890. Living a life of Detachment......!

The shell crack opened the tiny chick peeped out. The shell casing fell apart and the chicken walked out. This is how the egg hatches and the chicken is born. Did the chick develop detachment towards the shell to emerge out??? No, the zeal to live made the chick to transcend from lower growth to higher growth.

Detachment is not a decision it is a part of my growth. It is not a listless non-involvement in life, but is a living sacrifice. Just like the chicken which did not give up the shell, I give up nothing. In fact I have nothing to give up. The immature mind thinks detachment is giving up something. Some feel that detachment is achieved by shunning attachment, but the astonishing thing is attachment is there always. If my attachment for the lower grows into an attachment for the higher then the lower falls on its own.

An analogy will provide a better view. If I need to climb a ladder I take off my leg from the lower rung since I intend to go up the ladder. I am not detaching myself from the lower rung in fact I am just leaving off the lower rung so that I step further up the ladder. Detachment too is so; I need to get attached to the higher thoughts (Spiritual) so that I leave behind the lower thoughts (Mundane).

A King asked his minister; “What is detachment? Is there anyone in my kingdom who is living a life of detachment?”

“Detachment is non-attachment.” said the minister with no intent other than to impress the King. He continued, “There are many in our kingdom living such life, my Lord.”

“I wish to meet one of them.” said the King

The minister was now in a soup he knew none who was living such a life, but he could not go back on his words. He had to take the King to a person who was living the life of detachment. The minister was an expert in using his cunning mind which had saved him innumerable times. He came up with a fraudulent idea.

He approached an unemployed youth and stuck a deal with him. The deal was that the young man should sit under a Banyan tree with his eyes closed. He has to refuse whatever the King offers him by saying “I am detached from it.” For the favour the minister would give him one thousand gold coins.

Escorted by the minister and his bodyguards, the King along with his queen, the prince and the princess marched in the direction of the tree under which the man pretended to be sitting in the seat of silence. The King bowed down to the young man and offered him a tray full of precious stones. Though the young man’s eyes lit up helplessly he said, “I am detached from it.”  The queen offered a tray filled tasty of sweets. He was drooling, yet he replied, “I am detached from it.”  

The King was moved he nodded his head in the direction of the queen and prostrated at young man’s feet. The queen followed suit and the prince and the princess too fell at his feet. When the royal family prostrated before the young man, others around including the minister; had no choice but to do the same. Then, they all marched back to the palace.

Hours later, a triumphant minister returned with the bag of gold coins. The young man said, “I am detached from it.  If just acting as a person who live the life of detachment made the entire royal family and you to fall at my feet, I am just beginning to wonder what will happen if I actually live my life in such a way. So, I have decided to live the life of detachment. I mean it.”