TYAGA AND VAIRAGYA (Renunciation and Dispassion)

DISPASSION COMES LIKE A FLOOD AND NEVER BY DROPS

How does a man come to have vairagya (dispassion)?

A wife once said to her husband: "Dear, I am very anxious about my brother. For the past one week he has been thinking of becoming an ascetic, and has been busy preparing for that life. He is trying to reduce gradually all his desires and wants." The husband replied: "Dear, be not anxious about your brother. Pie will never become a sannyasin. No one can become a sannyasin in that way." "How does one become a sannyasin then?" asked the wife."Thus" exclaimed the husband; so saying, he tore his flowing dress to pieces, took a piece and tied it round his loin, and told his wife that she and all of her sex were henceforth mothers to him. He left the house, nevermore to return. (104)