DETACHMENT THE PATH TO SUCCESS
By Kapil Kakar
Many people when asked to become detached from worldly desires get petrified. They immediately start visualizing themselves having, left their homes, wearing saffron clothes, with long beards and they are either sitting in Himalayas or they are roaming about from city to city, from one place of worship to another after quitting their family life. Such has been the misconception about Detachment that the best thing that can happen to human being has been depicted as a psychotic happening. Detachment does not necessarily mean that you leave your home or your family or your work. Paradoxically, it will get you more peace, happiness, joy and materialistic things. There are many people who do not have the desire to work for money or other materialistic things but they want to work for humanity and in return money, fame etc is bestowed upon them by Nature. This is a very subtle Law of Nature that if you are running after a materialistic good, it will make you run after it even further.
You certainly have a duty and responsibility towards your family members and society. In Bhagvad Gita In Ch III Text (8) Lord Says : “PERFORM YOUR PRESCRIBED DUTY, FOR DOING SO IS BETTER THAN NOT WORKING. ONE CANNOT MAINTAIN ONE\'S PHYSICAL BODY WITHOUT WORK”. Therefore Detachment does not mean that you do not perform your duties. If that would be so then lord Krishna would not have stressed on Duty.
Detachment basically means “not to rejoice upon achieving something pleasant and nor to lament upon receiving something unpleasant”. It is a state where a person is unaffected with the results he gets. He is always doing his best at work giving more then 100%, but is unconcerned about the results of his work. It means that you perform your work without expecting results from the work executed by you. A detached man is always fulfilled and contented in life. This however, does not mean that he is so satisfied with his circumstances that he does not work at all or ignores his duties. Satisfaction is the level where a man is happy with whatever he has and the way he is working, and at the same time he wants to and tries to do better. But this does not mean that he is dissatisfied with his present performance. He keeps making efforts and experimenting with his business or service activities and is progressive in nature. The only difference is that he surrenders his actions to God and, therefore, does not let the pressure of work build on him, and when there is no pressure one can definitely work in a superior manner. Since such a person is not attached therefore, he is fearless and has a very clear mind, he does not do any wrong, and is able to distinguish between right and wrong and ultimately save him from taking wrong decisions.
Closely analyze your life and observe what attachment has given you. It would have given temporary satisfaction and happiness here and there, that too when you would have achieved your goals. But have you ever wondered at what cost. Yes at the cost of worry, stress, restlessness, agony, pain, heart-brakes. This means when you were in the pursuit of your goal with which you were extremely attached, you only got negative emotions in return and when you achieved your goal you got temporary happiness. Ask yourself which period was longer getting to the goal or achieving it. Obviously getting to the goal was longer because when you reached your destination with all that stress and anxiety, you relaxed for some time. All this you did only to boost your ego for sometime and get happiness. And thereafter you started running after some other goal. And this way the beautiful life is wasted. Logically speaking if you are attached to the results of your actions and if you are successful you tend to get overconfident for your next job and if you fail to achieve your goal you land up in under-confidence, depression etc. Therefore on both sides of attachment you have a problem. And only solution to that problem is ‘DETACHMENT\'.
Even to control one\'s mind detachment is necessary. As stated in Bhagvad Gita IN CH=VI TEXT(35) LORD SAYS: “O MIGHTY ARMED SON OF KUNTI, IT IS UNDOUBTEDLY VERY DIFFICULT TO CURB THE RESTLESSNESS OF MIND, BUT IT IS POSSIBLE BY CONSTANT PRACTICE AND DETACHMENT”. Such is the power and importance of detachment, to control the ever- uncontrollable mind it plays a pivotal role.