Detachment is the key to long lasting happiness

In the modern day society, while leading the day to day life, a common man gets attached to the people, places and things around him or her. Not only that, you also get mentally attached to the desires, goals or so called dreams of life. The materialistic society only teaches you to attach yourself to everything in your circle of existence so as to achieve a sense of security, success and happiness.

However, the problem is when these things disappear, as they often do, it leaves you with the feelings of emptiness, restlessness and grief. The attachment to money makes you greedy; the attachment to your status makes you selfish and mean; the attachment to the people around you makes you emotionally vulnerable; the attachment to the surroundings makes you fearful; the attachment to your goals and desires makes you restless.

The sages of the east tell us that such worldly attachment arises from the ignorance of the Self and is the root cause of all the sorrow. If you have likings for the material possessions, then you will be inflicted with financial worries. If you are excessively attached to your spouse, then there will be more arguments and it may result into separation. A stranger doesn’t become an enemy. People with whom you are attached as friends only turn into enemies in the due course of life.

Another interesting viewpoint is that God, who is your supreme well wisher, continuously help you to get detached from these worldly bindings. God tries to detach you from these bindings by creating financial losses, sufferings, turning your friends into enemies and various other forms of hardships. However, you don’t give up these attachments easily and continue to suffer.

This reminds me of another analogy which will help you to understand this possessive nature of living beings. Do you know how a street juggler catches a monkey in the forest? He simply plays a trick on the wild monkeys. He fixes an empty metal pot with small orifice at a spot that monkeys can notice. Then he put some munchies into the pot while monkeys are watching and leaves. After some time when he returns, he find that monkey’s hand is stuck inside the pot. This is because the monkey doesn’t want to open the fist and let go of all the munchies. In this manner the man gets hold of the monkey by putting a chain around him and hit a stick on monkey’s elbow. Monkey opens his fist and gets the hand released.

Swami Vivekanand used to quote that –‘If I have to take rebirth, I would only practice detachment and concentration. Just the practice of these two virtues, one can lead to the Self realization.’

After understanding that the worldly attachments are the root cause of worldly miseries, a seeker doesn’t measure his or her worth with the fancy cars, luxurious homes, status or bank balance. Such a seeker listens to the words of wisdom from the truly blissful saints and then tries to renounce the attachments with everything that one is supposed to leave anyway, at the time of death. In practicing detachment after realizing the eternal, conscious and blissful nature of the innermost core, a seeker achieves balanced state of mind.

Worldly detachment can only be practiced when you have faith in the Supreme power and when you know that your consciousness is also the part and parcel of the same Supreme Consciousness. After such realization, a seeker leaves everything to God and surrender completely to the Supreme Intelligence that is orchestrating the dance of the universe so wonderfully. In such a true surrender, the seeker gets relieved and begins to experience complete freedom, peace and ever lasting happiness.