Bonds hindering the spiritual progress & overcoming them

[dattaswami]

BONDS HINDERING THE SPIRITUAL PROGRESS & OVERCOMING THEM

There are four strong bonds, which hinder the spiritual progress.

 

1) The bond with the wife

 

2) The bond with the money

 

3) The bond with the child

4) The bond with ones body and life.

Among the three bonds the strongest bond is the bond with the children. The wife can help in the spiritual effort (Sadhana) and therefore she is called as ‘Saha Dharma Charini’. The sex, which is a biological need, is a matter of attraction of few minutes or at the maximum few hours. This little time is negligible compared to the long lifetime and the energy dedicated to the Lord. But the bond with the children persists in all the times and requires the expenditure of the energy continuously. The Bond with the money also increases due to this bond with children. For the sake of the children people become currupt and try to rob others. In such process they are doing lot of injustice. The strength of this bond is reduced by realization and with this not only the individual salvation in the upper world is achieved, but also the justice in this world can be easily established. This is the reason why the Lord spoke about the detachment of worldly bonds for the establishment of the justice.

 

He says that He is born to establish the Justice, but He does not speak about the rules of the Justice. The Government, Police and even the courts quote the rules of Justice, which cannot establish the Justice. People are trying to misinterpret these rules and win the case. In Gita the Lord attempted for the detachment of these bonds, which are responsible for the injustice. He attacked the problem at the basic level. Therefore, the strength of the bond with the children is proportional to the injustice in the world. This bond also hinders the spiritual elevation. Unless the strongest bond is cut, salvation is impossible. Without the salvation, the single bond with the Lord is impossible. You can analyze Vyasa, Arjuna and Dhritaraashtra who are representing the three above average, average and below average levels.

 

Vyasa is the highest Guru and his birthday is celebrated as Guru Purnima. The divine prostitutes who are of the lowest level mocked such a highest Guru due to this strongest bond. Vyasa was running after his son and was mocked. He was not mocked for his bond with the divine lady called ‘Gritaachi’ because it was just a temporary bond for few minutes. She gave birth to ‘Suka’ through whom Vyasa had permanent bond for twenty years. For the sake of wife he wasted only few minutes but for the sake of son he wasted twenty years. Arjuna was also bound by this strongest bond. He was killing all his relatives on the order of the Lord. He was prepared to leave the kingdom, but when his son Abhimanyu died, he stopped the war. The war is the work of the Lord to punish the evil people. Therefore, the bond with the Lord is not stronger than the bond with his son. The Lord performed the surgery and broke this strongest bond by killing even the other children (Upa Pandavas). The Lord wanted to lift Arjuna. Bhagavatgita was the medicine, which could not work to break the strongest bond. Therefore, the Lord performed the surgery and lifted Arjuna and other Pandavas also as they surrendered to Him. The Lord lifted Vyasa by preaching him through the divine prostitutes. For Vyasa the medicine was sufficient but for Arjuna surgery was required. Since Vyasa and Pandavas are His devotees, the Lord did everything for their upliftment. Dhritarashtra is not a devotee. He knows that Krishna is the Lord. He saw the Viswarupam.

 

 He advised his sons to arrange a feast and attract the Lord to help them. He tried to grab the wealth of his own brother Pandu who only conquerred the whole kingdom. When Pandu went to the forest, Dhritaraashtra was made the representative of the king. He became blind with this strongest bond and did not mind to do injustice to the son’s of his own brother. The whole wealth actually belongs to his brother. If he passes an order as a king, his son cannot hinder it. He has the support of Bhishma. Bhishma took an oath that he will protect the king. Therefore he need not fear for his son. His wife Gandhari found fault always with her husband and her sons, but at the last when her children were killed she gave the curse to Lord Krishna forgetting that He is the Lord. Such is the strength of this illusory bond! Today Dhritaraashtra represents people. People are trying to earn the money for the sake of their children and they are prepared to do injustice to any extent for this. Like Dhritaraashtra they want to please the Lord by worship to help their children. Therefore, if the Sadhaka can cut this strongest bond all the other two bonds can be easily cut.

 

Gopikas represent the state of a real Avadhoota. In the absence of Krishna, they forgot all the biological needs of the body and they jumped into the fire when they heard that Lord Krishna left the body. They only could cut the bond with their bodies and bond with their lives also. The Lord could cut their bonds by dancing with them, by attracting their children to do mischief and by stealing their butter. By the dance in Brindavanam (Raasakeli), the husband-wife bond was cut. Their own children stole butter on the order of Krishna and due to this the mother-child bond was cut. By giving butter to Krishna, which was their hard-earned wealth, their bond with money was also cut. Like this Gopikas only could cut all the bonds and achieved the highest grace, which is the fifteenth upper most world called Goloka. In the case of Hanuman, he fought with the Lord for the sake of his mother to protect king Yayathi.

 

 Therefore Bhagavatam, which contains the story of the Gopikas at the end is the most sacred scripture, which could give salvation to Pareekshith in seven days. The very first verse of Bhagavatam speaks about this strongest bond of Vyasa. The love in these worldly bonds can be cut only by the love on the Lord. A diamond can be cut only by another diamond. These bonds with human beings can be cut only by the bond with the Lord in the form of human being only. The bond with formless God, or the bond with a form in the upper world like Vishnu and Siva, or the bond with a statue or a photo cannot cut your family bonds. These are stones, which fail to cut the diamond.

 

Gopikas could cut these human bonds by their bond with Lord Krishna who is in the human form only. Your question is very important because it deals with the actual journey towards the goal. For us neither the analysis of goal nor the analysis of a soul is so important as the analysis of the path and journey. The goal can be realized even after reaching it and need not be known now itself. Since the soul is travelling towards the goal, the soul is already not the goal. This one point is sufficient regarding the soul. All the concentration is to be put up on the analysis of the real path and the mode of the journey.

 

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