Nivṛtti
Nivṛtti · ni-vṛtti, “turning back, withdrawal”
Kūshmāṇḍa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kūshmāṇḍa.
Grammar: feminine noun, from the root vṛt (to turn) with ni (back, down): “turning back, ceasing”. It stands against pravṛtti, “turning forward, going out into action”.
Meaning: turning back from the world: the dharma of withdrawal, of śama (calm of mind), dama (restraint of the senses) and giving up desires, steadfast in the ātmā, which leads to moksha. Nivṛtti-dharma and the nivṛtti-mārga are its path. In ordinary speech the word also means removal or cessation.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa teaches that the karma the Veda enjoins is of two kinds. Satī tells her father Daksha that for one attached to the pleasures of the senses the Veda enjoins acts like the agnihotra that lead to svarga, and for one with vairāgya the same Veda enjoins the act of withdrawal, śama, dama and the rest. The two paths are opposed, and one person cannot follow both at the same time; and neither applies to Bhagavān Śiva, who is Parabrahman (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 4). In the Rudra-gīta, Bhagavān Śiva praises Śrī Hari as karma in both its forms, pravṛtti (yajña and the like) and nivṛtti (śama, dama and the like) (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 24).
Nārada Maharshi tells Yudhishṭhira that pravṛtti karma is done to fulfil desires, and by it a person keeps wandering in saṃsāra; nivṛtti dharma is giving up desires and being steadfast in the ātmā, and by it the sādhaka gains moksha, the state of deathlessness. The sādhaka devoted to nivṛtti dissolves in contemplation, step by step, the acts of yajña into the senses, the senses into the mind, the mind into speech, speech into the letters, the letters into Om, Om into the bindu, the bindu into the nāda, the nāda into the sūtrātmā and the sūtrātmā into Parabrahma. After death he goes by the Devayāna, through Agni, Sūrya, the day, the bright fortnight and the uttarāyaṇa to the Hiraṇyagarbha loka, and there, steadfast in the ātmā, he gains moksha and is not born again (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 15).
Camasa, one of the yogīśvaras, tells Mahārāja Nimi that sexual union, meat and liquor need no Vedic injunction, for beings are drawn to them by rāga; the śāstra only restrains them, allowing union only within marriage, meat only as the remnant of a yajña, and the remnant of liquor only at the surā-graha of the Sautrāmaṇī. So even in these things the purport of the Veda is nivṛtti (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 5).
Those devoted to nivṛtti-dharma are honoured throughout the Purāṇa. Śaunaka Maharshi asks why Śuka Maharshi, devoted to nivṛtti-dharma and delighting in the Self, studied so large a book (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 7). Bhagavān Saṅkarshaṇa taught the Bhāgavata to Sanatkumāra, devoted to nivṛtti-dharma (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 8). The wives of the devas, watching Arcis follow Pṛthu, say that men of Bhūloka, though short-lived, become one with Īśvara by knowing the ātmā as non-doer and following nivṛtti-dharma (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 23). Gajendra, in his stuti, says that the discerning seeker rich in sattva follows nivṛtti-dharma, knows the ātmā as non-doer and attains Parameśvara as his own ātmā; and he longs for the nivṛtti, the removal, of the ignorance that covers the light of the ātmā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 3).
Related terms: Pravṛtti · Nivṛtti-mārga · Śama · Dama · Vairāgya · Devayāna · Moksha
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 7; Skandha 3, Chapter 8; Skandha 4, Chapters 4, 23–24; Skandha 7, Chapter 15; Skandha 8, Chapter 3; Skandha 11, Chapter 5