SUPREME NON-ATTACHMENT

 

     Thus, in some days the forest was filled with the hustle and bustle of the city, yet his troubles went on increasing by leaps and bounds. The underlying idea is that by and by even a petty attachment assumes large dimensions in the long run. Therefore, it is most essential to get rid of attachments at the initial stage. Every man should think that he has certainly to depart from this world one day, leaving behind land, house, gold, sons, wife and relations - in fact leaving even his body. Hence, why all this mad strife for worldly attachments.

     A fine description about attachments has been given in the following verses:

Tinrmitu parigahu jath nrathi, akinchanru so nriymainr athi

Apapar jath biyarsati, pydijyi jahim parmaithi bhati

 

Chhadijyi jahim sankap duth, bhoyanru vanchhijyi jahim anrith   
 

Akinchanru dhammu ji aim hoyi, tam jhayijyi nriru ith loyi

     I.e., Where there is not the least attachment equivalent even to a straw, as a rule there lies the vow of non-attachment. Where a man is endowed with the power to distinguish between self and non-self; where reverence and devotion is shown to the five divinities; where evil thoughts are discarded; and where there is no ambition for tasty foods, there lies the virtue of non-attachment. Indeed, he, who is desirous of storing, is a householder and not a monk. A man should practice the virtue of non-attachment in this world. To obtain real knowledge is extremely essential for this purpose. It has been said:

     Dhan kan kanchan raj sukh, sabhi sulabh kar jan

     Durlabh hey sansar main, aik yatharath gyan

     I.e. It is very easy to achieve wealth, property and royal glory; but extremely difficult to acquire real knowledge in order to attain the virtue of non attachment (Akinchanya Dharma).

     It is a hard nut to crack to be born as a man i.e., to achieve the state of a human being. It is a rare luck to be born in a high family in this Arya land; to be endowed with all organs of body in working order; to possess a hale and hearty body free from sickness and all ailments. To get good company of noble souls, to be gifted with the true deities, true scriptures and true religious teachers, and finally to be capable to attain salvation. If a living being does not recognize the value of his present human state, which is a rare gift attained with difficulty, it must be regarded his great misfortune.

     A dumb man thinks - "If I had speech, I would have sung great hymns in praise of the Lord." A blind man murmurs - "If I had eyes and possessed eye sight, I would have seen the holy Lord again and again, and studied the scriptures." A deaf grumbles - "If my ears had been in working order, I would have listened to the holy sermons, hymns and chanting of prayers." All of them are in distress for want of only one sense organ each. But if he, who is gifted with all the five senses working properly and well, does not follow the right path, he is totally in the dark and it shows his ignorance only. He is like the fool, who on obtaining a hardly available diamond from the mine again casts it there not realizing its value. His act is like fleeing crows by casting pearls at them.

     There lived a learned king in a city. He used to compose a Sanskrit couplet (sloka) as soon as he got up in his bed early in the morning daily. He stepped down from the bed only after he had composed a full couplet. An extremely poor destitute Brahman also lived in that city. Although he was poor, yet he was a good scholar of Sanskrit language.

     Being fed up with the sufferings of poverty, one day he thought of committing theft. He decided to enter the royal palace for the act of stealing, rather than breaking into the house of an ordinary householder; so that he might get hold of a good booty. He thought that this act would cause no suffering to the king by robbing a little out of his vast royal treasure. One night he stealthily entered the royal palace. When all the inmates of the palace had gone in deep slumber, the learned Pandit began to roam hither and thither inside the palace in search of something worth stealing. He caught sight of precious articles in the palace one after the other, with the result that he was at a loss to decide what things he should steal and take away.

     While wandering he entered the king's bedroom. A lamp was illuminating the room. Therefore, all the costly objects kept there to adorn the room were clearly visible. He was so much enamored at the sight of those lovely decoration pieces that he could not make up his mind what to steal. At last he saw the gold bricks placed under the legs of the king's bed to raise it high and decided to steal away one of them. But the problem was how and from under, which leg he should take out a brick without waking the king. The night passed in this condition of indecision. As soon as the day dawned, the king woke up and started composing a Sanskrit sloka sitting in his bed. He succeeded in composing only three steps of the following sloka:

     Chaitohra yuvtya suhrdinokala, sadbandhva pranryagrbhgirshch

     Grjanti dantinivhastrtnasturndga

     The king repeated the three steps time and again, but could not compose the fourth step. The meaning of the three steps is:

     "I am the master of several beautiful and charming young damsels as my wives. I have many true friends and brothers. Many sweet-speaking submissive servants attend on me. Many elephants trumpet at my door and many fast racing horses are there in my stable."

     On hearing the three steps of the sloka, the learned Brahman thief, who had got into the palace with the main intention of stealing, could not control himself. Then and there he instantly composed the fourth step as under and recited it to the king:

     Samilitay nyaniarn hi kinchidasti

I.e., As soon as a man breathes his last, none of these horses, elephants, wives, friends, servants and attendants will accompany him to the other world.

     The king was taken aback on hearing such a fine step which completed his sloka. He looked at the learned thief with surprise and asked him, "O learned scholar! Who are you? How and why have you come into my bedroom?" The Brahman related the whole tale of his wretched campaign. Being pleased, the king rewarded him handsomely and bade him farewell.

     To sum up, these physical possessions belong to us so long as we breathe and survive. No sooner do we give up our ghost, than all this vast wealth is left here in this world. All our affluence and grandeur i.e., wealth and property except our immortal soul are not our own and are perishable. Therefore, the immortal soul alone is our real self. We should make incessant efforts only for its uplift forever.