Everyspiritual aspirant must be house holder

[dattaswami]

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

 

In the spiritual path, the aspirant should be in the stage of a householder (Grihastha). Then only, God can test him or her whether the human being can practically sacrifice these three strong bonds (Eeshanatrayam), which are

 

Dhaneshana: Bond with money and wealth

 

Daareshana: Bond with wife or husband

 

Putreshana: Bond with issues.

 

When the human being is in the atmosphere of these three bonds, then only, the testing can be done by God. For this purpose, you should be a householder and not a saint, who is far from these bonds. You can evaluate a student, who has appeared for the examination and submitted the answer script. Such a student is like the householder. A saint, who avoids these bonds, is completely out of the context of testing like a student, who does not attend the examination at all. Therefore, such a saint is not greater than the householder. The student not attending the examination is not greater than even the student, who has failed after attending the examination.

 

Therefore, even the householder, who failed in the test of God, is greater than the saint. The saint, who thinks that he is greatest among the human beings, is totally false. There is a famous joke. One circus master is passing through burning rings by jump. He is gradually reducing the size of the burning ring and as the size decreased, more risk is faced. Hence, the public seeing this feat gave more and more claps as the size of the ring is reduced. One fellow, seeing this feat, thought that the greatness of the jumper increases as the radius of the burning ring decreases. The person thought that if the radius is zero, the jump will be greatest because the radius is in the stage of least reduction. Therefore, he made a jump without the ring at all and expected claps from the public in greatest level. But, unfortunately, not even a single person clapped! The state of such person is the state of the saint.

 

Gopikas were householders and reached the highest place called Goloka by sacrificing these three strong bonds for the sake of Lord Krishna. Even Hanuman married Suvarchala, the daughter of the Sun. He got a son called ‘Matsyavallabha’. This means that even Hanuman became the householder. This indicates that even Hanuman appeared for the examination. Therefore, no saint should think that the householder is lower than his or her status since the fact is that the status of the saint is lower than the status of the householder. Shankara remained as saint since He has to walk to all places in India for the propagation of spiritual knowledge and becoming a householder disturbs this Divine program. They are exceptional since they are Incarnations of God and not the normal spiritual aspirants. Every spiritual aspirant must become a householder, face the testing done by God and pass the examination.