The Four Qualifications: Viveka, Vairagya, Shat-Sampat, Mumukshuttwa

The Four Qualifications of Jnana Yoga

Four qualifications must be understood and promoted in order to follow path of Vedanta or Jnana Yoga to discover the boundless expansion of consciousness.

1. Viveka or Discrimination is the first qualification. It implies having a discriminating intellect that can see the difference between right and wrong, real and unreal, and what is transient and eternal.

2. Vairagya or Dispassion is the second qualification. When the intellect determines that a certain concept is false, you must have the inner will to turn away from it. A person who has developed internal strength in the form of Dispassion recognizes that certain values in life are superficial, illusory and false, and therefore does not give them importance and turns away from them.

Dispassion (Vairagya) is the opposite of attachment (Raga). Attachment is generated in the mind each time you experience pleasure or happiness through objects. The mind develops the desire or craving to have that same experience again and again. These impressions create attachment or a dependence on the pleasurable experience. With attachment, the mind becomes limited and develops limited concepts. Dispassion prevents one from being duped by the objects. It is the process of understanding the transient nature of objects, and therefore, not developing a dependence on anything of this world.

3. Shat-Sampat, the third qualification, is a group of six-fold qualities. These include the virtues of Serenity, Mastery over the Senses, Renunciation of Selfishness, Endurance, Faith and Tranquility of Mind.

4. Mumukshuttwa or, a Burning Aspiration for Self-Realization, is the fourth qualification. When a person is well-integrated in life, he asks, “What is the purpose of my existence?” “Who am I?” Such questions become a source of intense “spiritual hunger.” Buddha was such a personality. From childhood, he was tormented by questions like— why things decay, why there is death and what is the purpose of life. Through his unceasing quest for answers to such questions, and intense aspiration, he attained Nirvana or Enlightenment.

From the book Integral Yoga: The Secret to Enlightenment by Swami Jyotirmayananda, published by the Yoga Research Foundation. © Swami Jyotirmayananda. All rights reserved.