Nivṛtti-mārga
Nivṛtti-mārga · ni-vṛtti-mārga, “the path of turning back”
Grammar: masculine noun; a compound of nivṛtti (turning back, withdrawal, from ni-vṛt, to turn back) and mārga (path): “the path of withdrawal”. Its pair is pravṛtti-mārga, “the path of action”.
Meaning: the path of withdrawal from works done for their fruit, on which the seeker turns inward to know the Paramātmā; set beside the pravṛtti-mārga, the path of action and yajña.
In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa says that Bhagavān Vishṇu, who is of the form of the two vidyās, is sung in all the Vedas as having the form of Agni, as the Paramātmā and as the mouth of the devas. He is worshipped both on the pravṛtti-mārga and on the nivṛtti-mārga, and the havana, dhyāna, arcana, japa, stuti and namaskāra offered to him remove all the pāpas in the body (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 174).
Teaching Brahma-vijñāna to the Mahāmuni, Agnideva says that the Paramātmā is the support of all, and that Parameśvara is praised in the Veda and Vedānta by the name Vishṇu; he alone is Yajñeśvara, the lord of yajña. Those on the pravṛtti-mārga serve the Yajña-purusha, and those on the nivṛtti-mārga realise, through jñāna-yoga, that Paramātmā who is the form of knowledge (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 379).
In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Nārada Maharshi, explaining to King Prācīnabarhis the parable of the deer in the flower garden, tells him that in conduct there is no difference between him and that deer. “Draw back into the mind your ears, which travel without pause among outward sounds, and dissolve the mind in the buddhi. People caught in false pleasures gather and talk of pleasures; this is the mark of the gṛhastha āśrama. Give this up. Step by step, take up the nivṛtti mārga, and win the grace of Śrī Hari, in whom the jñānīs take refuge” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 29).
Śuka Maharshi, closing his description of the narakas and the brahmāṇḍa, says that the path called nivṛtti was described earlier, in the second skandha (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 26). Parīkshit, recalling what Śuka has taught, says: “You first told, in the second skandha, the nivṛtti-mārga exactly as it is. By it the sādhaka, step by step, practises the disciplines beginning with śama and dama, knows the Parabrahman as his own ātmā, and is freed from saṃsāra.” The path of karma, he adds, for the sādhaka who lacks knowledge, brings again and again the body that is the product of the guṇas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 1).
Related terms: Pravṛtti-mārga · Jñāna-yoga · Paramātmā · Moksha · Vairāgya
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 174, 379
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 29; Skandha 5, Chapter 26; Skandha 6, Chapter 1