Most of us do not seek suffering, but it comes to us as an inevitable outcome of the very manner in which we seek happiness. We tend to seek happiness through the fulfilment of our desires, but such fulfilment is never an assured thing. Hence in the pursuit of desires, we are also unavoidably preparing for the suffering from their non-fulfilment.

The same tree of desire bears two kinds of fruit: one sweet, which is pleasure, and one bitter, which is suffering. If this tree is allowed to flourish it cannot be made to yield just one kind of fruit. Those who have bid for one kind of fruit must be ready to have the other, also. Fulfilment of desires does not lead to their termination; they are submerged for a while only to reappear with added intensity. Desire is inevitably the cause of much suffering and this is the law.

If a person experiences or visualises the suffering that waits upon desires, his desires become mitigated. Sometimes intense suffering makes him detached from worldly life, but this detachment is often again set aside because of a fresh flood of desires. Hence detachment must be lasting if it is to pave the way for freedom from desires.

There are varying degrees of detachment and not all of them last. Sometimes a person is greatly moved by an unusually strong experience, such as seeing someone die or witnessing a burial or a cremation. Such experiences are thought-provoking and they initiate long trains of ideas about the futility and emptiness of worldly existence. But these thoughts, as well as the detachment born thereof, are short-lived. They are soon forgotten and the person resumes his attachment to the world and its allure. This temporary and passing mood of detachment is known as shamshan vairagya — cremation or burial-ground detachment.

Sometimes the mood of detachment is more lasting and not only endures for a considerable time but also seriously modifies one’s general attitude towards life. This is called tivra vairagya or intense dispassion. Such intense dispassion usually arises from some great misfortune — such as the loss of one’s own dear ones or the loss of property or reputation. Under the influence of this wave of detachment, the person renounces all worldly things.

Tivra vairagya of this type has its own spiritual value, but it is also likely to disappear in the course of time or be disturbed by the onset of a recurring flood of worldly desires. The disgust for the world that a person feels in such cases is due to a powerful impression left by a misfortune and it does not endure because it is not born of understanding. It is only a severe reaction to life.

The kind of detachment that really lasts is due to the understanding of suffering and its cause. It is securely based upon the unshakeable knowledge that all things of this world are momentary and passing and that any clinging to them is bound eventually to be a source of pain.

Lasting detachment, which brings freedom from all desires and attachments, is called purna vairagya.

Desirelessness makes an individual firm like a rock. He is neither moved by pleasure nor by sorrow. He is not upset by the onslaught of opposites.