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

 

Detachment, key to spiritual progress

 

CHENNAI, JUNE 4. A general misconception that is prevalent about

spiritual life is that it can be pursued in the evening of life

when all worldly responsibilities are over. But one who is

serious about realising the goal of liberation in this birth must

pause and think why it cannot be postponed to old age. For one,

habits which have not been formed in youth cannot be cultivated

in old age when one's faculties are failing and infirmities

torment the body. A verse in the Bhaja Govindam of Adi Sankara

bemoans that even in this pitiable condition when the hair has

turned grey, teeth have fallen and it has become difficult to

walk upright and death knocks at his door, man continues to

entertain desires and seeks to fulfil them.

 

In this hymn Sankara tellingly portrays the predicament of the

worldly people who waste the precious opportunity of a human

birth by frittering it away in materialistic pursuits and do not

make any attempt to reform. He points out that even a beggar

reduced to penury who does not know from where his next meal

would come, sleeping under the shade of a tree, exposed to the

elements, does not develop discrimination of mind by eschewing

desires.

 

In his discourse, Sri M. K. Venkatraman said that the hymn also

gave practical guidance on spiritual life. Some who take to

spiritual life follow all the religious rituals without fail but

do not seem to develop the discriminative capacity which only

wisdom can endow about the evanescence of worldly life and hence

they do not get release from the cycle of transmigration. Though

they are religious they fail to understand that all actions must

be performed with detachment - without expectation of result. So

even after 100 births they remain entangled in the web of Karma

without attaining liberation.

 

Unless a spiritual aspirant develops detachment towards material

comforts his dependence on them will impel him to action and

thereby fuel his desires. So it is imperative that one desirous

of liberation learns to live with minimum creature comforts

required for sustaining his life in the world.

 

On the contrary, one who is established in the Self (Atman) will

by nature be indifferent to his station in life. He will accept

with equanimity of mind both the state of renunciation and a

luxurious life. He can live in total isolation and in the company

of his kith and kin; irrespective of such extremes his mind

revels in the joy of spiritual union. Another important requisite

of spiritual life is developing devotion to God by chanting the

divine names and listening to the glory of God.

 

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