Vairagya is nothing but non-attachment to the objective world. As sage Patanjali indicates in his Yoga sutra, "Non-attachment is self mastery; it is freedom from desire for what is seen or heard" (Swami Prabhavananda, 10). A vairagi or a spiritual aspirant who practices Vairagya constantly discriminates his thoughts. Every sensory impulse or desire that crosses his mind is weighed on the scale of discrimination and thus impure thought waves are eliminated before they take a stronghold. (Swami Sivananda) Vairagya dawns from the truth that lasting pleasure is not to be found in the sensory realm. Vairagya is the gateway to divine wisdom. It helps the mind get fixated in the supreme self. Thus, the aspirant by means of exercising Vairagya and doing contemplation and meditation achieves the culmination of his spiritual quest and enters into Samadhi or blissful union with god. Samadhi and Kaivalya

From the accounts of self-realized saints, it is understood that Samadhi is a transcendental experience that cannot be expressed easily. Samadhi is the ultimate superconcious experience for the spiritual aspirant. It is the blissful union with god where there is only one and the feeling of duality ceases to exist. A person immersed in Samadhi is conscious of his supreme self and he rests in the state of supreme bliss. Samadhi transcends the waking state, dream state and deep sleep state and it results in the melting of the false self or the false personality. The ego of the limited self is shed and the aspirant is immersed in the nectar of transcendental bliss of the supreme self. Samadhi is the goal of all life and in this state the distinctions between the subject and object and the perception of the opposites cease to exist. The senses, the mind and the intellect cease to function in samadhi and it is the state of perfect awareness where the individual is merged with god. "In samadhi the meditator and the meditated, the thinker and the thought,...

Samadhi yields liberation from the cycle of births and deaths that result as a result of accumulation of karma.
The fruit of yoga is Kaivalya or the state of absolute independence. It is the complete liberation from the tangles of the earthly life and there is total dissolution of the concept of time as the Yogi enters eternity. It bestows on the practitioner supreme, undying peace. "Then the whole universe, with all its objects of self knowledge, becomes as nothing in comparison to that infinite knowledge which is free from all obstructions and impurities." (Swami Prabhavananda, 163). Kaivalya represents this supreme state of consciousness. Also, known as Moksha or liberation it is the state of Sat-Chit-Ananda (existence absolute, bliss absolute and knowledge absolute).

Conclusion

The science of yoga has evolved since time immemorial and is a result of the direct experience of the ancient seers. The Vedas, Upanishads and the yoga sutras offer a direct and penetrating insight into the core philosophical issues of life and boldly proclaim that man is essentially immortal, and that the direct realization of this truth is not only possible but also the ultimate destiny for all of creation, each in its own course of time.

Bibliography

Swami Sivananda, 'Samadhi Yoga', Divine Life Society Publication, 1961

Swami Prabhavananda, Christopher Isherwood, "Patanjali Yoga Sutras'*, Published by Ramakrishna Math.

Ramananda Prasad, Ph.D., "Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 7: Self Knowledge and Self-Realization," * Accessed on September 12th 2005, available at http://www.sarvadharma.org/sivaloka/gita_chapter_7.htm

Swami Sivananda, "How to Get Vairagya," Divine Life Society Publication, 3rd edition 1983, Available Online at, http://www.dlshq.org/download/vairagya.htm

Translated with commentaries.