Monday, September 24, 2012

Bonds hindering the spiritual progress & overcoming them


[Taken from Discourses of His Holiness Shri Datta Swami]  There are four strong bonds, which hinder the spiritual progress. 1) Bond with wife 2) Bond with money 3) Bond with child 4) The bond with one’s body and life.

Avadhuta can only be the soul who has cut all these four bonds. A Sanyasi could cut the first three bonds but not the fourth bond. A Sanyasi takes food, drinks water, sleeps and leaks the sperm periodically. The Sanyasi avoided the wife but not the desire for the sex. The eating, drinking, sleep and sex are the four biological needs of the body. The Avadhoota lives maintaining his body without these four needs and his body is beyond the rules of the nature. His body is a divine body maintained by the super power (Maya) of the Lord.

The state of Avadhoota is complete liberation and such complete salvation is possible only by the complete grace of the Lord. Avadhoota is just an inert house of the Lord. There is no soul in that body. The soul also is a part of the nature and so the soul becomes a part of the inert house of the Lord. The Avadhoota thinks talks or does anything only by the will of the Lord. It is one system and not two in one. Avadhoota is one hundred percent Lord. It is the state of the goal and there is no journey further. He is called as Siddha and not Sadhaka.

Even the Sanyasi is a Sadhaka who is still travelling towards that state. However, a stone can be also equated to Avadhoota because it also has complete salvation but the Lord is not dwelling in it. The Salvation must be attained through the devotion of the Lord, which will lead to the state of Avadhoota. If simple salvation is attained without devotion it will lead to the state of a stone.

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 corrupt and try to rob others. In such process, they do 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 try 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 represent 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 conquered 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.
At the lotus feet of Swami
-Prasad

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