Material attachment causes anxiety
Lecture by Sri Chanchalapathi Dasa, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.13.9
kaya vrttya vartitam vas
caradbhih ksiti-mandalam
tirthani ksetra-mukhyani
sevitaniha bhutale
TRANSLATION
While travelling on the surface of the earth, how did you maintain your livelihood? At which holy places and pilgrimage sites did you render service?
PURPORT
Vidura went out from the palace to detach himself from household affairs, especially political intrigues. As referred to herein before, he was practically insulted by Duryodhana’s calling him a son of a sudrani, although it was not out of place to talk loosely in the case of one’s grandmother.
Vidura’s mother, although a sudrani, was the grandmother of Duryodhana, and funny talks are sometimes allowed between grandmother and grandchildren. But because the remark was an actual fact, it was unpalatable talk to Vidura, and it was accepted as a direct insult. He therefore decided to quit his paternal house and prepare for the renounced order of life.
This preparatory stage is called vanaprastha-asrama, or retired life for travelling and visiting the holy places on the surface of the earth. In the holy places of India, like Vrndavana, Hardwar, Jagannatha Puri, and Prayaga, there are many great devotees, and there are still free kitchen houses for persons who desire to advance spiritually. Maharaja Yudhisthira was inquisitive to learn whether Vidura maintained himself by the mercy of the free kitchen houses (chatras).
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Vidura left on a pilgrimage after being insulted by Duryodhana, who called him the son of a sudrani. Although sometimes grandchildren playfully tease their grandparents by using strong language, the grandparents forgive them, because that is their rasa. However, Vidura did not take the insult lightly, and left to visit the holy places. On his return to Yudhisthira’s palace, the king enquired about his pilgrimage, as is often done, when someone returns from a long stay away from his home.
There are similar instances in Vedic history where someone’s unpalatable talk or insult had triggered off detachment and prompted spiritual quest in a very serious way. One example is that of Dhruva Maharaj, whose desire to sit on his father’s lap was thwarted by his step mother. The little boy of five years was so pained that he decided he wanted a kingdom much bigger than that of his father’s, to be able to sit on his father’s lap, and on the throne. His mother advised him to seek out Lord Vishnu, who could fulfil his desire. And where could he find Lord Vishnu? His mother told him that sages go to the forest to seek out Vishnu, so he may be in the forest. The determined little boy left the palace and went to the forest in search of Lord Vishnu.
Another example is that of the Vaishnava saint Bilvamangal Thakur, who in his youth was attached to a prostitute. So strong was his attachment that even on one rainy, stormy night, he battled the furious flooding river, and visited the prostitute. She was so surprised that he could have crossed the rough river on such a stormy night, just to see her that she told him that if he had had as much attachment to Lord Krishna, as he had to her, his life would be glorious. Those few words were enough to trigger off a new thinking in Bilvamangal and he left the place of the prostitute and went in search of Krishna.
Vidura left home with determination of detachment from material life. He took the remarks of his nephew Duryodhana positively, and considered it the right time to pursue spiritual life. He therefore travelled to the holy places and returned to the palace after his pilgrimage. In Vedic culture, non development of detachment was considered as a failure of life. Vedic culture strongly advocated and encouraged people to develop detachment from material activities. This is strikingly opposed to modern civilisation which decries detachment from material life and provides no impetus to human beings to practice the same. However, in the Vedic society, in order to assist detachment, the society was divided and there was a section of the society called sanyasis, who developed and maintained a high standard of detachment from material activities, thereby inspiring others to follow the path.
What is the advantage of developing such detachment? Prahlada Maharaja says the result of attachment to material things is sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat, meaning that as long as we are attached to material things in this material world, we will have to experience samudvigna-dhiyam, constant anxiety.
