had happened, then I would have practiced detachment, but not now" - this is as silly as we defining the questions for our own exam! Thus we move on skipping events one after another, skipping exams one after the other, and days pass by. I continue to get agitated if I cannot go to a movie because of rain, I continue to get excited when my state team wins in an IPL match. I am still strongly attached to results of the activity, rather than thoroughly enjoying the activity itself. Mind remains in its same old habits and detachment remains only in books. Such sharp thinking for giving excuses! Such agility for finding reasons for not doing! If the same intelligence was used towards doing, one will probably become equal to Shankaracharya! But all the sharpness of the mind is being used for all negative reasons.

Negativity and weakness have conquered the minds. As soon as someone opens his mouth to speak, negativity gushes out. "Can't Can't Can't". All talks about how we cannot practice spirituality. All discussions portraying that we are helpless and that nothing can be done. Swami Vivekananda exhorted at the top of his voice "Strength is life, Weakness is death, if there is any sin in the world, it is weakness alone". But all this strength is only hanging from the walls below his pictures, never went into brains and hearts!

Our master excuse is "Everything is fine, but in today's world detachment is not possible. This is Kali Yuga." Was it easily possible in yesterday's world? The greatest message of equanimity was given on a battle field asking a warrior to fight without being attached to the result of the battle. Are our problems bigger than that warrior's whose life was at stake for no fault of his? It is but a foolish dream to think "Yesterday's world was so serene and peaceful, I could have practiced spirituality so well in that society" Such a perfect world never existed, nor will it exist in the future. If there was no challenge at all, what is left for us to practice? If there are no good and bad, how can equanimity be practiced? The world will never be rid of good-bad extremes, only the intensity may vary from time to time. Pointing at the world as an excuse for not practicing spiritual qualities is but Tamas - turbidity. It is not the world that has to become equanimous, it is me. As Ramana Maharshi says in a funny manner "Instead of us wearing shoes, we dream of covering the entire earth with leather!". So silly we are!

An interesting fact is that everyone is already aware of the convenience and benefits of detachment, but it is noticed only in case of others, never ourselves. For e.g. when my friend is in despair, I say "Do not worry, it was not your fault, you did whatever you could. Life is full of happiness and sorrow, difficult situations are inevitable". It looks so obvious to me that he should actually not worry for a failure. I know that it is only draining him of energy, not allowing him to work towards correcting the situation and thus creating more problems. So, I definitely know that maintaining calmness is the correct way of facing problems. But when the same problem hits me, all my wisdom evaporates, and I probably cry more than my friend. Now it is my friend's turn to repeat the same words back to me. This way, detachment remains only in words and never in practice. It is always wished for another person, but never demonstrated by myself.

How to get out of this negativity? We all have a strange tendency of straightaway looking at big things when we begin practicing. We miserably fail if we try out detachment for bigger things like relationships, death, illness straightaway. Ignoring a thousand small ones and trying to practice for a gigantic one will go in vain. And as a result the "I can't" attitude grows further into a swamp. This is same as dreaming of being a topper of an exam after reading just one chapter thoroughly. Several small tests will have to be successfully cleared before facing an exam. When a restaurant is found closed when you went there with eagerness, when your vehicle breaks down while going to a trip, when you miss a bus, when there is a power cut when your favorite TV program is on - equanimity has to be shown strongly in plenty of such small things in your everyday life. With these, it gains momentum and over time, bigger problems also get trampled.

Another trick to get hold of equanimity - Start from good ones, bad ones will be taken care of automatically. When things go terrifically fine, you are winning stupendously in all your ventures, try to be peaceful rather than jumping in over-excitement. Say to yourself that good-bad cycle keeps rotating, all the good that is happening today will topple down one day. Be like a stable ship, not a tossing boat. Actually, all are deeply aware of this inevitability of good-bad cycle, but most people try to hope that it is not so. When things are going perfectly well, then a sentence will pop out "God, let this happiness stay forever" or "Touchwood". So, instead of accepting the way of the world, we futilely hope that good will always stay as it is, and be constantly be fearful of losing it. But in time, the mind will necessarily get bored of this up-down, good-bad business and try to look beyond both. When calmness is maintained during successes, mind will resist to get depressed during failures as well. Mind is just a reflex organ, it can thus be manipulated. Don't allow it to get stretched, and it'll stop getting compressed as well.

