Article sent from The Hindu on indiaserver.com

[Guest guest]

=============================================================

This article is emailed to you by Ram Chandran ( rchandran )

=============================================================

Source: The Hindu (http://www.the-hindu.com)

 

Attachment leads to bondage

 

CHENNAI, FEB. 9. Total detachment from worldly bonds is the mark

of a spiritually evolved person. Detachment is the fruit of

austerities and contemplation performed in the course of several

lives that the soul has undergone. But even an adept who has

devoted his life entirely to God must be wary of impediments that

will disturb his one-pointedness of mind due to latent tendencies

of the mind which will without his conscious knowledge develop

worldly attachments. So one who is intent on realising God must

be always alert to distractions which will thwart his progress.

 

This truth has been portrayed in the Bhagavata Purana with the

example of King Bharata. His lineage as son of Rishabhadeva and

grandson of Nabhi, naturally disposed him to spiritual life

though he was born in the royal family. Handing over his kingdom

to his sons after ruling over it in an exemplary way for long as

he was bent on realising the spiritual goal, Bharata retired to

the hermitage of Sage Pulaha on the bank of the river, Gandhaki,

and devoted all his time to contemplation on God.

 

He had reached the acme of devotion as he was always immersed in

bliss having been fortunate to envision the Lord and was totally

oblivious to the world. Even such a man of wisdom, who had

renounced material riches and his family, and leading a life of a

recluse, succumbed to attachment as he developed fondness for a

fawn, said Sri Thyagaraja Sarma in his discourse.

 

One day as Bharata was performing his ablutions in the river, a

pregnant deer appeared and started drinking water. Hearing the

roar of a lion from the depths of the forest, the frightened deer

leapt across the river terribly frightened and the trauma

resulted in the premature delivery of the young one which fell

into the water. The royal sage who was witnessing all this was

moved by pity for the helpless tiny fawn and rescued it and took

it to the hermitage.

 

Entertaining the notion that he was responsible for the fawn he

started lavishing all his attention to its creature comforts by

providing nourishment and protecting it from other animals and

this preoccupation made him neglect his spiritual practices. He

consoled himself with the thought that pious people ignored their

interests for the sake of such helpless creatures oblivious to

the fact that his love for the deer was blinding him to the

objective he had in life.

 

Bharata's obsession with it made him worry about it when his end

came instead of fixing his mind on God and hence he had to be

reborn as a deer in his next birth.

 

Copyrights: 2000 The Hindu & Tribeca Internet Initiatives Inc.

 

Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly

prohibited without the consent of The Hindu & Tribeca Internet Initiatives Inc.