ATTACHMENT TO WORLD CHANGES TO ATTACHMENT OF GOD IN FINAL STAGE

[dattaswami]

ATTACHMENT TO WORLD CHANGES TO ATTACHMENT OF GOD IN FINAL STAGE

Dr. Nikhil asked about the pressures in the worldly life and their consequent effects on the spiritual life.

Swami replied: There are three stages. In the first stage, the human being is very much involved in the family life and is strongly bound by the family bonds. This deep attachment is the reason for disturbance and tension. You are watching a cinema. You are not attached to any role in the picture. You are totally detached from every role. You know that the whole story is an imagination of the writer. The lack of reality of the picture and also your detachment from all the roles form the basis of your entertainment without any tension. Shankara says that this world is unreal because it is temporary in the sense that there is continuous change (Yat anityam tat kritakam hi loke). Based on the same reason, all your family bonds also must be unreal because they are temporary limited to this life only. Truth is always eternal like the rope that exists in all the times. The illusory serpent is always unreal since it is temporary as it is seen for sometime only. Rope is present as rope only even during the time of illusion. Therefore, this world is not different from the cinema. Based on this philosophy of Shankara, you can get yourself detached from every worldly bond and enjoy this world as a cinema. You may argue that the family bonds may be unreal due to birth and death of every human being, but the world exists continuously and we have not realized the creation and dissolution of the world. By this, let us assume that this world is real. Still, you can be entertained due to your detachment from the unreal bonds even in the real world. Even if it is not cinema and even if it is the real story of some other family in this world, you are entertained by them and their story, since you are detached from them. You have to attain this second stage, which is the stage of God.

Whether the world is unreal or real, God is entertained by it due to His detachment. For God, this world is actually unreal. Soul being a part of this world cannot treat the world as unreal because for unreal soul, unreal world is real. You can be entertained by the world as God is entertained. This is attainable characteristic of God. You can enjoy the cinema like His officer while sitting in the cinema hall. Entertainment by enjoyment is common in all the spectators and the status of anyone is immaterial and irrelevant during the period of the entertainment. If you can enjoy the world throughout your life, you are equal to God throughout your life having the same characteristic of entertainment. The producer-fluid-director is also enjoying like any other spectator only. The talent and power in the production and direction is irrelevant here. You can treat the irrelevant point as non-existent. In this sense Shankara told that world is unreal. You need not worry about the non-attainable characteristics of God like creation, control and dissolution of the world. These three capacities are non-attainable and differentiate you from the producer-fluid-director or God. Brahman is name of God used in the aspect of the spectator. Eeshwara is the name of God used in the aspect of the special power and talent of God. Jeeva or human being is Brahman (Jeevo Brahmaiva – Shankara) but not Eeshwara. Entertainment is the ultimate goal and hence Brahman is ultimate. Eeshwara is a special status of Brahman and the goal of all the efforts of Eeshwara is only to become Brahman and to make Jeeva also as Brahman. The producer-fluid-director does not mind if his peon is also enjoying the cinema on par with him. In fact, he wishes so only and is pleased with such state of everybody. The peon can say that he is also a spectator like his boss. There is nothing wrong up to this point. But, the problem comes if the peon takes undue advantage of such equality and says that he is the producer-fluid-director and puts his hand over the shoulder of the boss. One can say that he is Brahman, but should not say that he is Eeshwara since Brahman and Eeshwara are one and the same. The talent of production and direction of the cinema is hidden in the boss and only spectatorship is exhibited. Spectatorship is not only a partial characteristic but also an external associated characteristic since it did not exist before the creation. The talent and power of production and direction is internal and inherent characteristic that existed even before production and direction. Hence, you have not really become the real God.

This second stage is the only answer for the problem of worldly tensions. You can solve your problem and be happy always achieving the attainable characteristic of mere spectatorship of God. God will not mistake you for attaining His characteristic to lead a happy life in this world. But, by this, you should not be egoistic to think that you are God. You have attained only a partial associated characteristic of God and you are not God in view of the other inherent characteristics. By this, you cannot attain the grace of God. If you imitate somebody to become happy, the other person will not mistake you. This does not mean that the other person shows his love to you. You have used God to be happy, but you have not served God to attain His grace. In the service of God, again the same tensions appear due to your over attachment to God. When Sita was not found in Lanka, Hanuman thought of even committing suicide. This is the third and final stage. Your attachment to the world is transformed into the attachment to God. Your worldly tensions are transformed into tensions in the divine service. The second stage is only an intermediate step to develop detachment from the world. In the third stage, you have to again develop your attachment to God. You must express your gratefulness to God for allowing you into the second stage. The peon should be grateful to the boss for allowing him into the cinema hall owned by the boss. Instead of this gratefulness, if you develop ego, you will be fallen. After all, if you are happy throughout this life and not protected after death, what is the use of your achievement? You should always have a long ranged foresight.