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Detachment, Liberation and Mastery · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The question of detachment. Renunciation is frequently
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  interpreted as one of avoidance and a rejection of the external
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  life in the world. It most often turns to
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  austerity. If one follows this line of
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  approach to its logical conclusion, the only solution is
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  to renounce all action, renounce all desires, and live an
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  isolated life focused solely in realization, liberation, and
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  eventually the opportunity to merge the consciousness into the
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  Divine Source. Such an approach necessarily
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  gives very little, if any, value to the development and
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  perfection of the outer life, the powers of the body, the life
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  energy and the mind, or the enhancement of the external
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  social life or environment within which we live.
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  All the sciences, all the social developments, all the arts, and
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  all the developments of technology, from this viewpoint
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  are treated as virtually worthless.
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  This brings about generally an attempt to reject activity to
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  the greatest extent possible. The Bhagwad Gita in particular
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  takes a totally different view of the matter.
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  It does not counsel asceticism or austerity as the path of
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  liberation. Rather, it looks upon the inner
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  relation the individual has to the actions he undertakes and
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  the motivations that drive his actions as the key to
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  liberation. Shrioro Bindo translates chapter
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  2, verse 47 as an illustration of the Gita's approach quote.
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  Thou hast a right to action, but only to action, never to its
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  fruits. Let not the fruits of Thy works
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  be thy motive, neither let there be in thee any attachment to
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  inactivity. End Quote.
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  Sri Robindo comments on the Gita's position as follows in
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  Bhagwa Gita and its Message. Quote.
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  Once we are possessed of the Self, we are in possession of
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  all things. And yet He does not cease from
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  work and action. There is the originality and
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  power of the Gita that, having affirmed this static condition,
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  this superiority to nature, this emptiness, even of all that
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  constitutes ordinarily the action of nature for the
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  liberated soul, it is still able to vindicate for it, to enjoin
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  on it even the continuance of works, and thus avoid the great
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  defect of the merely quietistic and ascetic philosophies, the
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  defract from which we find them today attempting to escape.
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  End Quote. This provides the foundation for
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  a spiritual practice that reconciles liberation with
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  development and transformation and thus presents the seeker
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  with the opportunity and indeed the need to both free oneself
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  from the bondage of the ego, personality and the lure of the
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  desire soul, while working on uplifting and transforming the
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  action and development of the external world that we are
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  participants in. In this context, detachment does
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  not lead to aesthetic avoidance, but rather from an inner freeing
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  of oneself from desire. This derives from the Gita's
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  exhortation to act, but not be attached to the results, the
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  fruits of the action. The issue punishite also
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  provides insight in this regard. Quote.
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  All this is for habitation by the Lord.
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  Whatsoever is individual universe of movement in the
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  universal motion, by that renounced thou shouldst enjoy,
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  lest not after any man's possession.
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  End Quote. The reality is omnipresent.
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  The divine pervades, permeates, develops and controls the
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  manifestation of the universe. The individual is an element of
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  this manifestation and once he identifies with that universal
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  consciousness, he can attain mastery, not just renunciation.
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  The lack of reaction is by the ego personality as it widens
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  into the universal consciousness, where all things
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  have their place, their role and their significance, and the
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  individual's action is determined by that wider
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  infinite immeasurable reality and its purposes.
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  In the creation Shrioro Bindu observes quote, detachment is
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  the beginning of mastery, but for complete mastery there
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  should be no reactions at all. When there is something within,
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  undisturbed by the reactions, that means the inner being is
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  free and master of itself, but it is not yet master of the
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  whole nature. When it is master, it allows no
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  wrong reactions. If any comes, they are at once
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  repelled and shaken off, and finally none come at all.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the
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  Path, page 151.