Do I become a stone then? Nope. We become the other extreme of it. Stone does not have a choice but to stay still. But you are staying still although you have the ability to retort. Stone is not aware of itself, but you are. There is a world of a difference in doing something out of compulsion and doing it out of choice. As already said in an earlier post, there is a world of a difference between staying quiet out of fear and staying quiet out of forgiveness.

Stone - Compulsorily unable to react, stay still for everything

The now me - Compulsorily unable to stay still, react to everything

The future me - No more compulsions. Able to stay still, as well as react, as per will. No more reactions, only actions.

37. Complete V/S Finish

<< Previous - Part 3 - The Self-Enquiry

Death has always been in the forefront when it comes to making people think about the meaning of life. No matter how much one wishes to forget this inevitability, it somehow lingers in some corner, just waiting to take over someday. No matter how much one wishes to avoid it, we know that it would come and stand face to face someday. And we better be ready when it does. How can I be ready? Is it by writing a will for proper distribution of the property I hold? Is it by being in the company of my family and friends who will stand around my deathbed weeping? Is it the feeling "I am important and the world will suffer a loss without me" that will make me content? Will it? Really? It perhaps requires serious imagining abilities in order to live the actual death moment and really feel what we would feel then. But let us try.

I am lying on a bed, with an old body about to wither. There are several people standing around the bed, with lips talking in a low voice and with eyes filled with sorrow. All legal matters have been promptly taken care of. I have lived a very generous and righteous life. Many are crying for the loss that the society will incur because of my death. Everything is perfect. But then, am I happy? Am I perfectly content? Well, I want to pose as if I am peacefully leaving. But something within is bugging. Questions, doubts and more than all, the pain of separation are boiling within.

"Everything will vanish in a moment. Everything that I gained and accumulated - money, assets, relationships - is just going to be forcefully taken away in a matter of a moment, Phhoosh.. just like that. This world, which I love so much, is going to go away. And what a pity, I can do nothing about this. I don't want to leave, but I am being pushed away. All my money, power, influences are of no use now. Then why was I madly after them? Just to lose them forcefully one day? What will happen to me after death? Is re-incarnation true? Or will I cease to exist after a minute? What will happen? What will happen with death? What is death?"

Only then will we seriously think about the meaning of life and death. The question which was casually postponed every time it popped up now has no more postponement possible. Time up, and the question has not been answered. Exam is in a minute and I am totally unprepared. Exam will anyway take place, I will weep and stare at the question paper with a blank look. I leave the exam hall holding an unfathomable question paper and leaving behind a blank answer sheet. Question remains a question - What was the meaning of all that I did in my life? What is death?

It is a terrible feeling to be on a deathbed, because there are hundreds of things associated with death, all the things that have been termed as 'bad', all the things we desperately try to avoid while we live - losing things, losing people and most of all letting go of the precious body. And add to that the uncertainty of the 'what next?'. With death, all of them come at once like a storm, causing a great turmoil and misery.

Can anything be done? Anything to face death peacefully? All the things explained above are all different faces of the same thing - attachment. There is a term 'Vairagya' that is given utmost importance in spirituality. And it is also one of the misunderstood terms. We think Vairagya means becoming a Sanyasi and going to a forest. That is because we always look for meanings in physical activities. Brahmana is he who wears a sacred thread and eats only vegetarian, Karma means an action done with hands and legs, Dana means giving away some object etc. This narrowed meaning is itself a result of high attachment to the physical body. Similarly, Vairagya is also given a very narrow meaning, something related to physical activity. But actual practice of Vairagya is only within, and is needed for all at all times, without which only misery awaits. Only a person who has practiced true Vairagya is eligible to live in the world and hence to face death successfully.

