Practise Detachment For Perfection

The Times Of India

Knowledge may or may not be Ishwara. Knowledge may take us near or away from Ishwara.

Knowledge may or may not be Ishwara . Knowledge may take us near or away from Ishwara. A businessman was in front of the god of Death who asked him where he wished to go to heaven or to hell. The businessman replied, "I don't bother about heaven or hell, but please send me anywhere where I can earn some money." This is the state of deep attachment to money.

Kalsokarik was a renowned butcher of his time. He used to kill 500 buffaloes every day. Once he was put inside a dark cell by the king. There too, he fulfilled his deep-rooted attachment to killing buffaloes by making and killing imaginary buffaloes. This is also a sort of attachment.

When Kalsokarik died, his son Sulas became the butcher. He had to perform a ritual of sacrificing a buffalo. His whole clan was gathered and Sulas was ordered to kill the buffalo. He said, "I cannot kill." Sulas was free from cruelty and he was awakened to his knowledge. Kalsokarik couldn't exist without killing buffaloes, and Sulas couldn't kill buffaloes. The difference in their tendencies was the subtle difference in their knowledge. So the knowledge associated with delusion takes to evil. The knowledge detached from delusion flows free and such knowledge itself is Ishwara .

It is a process of awakening one's own reasoning mind and thereby controlling one's passions and emotions, by concentration on perception rather than on thought.

One who can perceive plain awareness is Ishwara. We identify men by positions, degrees and adjectives. We are not aware that he is consciousness, soul. We know him by his external appearances and recognise him by epithets. This knowledge is not sacrosanct. To know a being without relating him to any adjectives and epithets is real sacrosanct knowledge. As long as your awareness is associated with attachment and hatred, it will remain simply knowledge and when the awareness is free from attachment and hatred then it becomes meditation and sadhana.

Detachment is not an accidental and abrupt happening it flourishes gradually. It is almost impossible to lead a totally detached life. We can certainly exist in the state of detachment for some moments, this is the only inclination towards meditation.

There was a Korean saint named Richhai. A young man came to him and said, "I want to do 'sadhana' . Tell me the method by which i can attain perfection." The saint said, "You will have to invest a minimum of 30 years in sadhana ." Stunned he exclaimed, "Thirty years!" The saint then said, "No it is 60 years now, and not 30 years." The sadhaka said, "What is this? How have you doubled the period of sadhana ." The saint said, "The scepticism existing in your mind has increased the duration from 30 to 60 years." The sadhaka went home and kept thinking. Then concluded that even if his whole lifespan was dedicated to achieving perfection it was worthwhile. He went back to the saint and agreed to devote whatever time was required to attain perfection. He further pleaded to be taught the methodology of meditation or sadhana .

He started sadhana and got perfection within three years. He bowed at the feet of the saint and said, "You had said that i would get perfection in 60 years and i got it within three years." The saint said, "I was correct, because as long as you are restless, and lacking in faith, the time of perfection will go on increasing. Since you managed to focus with faith, you accomplished perfection within three years."