Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

47. Attachment and Duty

(Darshan given in November 1999)

A visitor: Swamiji, three years ago I came with my daughter. I remember you told me when we spoke about unattachment, not to be attached. My daughter was with me, and you clarified responsibility, that it is not attachment. It is fulfilling my responsibility as a mother.

Swamiji: Responsibility as a mother is not attachment. It is called duty. Duty is different from attachment. You have a duty towards your child, but it is not attachment. Duty is quite different from attachment. Duty is a spiritual requirement. Attachment is an emotional working. Love need not necessarily be emotional. It can be spiritual.

Visitor: I've been working very hard on it.

Swamiji: You have to distinguish between duty and attachment.

Visitor: Still sometimes emotion does come.

Swamiji: It comes, but it has to be overcome gradually, directing it to the all-pervading presence which includes every other little thing to which the mind gets diverted wrongly.

[Later on]

Another visitor: But if a master wants to transform, he neglects touching upon certain aspects.

Swamiji: Nobody can transform anybody. It is a foolishness.

Visitor: But he can show the light.

Swamiji: No human being can change the world.

Visitor: I'm not talking about changing the world, but we can bring that change.

Swamiji: Why should you do? You have no other better work? You get your salvation first, then you will transform the whole world. You are a bound soul; you are yourself inside a prison, and you want to release the prisoners outside. You come out of the prison first, then you do some good work. You are a bound soul, as bound as anybody else.

Another visitor: I cannot concentrate because I think my love of God is too small and my attachment to the world is too big. I find this must be because I have not enough discrimination. My discrimination is too...

Swamiji: You are a professor of philosophy. Why are you worrying about anything else unnecessarily? You teach philosophy in Madrid and be happy. Why unnecessarily you are worrying? You have got attachment to the world. I am very glad. Let it go on, and the world will take care of you.

Visitor: No, because I don't like this situation.

Swamiji: The world will not take care of you?

Visitor: No.

Swamiji: Why? If it cannot take care of you, why are you attached? Are you so foolish that you are attached to something which cannot give you anything? Can you understand? So your statement is self-contradictory. You are attached to something which is of no value to you. What do you say? You are yourself giving the answer to your question.

Visitor: Yes, it is true.

Swamiji: Now don't say anything to me because already the answer has come [laughter].

[Later on]

Swamiji: Spirituality is just this much: the capacity of the mind to concentrate on that which is everywhere. If this is not possible, then spirituality is very poor. A very important matter. You have to train your mind for that.

Why are you travelling from place to place? They will not bring anything. Only you are wasting your money. You sit in one place and meditate like this. But if you cannot meditate, then no other place will bring you any peace because your spirituality is in your mind only. It is not in Arunachala or any place. You have rightly said that it is everywhere. Now accept it, from the bottom of your heart, that it is everywhere. Then you will find that you are also vanishing because that will absorb you into itself, because that which is everywhere includes you also. So who is meditating? That which is everywhere is meditating on that which is everywhere. This is spirituality.

Why you are travelling too much? The secret is in yourself. The secret is in your mind. You are as good a man as anybody else. You need not search for good people. If you can be convinced, you are agreeable to this, and this thought is settled in your mind, you are also a saintly man. You need not go to saints outside. What is lacking in you? You are as good as anybody else.

But the only thing is one point, that you are not able to concentrate on that which is everywhere. If that can be achieved, then you don't want anything else afterwards. You need not travel anywhere. It is a defect in the mind. The mind is attached to this one place, one person, one body, which is obstacle number one to attaining true spirituality.

Day and night you must sit and meditate: Why should I not? If somebody has achieved it, I will also achieve it. I have nothing wrong with me. I am perfectly okay. You tell yourself, and determine to concentrate on that which is everywhere, which includes you also. Here is the whole moot point. If that includes you also, then where are you? You are everywhere. Wonderful conclusion! You need not go to any place. No use of travelling. You will be happy in one instant here, but you must be sure that your mind is accepting it. Okay, Hari Om. God bless you.