There is a custom that is performed in marriages of some communities in India. The bridegroom, dressed as a Brahmachari walks out of the place intending to go to Kashi and dedicate his life to Adhyatma i.e. the search for truth. And then some of the relatives will come and persuade him to stay back by promising to offer him a girl to lead a family life. He then comes back and gets married. This has all become a funny drama and everyone enjoys while this is being performed as a ritual. But have you ever wondered what this could mean? Is this to show that all young boys are hypocrites - trying to go away but staying back as soon as a girl is ready to marry him? That would be so cheap! Because then it would mean that all are liars, just acting as if they are interested in renunciation but then pouncing on a girl as soon as one is available! Eewww... disgusting! Our ancestors should certainly have had something better in their mind.

Ramana Maharshi points out that the custom is only meant to show one thing - a person indifferent to marriage is eligible for marriage. He should be equally ready to be both - Brahmachari or a Grihastha. There should not be a glue of attachment to a girl and pleasures of family life, only then is he truly eligible for having a wife, not otherwise. Because otherwise, he is only going to have drops of so called pleasures amidst an ocean of fear and suffering. Fear of failure of endless expectations, and suffering born out of actual failure of those expectations, ranging from the tiniest to the biggest. Therefore only a true Viragi can lead a happy family life - happy when things go fine, and totally undisturbed when things go wrong.

Actually all of us already know this concept. A small kid of 8 years loves chocolates and ice-cream. If money is given to him, he would certainly overeat chocolates and fall sick. So, we manage all his requirement and even if we have to give money to him for something, we will do so very cautiously. Only when he is old and mature enough, when he becomes indifferent to chocolates (at least to some extent), we will let him handle money to some extent. Because then we know that even if he eats chocolates, he would do so moderately. He is not so desperate for them. If there are chocolates, he is happy. If they are not there, he is not so disturbed, he can do without them. He has become indifferent to chocolates and ice-cream. He has become a Viragi towards chocolates and ice-cream. If we extend this simple concept to everything in life - wife, children, fame, money - that becomes Vairagya. A person living in the world, but totally unattached in his mind. A truly free person. A person who will not weep for losing things or people. The world is meant to enjoy objects and relationships, not to stick to them. Because that is anyway impossible. The game of the world is only about this - to be able to be detached at will. Only he will enjoy the world thoroughly, without having the slightest fear of losing them or without suffering even a bit when he loses them. He is a person fit to face death.

Nobody likes a cricketer continuing to play even after he has lost the edge and then being thrown out of the team forcefully by the board, even if he had played brilliantly in his young age. Only he is respected who voluntarily retires in a dignified manner. This voluntary retirement has to be extended to everything in life - from the smallest object like 'my room' to the biggest 'my dear wife/son'. Sticking to something desperately and weeping for it - everyone feels repulsive to see someone else do this. But when it comes to us, something blinds us from the obvious truth. We begin to act as if we can try and hold on to it forever. Voluntary retirement is a power. One should be ready to execute this power at will, for anything, for anyone, at any moment, anywhere. Only he who possesses this power is eligible for a family life. And that is the meaning of the custom being performed in weddings. Because he would no more weep when life takes some people and things away from him, and when finally death takes all people and things away from him. Only  he can claim a dignified end.

There is one more aspect that bugs during death - a sense of incompleteness. "This work is pending, that issue is pending, I wanted to complete those. As a last thing I wanted to see my grandson. Oh no, now I can't". But we all know that this 'last thing' never gets done. A new 'last thing' springs up every day. When you leave home for a few days, for a long tour, just observe the restlessness that creeps in. After leaving home, there will be so many petty things crowded in the mind "Have I closed the water tap? Did I switch off the mains? Did I inform the neighbor to receive all the mails on behalf of me?" etc. A sense of incompleteness. If for such a small trip away from home so many things trouble us, then imagine the situation during death, when we have to leave everything and everyone for good! Which incomplete item or task will we think of in the few minutes available?

