What is meant by a man leading a good life? We ordinarily mean doing one’s duties, earning a decent income in correct ways, being free from many problems, having good health, and having a peaceful family life. All such conditions are desirable, but if a man is contended with it and feels quite ‘happy’ with it, he will be in a stalemate. He will develop Vairagya or spirit of renunciation and detachment and other spiritual qualities only if there is a divine ‘discontent’ in him. Such discontent results in an aspiration for God, a longing to know more of Him and to move close to Him, a feeling that life is purposeless if it is not used for attaining Him. This results in the dawn of Bhakti or love of God. Where love of God develops in one, all other spiritual qualities will automatically follow. It is said in Bhagavata that Bhakti is like eating a rice ball. This one act simultaneously appeases hunger, satisfies taste and increases strength. In the same way, devotion generates knowledge (Jnana), discrimination (Viveka) and dispassion (Vairagya).

So if a man, who lives what the questioner calls ‘good’ and ‘contented’ life, has also the germs of Bhakti in him and develops the same, he will not have to go out of his way to develop Vairagya by any special effort. It will automatically develop in him. As he begins to feel the joy of divine communion more and more, worldly enjoyments will become insipid to him and he will feel a sense of detachment from them.

In fact without devotion to God, it is impossible to have Vairagya, or renunciation. Man renounces lower values only to the extent he comes into touch with something higher. The joy of devotion is that higher value and to the extent he has that, he feels no attraction for the life of the senses. There is no doubt a kind of pseudo-Vairagya is practised by some people. They speak of the transitoriness of the world and the littleness of the prizes it offers. If it is really felt in the heart, a person will develop the power of discrimination, which enables him to distinguish good from bad, permanent from transitory, etc. But for an ordinary man such real apprehension of the transitoriness of these values can come only when his mind is shaken to its core by some bereavement or sudden misfortune. Otherwise professions of this type will only be skin-deep. Then again, men who had never enjoyed the good things of life can never develop Vairagya. It is also equally true that those who are caught in the allurements of such enjoyments cannot come out of them easily. So the only safeguard for man in spiritual life is to practise devotion to the Supreme Being. If there is sincere devotion and resignation to Him, and if man begins to feel joy in His thought, all other spiritual qualities will automatically come to him.