How to develop vairagya (freedom from desire)?

In a Zoom meeting with ‘Yo Soy Tu Mismo’ (a group of Spanish devotees of Bhagavan Sri Ramana) on 17th October 2021, Michael James first answers the questions:

Could you please talk about how to develop vairagya while our love for attending to ourself is very slight and how to reconcile vairagya with taking responsibility for our lives? Apart from attending to ourself for who we really are, in what different ways, on a practical level, could we develop vairagya? Could you give some examples? Finally, how can I be attending to myself as the consciousness that I am, and at the same time be drawn into a particular vasana, and is this possible? Can I be attending to myself as the conscious presence and at the same time watch this body go to the refrigerator to have a chocolate while I am driven by the sugar inclination; in short, is it possible to watch the body, mind and speech follow their course according to Prarabdha Karma while I am attending to myself as pure consciousness; is it not because I am going to have the chocolate that I am not really attending to myself?

and then answers more questions about this and other aspects of Bhagavan’s teachings, particularly the practice of self-investigation and self-surrender.

While answering these questions, Michael discusses the meaning and implications of various passages from Bhagavan’s writings, including Upadēśa Undiyār, Śrī Aruṇācala Padigam, Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam and the note he wrote for his mother in December 1898.

This episode can also be watched as a video: 2021-10-17 Yo Soy Tu Mismo: Michael discusses how to develop vairāgya (freedom from desire).