A detached person gets over this problem as well. An attached person has the notion that he runs and manages the world. He thinks he is responsible for the completion of things, and if he does not complete, things will fall apart and he feels he is responsible for that. Feeling responsible for things that will take place even after his death. What a strong attachment and how stupid! Considering the example of the cricket player again - "Oh, if I leave the cricket team who will open the innings?". A detached person, does everything that he has to do, and when it is time to leave, he just leaves. Even if things are falling apart he does not weep for it. "During my time, I performed what was entrusted to me efficiently. I am not the permanent manager of the world. It is time to leave and I leave. Even if everything goes to dogs, it is none of my business anymore!". Only a person who has been very honest and efficient in his activities throughout life can do this in the end. Else, the guilt of inefficient work will prick during death, and people want to fix things in this last moment, like how people read one day before the exam, or like how people start working more when the year-end appraisal is near. 

It is perhaps difficult to understand this fully here, but let us look at what Krishna did. Many years had passed after the Mahabharata war. All Yadava warriors, except Krishna and Balarama, had killed each other in a massacre after getting drunk. Krishna comes to Dwaraka, informs his father about this tragedy, sends a message for Arjuna to come and protect the citizens of Dwaraka and then says "My job is done, I have to go", and then simply walks out of the kingdom. He goes to a forest, wanders about without any goal in mind, and then sleeps under a tree. A hunter mistakes him for a deer and shoots an arrow at him. It pierces his leg and then shortly he leaves the body. In our perspective, what a pathetic death this is! He was a superhero of the times, a high profile celebrity, someone who had performed extreme feats impossible for a common man. A person considered to be a God. And this is how he chose to die, like a beggar, absolutely indifferent to the physical body and a ceremonious death, absolutely indifferent to the chaos that Dwaraka would go into if he left. Even Arjuna was unable to stop dacoits from looting the people of Dwaraka. But very well knowing all this, Krishna simply walked out - "My job is done and it is time to leave. What happens after that is none of my business." Where is Krishna, a superhero, and where are we? And we feel responsible for the petty things that are left incomplete! What a joke! Nobody can die with every task perfectly complete. The only true completion can happen in the attitude of the person dying, not in the activities.

So, the power of detachment, Vairagya or Voluntary retirement is the solution to all the above. The whole life is meant for the practice of detachment. Objects are possessed not for sticking to them and being miserable in fear of losing, but to learn how to be without them. Relationships are built not for weeping over them when they break, but to learn to be indifferent to them. Because only when something is possessed, voluntary retirement from that object can be practiced. Otherwise, how can we practice renunciation of something which we do not possess? But after one is a master of renunciation, it does not matter if he possesses it or not. He can choose to be a Sanyasi or a Grihastha, it does not matter at all.

We think that if a husband who is away from home for several days says "Oh dear wife, I miss you", he is very loving. Well, even a broomstick is missed when it is not there. What is so great about it? Only he is wise who loves his wife very dearly when together but is totally indifferent when he has to be away due to circumstances. What is the use of "boo hoo"? While leaving to Mathura in a chariot, Krishna didn't look back at Yashoda or the Gopis for a dramatic and emotional filmy scene.

Thus, we have to practice Vairagya (voluntary retirement) everyday whenever an opportunity comes up. Practiced for small things every day, becomes something huge over time.

Stage 1 - Not having an object - desire inside to obtain it

Stage 2 - Having an object - living in fear of losing it and then one day weeping over its loss

Stage 3 - Having an object - absolutely fine if I lose it, I will enjoy it as long as it is with me

Only we will know what state we are in. Only we can be the true judge of our real condition. No matter how much we act and fool others, we will always know where we really are. Impossible to fool ourselves!

Only with full renunciation will we complete life. Or else death will finish our life.

27. Spirituometry

<< Previous - Part 4 - The Final Chapter

The scriptures describe the qualities of a Jnani in very much detail. For e.g. the last 18 verses of the second chapter of the Gita are fully dedicated to explaining Sthita Prajna Lakshana. It has been repeated in several other places in the Gita as the qualities of a true devotee, qualities of a Karma yogi etc. They all finally describe the same – Realized state – by various names. Adi Shankaracharya, in his commentary of the Gita, mentions that these qualities are described for two purposes – to describe the Jnani, and to exhort what qualities a practitioner should try to build in him/her.

