Chapter VI
Swami deals with attachment to this temporary
world in this post, in great detail and depth.
Swami writes,
Why worry over short-lived attachments?
Everything in this world is ephemeral,
transitory; it is here today but may not be here tomorrow. So, if you want to
crave something with a full heart, seek the Lord, who has no decline. Instead,
if you crave progeny, wealth, and all comforts, you will suffer untold misery
when you are called upon to leave everything and depart.
At that moment, you would lament, “oh, did I
love so deep that I may weep so loud?” In this transitory life, joy and pain
are also perforce transitory.
So, it is indeed humiliating to get immersed in
the search for the evanescent and to forget the Supreme and the Everlasting.
Ignoring God (Madhava), who is free
from illusion (maya), and spending time
in things immersed in illusion is fruitless; sorrow alone is the final gain.
Nothing here is fit to be worshipped as eternal. Whomever you love, that love
has to come to an end.
The self-same Lord gives and takes! He gives and
takes as and when He wishes. Everything is His, so how foolish it is to lament
when things belonging to Him are taken back by Him! Therefore, the wise person
doesn’t pine over anyone or feel undue attachment to anything.
Let all the pining and all the attachment be for
the Lord; He alone is eternal, the source of all joy. For the rest, love a
thing as a thing, not more. Love a person as a person, not more. If you love
them more, it is a sign that you have been deceived about their real nature.
You can behave only for a short time as if the house you have rented is your
own! For as soon as the period is over, it passes on to another.
If you think on these lines, you will know that
spouse, children, possessions, and relatives are not yours for long, but only
for a short time. So why waste away, worrying over these impermanent
things?
A millionaire can eat only one bellyful, not
more. You have to come to this world like the traveller taking refuge at
nightfall in a caravanserai; he departs when dawn breaks! You go toward your
goal, from caravanserai to caravanserai, stage by stage. It is good to take
life in this light.
Animals with many legs creep along the ground.
People have only two legs, so they can move freely about. The larger
the number of legs, the greater the bondage, the tighter the restriction.
When one marries, one has four legs, one has
become a quadruped. Later, when one gets sons, daughters, in-laws, and
grandchildren, one is transformed into a regular centipede, capable of moving
only by crawling along the ground! One cannot stand erect; one loses freedom of
movement; one has to creep slowly along the mire of material objects; one has
no time or inclination to secure the Lord’s grace.
The attachments of the world are short-lived.
People have been born many times before and have lived out their lives, loving
and getting immersed in love and attaching themselves to others. But does
anyone now have a trace of all that? Does anyone know where all that has gone?
Does anyone worry about those they loved then? Does anyone remember them at
least now and then? No. The same type of love and attachment were there then
also, but with the passage of time, it has been forgotten.
So too, when one departs from this world, the
love one had for others and the joy, pain, and happiness one had through that
love will be forgotten. Like the playgrounds of children, the senses of action
of man will also change, from here to there and from there to somewhere else!
Fixing their minds on the insecure changing
love, how tragic it is that people forget the cultivation of the disciplines
that will give them the permanent bliss of the Lord!
Everywhere, people are plunged in worry, all
twenty-four hours a day. Is it right to increase their burden? Who can be so
cruel as to torture instead of lessening the suffering of a dying person?
Already, the sea is rough; dare we blow a typhoon over it?
Therefore, learn to spread a smile on the faces
of the desperate. Keep smiling yourself and make others smile. Why make a sad
world sadder by your desperate counsel, your lamentation, and your suffering?
Adopt repetition of the name and meditation to assuage your own grief, to
overcome your own sorrow, and to plunge in the cool waves of the sea of the
grace of the Lord.
Why should travellers wrangle through the night
over useless things, instead of getting ready to leave the caravanserai at dawn
and starting out on the next stage of their pilgrimage? By wrangling, they lose
sleep and deprive themselves of rest; they will not have the energy to continue
the journey. So do not worry too much about things of the world. Worry ends in
meaningless hurry and waste of time. That time is better used in meditating on
God.
continued......
Love.
Note
- As
the author is undergoing a hectic schedule, he thought he would elaborate on
Swami's writings in the next post. But as he posts Swami's writing on
Attachment in this post, he sees that there is nothing more to actually
elaborate or introspect on the above gems poured by the source, the Poorna
avatar. Still, if something comes to mind, author shall explain in the next
post.
Love.