As spirit souls, we are eternal and naturally seeking that eternal state of existence, but all material things are simply temporary, and will come to an end, and that is not satisfying for us, as a result of which, we have to experience anxieties. The solution given by the Vedic culture to be free from these anxieties caused by temporary material things is to become detached from material activities. This is the recommended path and as Prabhupada has pointed out, before one becomes fully detached, there is a preparatory stage of life called vanaprastha where one consciously practices detachment, stays away from home, travels to the holy places, practices austerities and in the holy places hears about Krishna from the sadhus who are already detached and by hearing from such sadhus, detachment develops. How does detachment come? Detachment comes when we hear from devotees who are already detached.
So hearing about Krishna from the right sources will bring about detachment and this is the recommended method of developing detachment. So Vidura started traveling, he went to the holy places, he met several holy people and he heard from them and he developed detachment and that is a standard method recommended in the Vedic culture.
So in order to become free from anxieties, Prahlada Maharaja instructed that we give up being attached to home and material relationships, as these neither encourage spiritual life nor understanding of eternal life. When Hiranyakashipu, father of Prahlada Maharaj, enquired from him what he liked best that he learnt in school, he expected his son to talk about politics, economic development and diplomacy but was surprised when the little boy told him that one has to go to the forest and take shelter of Lord Hari, so that he doesn’t get caught in a situation where there is no opportunity for spiritual enlightenment, as if that happens, the consequence will be constant anxiety.
So the path of detachment is always recommended and we in the Krishna Consciousness Society, practice yukta-vairagya, where we use money, facilities, wealth, and other things to spread Krishna consciousness. While we are doing this, we should remind ourselves not to get attached to all these facilities, but rather, learn detachment, by focussing on our goal, which is to become detached from the material world and get attached to the lotus feet of Krishna. Such detachment is cultivated by following a simple standard of life and although we use lot of material opulence for serving Krishna, personally our lives should be simple.
Our living, eating, and our real pleasure are in simplicity and simple living and if we are thus focused, then we will be peaceful and satisfied in any condition of life and we will be ready to render service to Krishna, eagerly. On the other hand, if we become attached to all the complicated things in the material world, viz. to name, fame, prestige, honour etc, then it will be impossible to develop detachment, and we would have missed the very purpose that our Vedic culture is impressing upon us. Our lives should be so simple that we should not aspire anything more than a small place to sleep, and some prasadam to eat, just to keep body and soul together, and to serve Guru and Krishna.
When Prabhupada gave sannyasa to some of his disciples, after the ceremony, he called them to his room and told them, “whenever you see a rich man or when you see beautiful women do not regret, oh! I gave up all these things, maybe I am missing all these things; don’t regret.” Similarly, in whatever ashrama we are, which is actually only an external situation, we should practice a sense of detachment from our surroundings. There is no difference as far as the principles are concerned because Krishna consciousness is actually transcendental to all these ashramas and our real goal of life is become Krishna conscious.
That is why Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, although he was a sannyasi, said “I am neither a sannyasi nor a brahmacari nor a grhastha nor brahmana, I am dasa-dasanu-dasa, pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanu-dasa, gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa- dasanu-dasa,” as this is the ultimate understanding of ourselves, I am simply a servant of the servant of Krishna. So in all situations of life, as a Krishna conscious devotee, these principles of detachment and simple living are very essential.
Our real satisfaction should be that we are able to complete chanting our rounds nicely every day, honour prasadam, have darshana of the Lord, hear Krishna katha, to read Krishna katha, to talk to others about Krishna – this is real pleasure. We should be convinced that this is our life and our happiness is not to be found anywhere else but in these activities linked to Krishna.
We should try to remain always in sattva guna which will bring us peace to meditate on the Lord and His pastimes. If we lapse into rajo guna, we will never cease to hanker for material opulence. The characteristic of tamo-guna is that it covers up knowledge. So you can see knowledge is covered, intense hankering and hard work is what the material world is made of today, and that is why we say modern society is conducted by the modes of rajo-guna and tamo-guna.
The opposite is sattva-guna which is all about enlightenment, satisfaction, peace. So these things are very essential to practice and then we will be able to make good spiritual progress and that should be the sole goal of our life.
source: Hare Krishna Blog
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