The qualities of a Jnani, are of great reference value for a seeker. It is like the goalpost on which we should always have an eye, even if we are at the other end of the field. Else the sense of direction itself will be lost. So, without doubt, and with common sense, knowing the Sthita Prajna Lakshana is a necessity for the practitioner.

But then, for direction vector to be meaningful, there have to be two points. Beginning and the end. A friend of mine once asked me “Suppose I tell you now ‘Let us go to the market’. What is the first thing that you will do?”. I said “Dress up myself”. He asked back “Before that?”

“Get up from the chair”         “Before that?”

“Agree to come with you”     “Before that?”

“Before that? I listened to your request of going to the market”

“You are very close. After you listened to me, and before agreeing to come, you did something. It happened so fast and spontaneously, that you are taking it for granted”

“I do not know”

“You located your current position relative to the market. Before the smallest activity that you do, this is the very first thing you do – decide where you are with respect to the target. It may not only be with respect to distance. It will be with respect to anything – distance, time, money, abilities etc. Locating the current coordinate the first essential step before moving to another coordinate.”

I thought over it, and you too imagine with me. Suppose I am suddenly left in an unknown place, in the middle of a street in a city. I want to go back home. What is the first thing I ask the people around? It is “What is this place?”, isn’t it? My first question can be nothing else apart from locating my current coordinate. Destination coordinate gets meaning only after I know my current coordinate. When I am in that unknown place, I very well know the map of my country. I very well know where my hometown is, in the map. I even know the latitude and longitude of my house. But will any of that help without locating my current coordinate? Only if both are known, current coordinate and destination coordinate, there can be a meaningful direction vector and hence, a journey.

In a situation such as the one above, this fact is very conspicuous. But this happens all the time in all our activities. Even if I am in my house and decide to go to the market, this is the very first reckoning that my mind does – locating the current position. But it is so fast that it goes unnoticed. When in my house, it only takes a fraction of a moment for locating the current position, as mind has done it several thousand times before.

And after locating the current position, immediately mind tries to locate the destination w.r.t. the current coordinates. Suppose I am new to the city and I do not where the market is. Now I would enquire about the location of the market w.r.t. the location of my house only. It does not mean anything to me if someone says “Market is next to the Central movie theatre”, because I do not know where that movie theatre is w.r.t. my current location. Then I will try to find land marks one by one, in a chain, until I get one known land mark – a land mark whose coordinates are known to me w.r.t. my current location. That first land mark may be just a few yards away from my house. And then the whole picture becomes clear to me. I get a clear idea about the path joining my location and the market. So, finally, what matters to me is the shortest path between my location and the market, not all the paths that lead to market.

During my journey, although my goal is market, initially I ask for the directions to the landmarks, and not the market (assuming that the market is quite far from the house). This may be everybody’s experience. And once a particular landmark is reached, we ask for directions for the next landmark and so on until finally we ask for the market itself. We do that because, if we directly ask for market initially, the guide (?) dumps a heap of right-left-straight information on us that leaves us more confused. We finally walk away from him, pretend to walk a few feet, wait for that enthusiastic guide to disappear from the scene, so that we can ask another person ;) And now that we have learnt our lesson, we ask for directions to the next land mark in the list, and not the market directly. But all the while, our aim is market and not the landmarks.

Now let us end this market business and look at how to apply this to what really matters. If we summarize the market example we can note several points:

First, we should note our current coordinate. Perhaps some of the earlier posts did that to a certain extent – honestly accepting to ourselves all our negativities openly without hiding anything from ourselves – no Self Cheating. At the same time we note our strengths as well. But soon I realized that accepting all the negativity in myself itself boosted positivity! So, there was no need of a specific identification of the strengths. Strength was always there, only hidden by weakness.

Second, we note the destination coordinate. Scriptures describe the final state as we saw earlier.

Third, only bother about the shortest path between the source and the destination. Do not dump ourselves with the whole map of the city. There may be hundreds to paths, but we have to choose what is easiest and shortest for us – mainly enquiry or surrender – Jnana Marga or Bhakti Marga. Even a mixture of two or three paths helps as per masters. But certainly not keeping our foot in every road that we see, just because it is very neat and clean. Or if we start walking on a road just because many are walking on it, it may lead us nowhere. Who knows where those people are walking to? Their aimed destination may be name-fame, money, health, miracles etc, and not realization.

