How profound, isn't it? When we are attached to something or
someone, we develop expectations from them. We could be attached to our family,
our job, even our house or our car. We expect that our family remains grateful
to us for the things that we do for them, or our workplace appreciates the hard
work that we put in, or people reciprocate our kindness with kindness.
This desire or expectation could either be met or unmet. If
the desire is met, it leads to greed for more, and if the desire is not met, it
leads to anger. If our family acts in a favourable way, we hope they will keep
doing so. If they do not, it makes us angry. 'How could my efforts be
in vain?' 'How could someone else get promoted over me?' Am I being taken for
granted?'
When angry, we lose the discriminatory power between right and
wrong and act in ways we might regret later. Anger can turn the best of men
into beasts - nasty words, verbal or physical abuse, revengeful actions, you
name it. We might regret our words and actions later, but sometimes there
is no room for recovery.
Krishna therefore says, stay detached from your
efforts. Easier said than done, right?
Krishna shows us the way too. He tells us to think of
everything we do, as an offering to him. When our services offered are to
Krishna, there is no expectations from anyone because the recipient was Him.
The efforts that we put in tending to our work, family, or friends are purely
out of love for him not for any individual person. This completely eliminates
the cycle that starts with being attached.
The Bhagavatam narrates an interesting story of King Bharata
who got attached to a fawn.
King Bharata, the son of Rishabhdeva, was a pious man. His
responsibilities as a King and family man had been fulfilled satisfactorily. He
handed over his kingdom to his sons and retired to the forest. He hoped to spend
the rest of his life meditating near the Gandaki river with a goal to attain
liberation.
One day, as usual, he stood meditating in the river, when he
was awakened by the roar of a lion. The lion was chasing a pregnant deer and
the deer leaped across the river to save herself. As she jumped in fear, her foetus
was delivered in the river, even as she drowned to her death.
Seeing this heartrending scene Bharata took pity on the poor,
orphaned fawn, rescued it and started looking after it like his own offspring.
He gradually got very attached to the fawn, giving up on his meditation and
worship. He would
get agitated if the fawn went out of his sight, worried if a lion or tiger has
caught it. Like a madman, he would look for it in the shadow of the moon. He
would lose sleep if it did not eat well or was sick. Even when death came calling, he could think
of nothing but the fawn and how it would live without him.
Instead of attaining liberation, he was reborn as a deer in
his next life,. All the penance he had undertaken in his life came to a naught. Being
overly attached to the fawn, he forgot the very reason he had forsaken his
kingdom and family, and retired to the forest.
We might wonder if it was wrong to care for an orphaned fawn?
No, that was dharma. Getting ‘attached’ to it was the cause of his downfall.
Had he tended to it for some time and let go of it as soon as it grew stronger,
he would have gone back to his penance and attained his goal.
That is the trap of attachment that Krishna cautions us against.
The story teaches us to love all creatures alike yet we must consciously stay detached.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
