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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