Nivṛtti — The Path of Withdrawal
Nivṛtti names the śāstric principle of withdrawal, renunciation, and inner turning. It is the complement and counterpart of pravṛtti within the total framework of śāstric conduct. While pravṛtti specifies what must be engaged with and done, nivṛtti specifies what must be avoided, renounced, and transcended.
At the most immediate level, nivṛtti is the abstaining from prohibited actions (niṣiddha karma) — the nisedha injunctions that say 'do not do this.' At a deeper level, it is the cultivation of inner detachment (vairāgya) from all results of action — neither craving the fruits of pravṛtti nor lamenting their absence. The Gītā's teaching of naiṣkarmya (action without proprietorship) is nivṛtti expressed within active life.
In the traditional āśrama framework, the Vānaprastha stage (forest retirement) and Sannyāsa (renunciation) embody nivṛtti as a way of life — withdrawing from household duties, reducing possessions, redirecting attention from family and world to Bhagavān alone. However, Śrī Vaiṣṇava tradition does not equate liberation-seeking with external renunciation alone; the inner nivṛtti of the gṛhastha prapanna who performs duties without attachment is equally valid and perhaps more admired.
The relationship between pravṛtti and nivṛtti in Rāmānuja's understanding is dynamic. The prapanna performs pravṛtti duties but with the inner quality of nivṛtti — free from desire for results, free from anxiety about outcomes, trusting Bhagavān to handle everything. This integration of outward engagement with inner detachment is the prapanna's distinctive way of life.
At the highest spiritual level, the soul's nivṛtti from false identities — from thinking it is the body, from thinking it is independent, from thinking it must earn liberation — is the most important nivṛtti of all. The moment of prapatti is the moment of this ultimate nivṛtti: releasing the burden of self-effort and resting entirely in Bhagavān's care.