"All Are Engrossed In Strong Attachment To Worldly Life..."

                Why Did The All Knowing Saints Preach Non-Attachment?  

Shrimadji said... 


All knowing saints have described worldly life as infinitely sorrowful, infinitely full of miseries, disorganized, like a see-saw and impermanent. 


They seem to have completely reflected on the nature of worldly life before giving it the above adjectives. 


The Soul or Self wanders in the cycles of innumerable births and deaths under the strong influence of infinite ignorance and interminable conflicts of the life lasting for ages, infinite deaths and infinite sorrows and sufferings. 


The apparently attractive lure of worldly pleasures have benumbed our soul so much that it does not find anywhere else the happiness it sees in worldly life, and in such condition the soul has not even cherished a desire to see the nature of truth and enjoy the real happiness following from such knowledge and vision. 


It is mad after the pleasures of the world as the butterfly is mad after the light of a burning candle. 


All knowing saints do not call worldly life happy even for a moment; not even the smallest spot in worldly life is without poison of attachment and hatred. 


From a wild bear to a great sovereign ruler - all are engrossed in strong attachment to worldly life; surprisingly a bear is even more attached to worldly life than a sovereign ruler. 


A sovereign ruler enjoys supreme command over his subjects but at the same time he suffers from botheration of whole kingdom while the wild bear has no such worry at all. 


As this ruler is attached to his wife intensely so is the bear attached to his mate intensely. 


The more lure for prosperity, the more one has to suffer for protecting it or for increasing it. 


Both the ruler and the bear are born and have to die one day. 


Thinking deeply this way both are caught in momentariness, disease and old age. 


In material possessions the ruler is more powerful and resourceful and enjoys the fruits of his good deeds, enjoys comparatively a peace of mind while the poor bear is suffering from pain and fear. 


Both of them have their periods of happiness and sorrow, love and hate, freedom and fear. 


But between the two the sovereign ruler is extremely powerful and capable of deep understanding and higher intelligence, he can search for the lasting happiness and peace of his soul but if he keeps himself under the stupor of ignorance and want of discrimination till death and he loses the game. 


The bear cannot be compared with the praiseworthy sovereign ruler from viewpoint of his superiority but from viewpoint that in enjoying sense pleasures both stoop low; both have bodies filled with pus and flesh etc. 


Thus the position of a sovereign ruler though highest in worldly life is momentary, painful, lowly and full of ignorance; then how can one find more happiness or better condition anywhere else? 


In fine, there is no real happiness either in the worldly life of a sovereign ruler or in the animal life of a wild bear. 


Whatever illusory happiness one sees in them, it is fraught with danger, it is momentary and so it is only misery and not happiness at all. 


Therefore the all knowing saints have turned their back towards any attachment to worldly life in whatever stage it may be. 


Worldly life is total unhappiness, full of miseries, infinitely painful, sorrowful and afflicting. 


A wise man once detached from worldly life should not even look at it, a sea of mere sorrow and suffering. 


Non - attachment is the only best guide to a worldly man desiring liberation and resulting unalloyed happiness and peace.


Shrimad Rajchandra (Mokshmala lesson 52)