Fourth, initially aim at the landmarks and not the destination directly. If we directly look at the destination, it may only leave us confused and stranded, as we saw in the Miraculous Mistake and the Extrication of Extremes. When we get sufficiently closer to the destination, then we may aim directly at the destination itself and ditch the landmarks.

Fifth, do not stick to the landmarks so much that they themselves become the goal. Always remember the final destination even if we are currently aiming at the landmarks.

It may be a good idea to look at the fourth point (landmarks) in detail.

Jnani, Mukta, Sthita Prajna – these are all the different names of the final realized state.

Jijnasu, Mumukshu, Sthita Prajnabhilashi – these are all different names for a genuine seeker (well, the last one was coined just now, I don’t know if it exists in scriptures! Let Samskrita scholars worry about that, not our head ache!)

As we saw earlier, the qualities of a Jnani (the destination coordinate) is already very well explained by the scriptures. Let us have our eye on this goalpost constantly, but for the time being aim at the landmarks. Qualities of a seeker would serve as the landmarks. The qualities of a seeker (the landmarks) are also well explained in certain scriptures, especially the Viveka Chudamani of Adi Shankaracharya. In fact, without our knowledge, we have looked at details of several qualities of a Jijnasu in the earlier posts. Now, let us look at these Jijnasu Lakshanas as per the scriptures, in simple terms. This may act as a summary to some of the earlier posts. And just notice that the middle path is a common factor in most of them.

He, who uses his common sense to clarify things to himself, rather than going after blind beliefs, or dry logic, is a Jijnasu (Viveka – Discrimination – I prefer ‘Common sense’, I believe you too opt for simple terms!).

He, who tries neither to suppress, nor to give free vent to his strong likes, but believes in slow and gradual withdrawal from the likes, is a Jijnasu. (Vairagya – Dispassion)

He, who intelligently cuts down external sense objects one by one very systematically over a period of time (neither with a sudden and blind cut-down of everything at once nor with lack of any efforts to cut down anything whatsoever), is a Jijnasu. (Dama – External sense control – Matches with Pranayama of Ashtanga Yoga). This sounds as simple regulation of life style by moderating everything one by one.

He, who constantly monitors his sense inputs and what the mind munches, regulates them and moderates them to taper off the Prana expenditure gradually over a period of time, again without blind suppression or free day dreaming, is a Jijnasu. (Shama – Internal sense control – matches with Pratyahara of Ashtanga Yoga)

He, who while constantly waging the war against his sense demands and the mind as above, loses the war very miserably thousands of times, but still does not feel like a loser, and keeps the war-drums beating, finally to taste victory one day is a Jijnasu. (Titiksha and Samadhana – withstanding the loses and saying “We will see next time” with the same determination and poise after each lose). The game ends only when we win!

He, who finds interest, curiosity and hence a sense of effortlessly being occupied, while contemplating about spiritual concepts, Self-enquiry etc, and develops it over the years into a huge tree whose branches begin to occupy all the activities of the day, is a Jijnasu (Uparati – enjoying the proximity of our ego to our own true Self, finally to merge into the Self one day). This is opposite of Shama-Dama-Vairagya. There we gradually cut down one set of trees, and here we aid the growth of another set of trees.

He, who has unshakable faith that the destination exists, without the slightest of doubts, solely based on his spiritual longing, although he has never seen the destination, is a Jijnasu. This is something like, even if someone has never seen water in his life, he will have to believe the existence of water solely based on his thirst. Existence of water cannot be denied, because there is thirst. (Shraddha)

And finally and obviously, he, who begins to feel the spiritual thirst, feels a great void in the worldly affairs, goes into frequent depressions, cries for it constantly, and begins to find light gradually, is a Jijnasu. (Mumukshatva – Longing for liberation)

Since this chapter talked about the various the coordinates of the spiritual journey – source, destination and the intermediate coordinates, it is named as Spirituometry (you know… Geometry).