Vairagya of hatha yoga deals more with the senses and prana. The vairagya of raja yoga deals more with latent impressions. People have picked the word vairagya and given it a meaning – dispassion, detachment or whatever people may call vairagya, and the entire philosophy revolves around one word.
People do not see the context in which the word has been used, so wherever the word vairagya appears people will immediately identify it with detachment, dispassion, alienation or separation. If you look at the context, then the purpose of that term becomes clear. What it is aiming for also becomes clear. Due to our preconditioning, we say vairagya is detachment and therefore a mental activity, it is nothing physical because we associate physical with movement and action. We associate mental with stillness and no action, not sensory action, only inner action.
From this perspective, vairagya becomes an intellectual mental process. The words that come to mind are: ‘I have to detach, I have to become dispassionate.’ Wherever you say, ‘I have to’ indicates a change of the mental conditioning. I was like this, now I have to let go, now I have to detach, release. When you are dealing with your mind, it means ‘I have to’ and that is raja yoga. Even when the latent impressions come out, you say, ‘I have to release them,’ and again the same use of words, like ‘I have to overcome that; I have to transcend that.’
In hatha yoga, vairagya becomes more detachment from external participation, it is not internal participation. Say, somebody has fallen down, the natural reaction of everybody along with the doctor will be to run to see what has happened. Now who are the necessary people to manage and treat the person who has fallen down? Not everyone, but the doctor, the nurse, those who can look after that condition and manage it. But everybody runs. What is the purpose of their running? More than anything it is curiosity, nothing more. Can you remain detached at that time? Somebody falls, you see two people get up and go to help the person, so you don’t have to because two people have already gone. That is separating oneself from a situation after seeing that everything is okay.
If I go there and start puttering around without any know-ledge, without any skill, I may even create more impediments for the person who is trying to deal with the person who has fallen down. It is moment-to-moment awareness of where to get involved and where to withdraw. That is the hatha yoga vairagya. Fight, okay withdraw. Dissatisfaction, okay disconnect. So whatever troubling situation is in front of you at present, you are able to disconnect from it. It is like saying to somebody, “You behave like a dog.” If you react, you have identified with the dog. If you have vairagya and say, “Only a dog will recognize another one.” You are free, and that is vairagya. If there was raga, you would lift up your face and say, “Come on let us have it out. Who called me a dog?” That is the main difference I see between vairagya of hatha yoga and raja yoga.
Hatha yoga vairagya is dealing with the environment and our interactions, responses and detaching oneself from it. Raja yoga vairagya is releasing the latent impressions, that is the main difference. One is behavioural which you apply in your behaviour and the other is observational and correctional. Something you observe, correct and tweak.
10 October 2020, Ganga Darshan