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Relief from material attachments
March 13, 2013  |  radhanath-swami

Richard (now Radhanath Swami) was carrying quite a few spiritual books with him and was attached to them. He had Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Upanishads, Autobiography of a Yogi, books on Buddhism, one by Shankaracarya, and the Krishna book personally given by Srila Prabhupada. He felt it was a small library in his bag, although the weight of these books impelled him to consider giving away some of these books. However he couldn’t decide which one to give away. One day exhausted by carrying the bag, he put the bag down. Seconds later, as he reached down to lift his bag of books, he was shocked to see it was gone. After a frantic search everywhere, Richard reconciled that the bag was stolen. Although he was sad, he suddenly felt it was much easier to walk now. Radhanath Swami writes his realization

“The nature of the mind is to interpret nonessentials essential. The mind creates artificial needs, believing it cannot live without them. In this way we carry a great burden of attachments throughout our life. Attachment is itself a great burden on our minds. We may never understand the extent of the burden till, like my books or the earwax, we’re free of it. But if we find joy within, we can live a simple life, free of endless complications.”

 

Radhanath Swami frequently speaks on the absolute necessity for a spiritualist to spiritualize his consciousness. This happens by controlling the mind and practicing to remember God. Over a period of time a sincere sadhaka , practitioner, develops detachment. We are presently carrying the burden of many unnecessary attachments which prevent us from developing love for God. We are rather focused on our petty material needs. These material desires are vicious because they do not go away over a period of time; rather they multiply and become a huge burden in our heart. It seems impossible to et them out of our consciousness. Radhanath Swami prescribes constant engagement in bhakti yoga practices of hearing and chanting of God’s names with firm faith. This will help us get relief from the harassment of these burdens. 

 

Radhanath Swami offers another interesting perspective on relieving ourselves of material burdens. He suggests we take up spiritual burdens by filling our lives with responsibilities for a spiritual cause. When we take the anxiety of uplifting others in their spiritual lives, we are automatically relieved of our own petty burdens.

 

Radhanath Swami also constantly appeals to all sincere spiritual aspirants to increase their attachment to God. As we increase our positive attachment, we are easily able to give up our wrong and unhealthy attachments to the things of this world.

 

Radhanath Swami also notes that the more we possess, the more we worry about losing what we have. The more things that grab our attention, the more worry confronts us. If we can give up many unnecessary things we can experience relief from the pangs of material troubles. He also once pointed out how people are always fearful of being alone or being with God. Therefore they fill their lives with unwanted things and spend hours in front of the television and internet.  To experience real happiness we need to focus on the inner wealth of our communion with God, rather than focus on the flickering externals of this world.

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116 Comments


  1. great article. thank u.

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  2. Haribool . very nice article.

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  3. Gokul Sundari Devi Dasi

    Thank u Maharaj Ji 🙂

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  4. excellent article by radhanath swami maharaj

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  5. Nice meditation by HH Radhanath Swami on how to overcome the demands and burden of mind and become closer to God through inner wealth.

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  6. Maharaj says in one of his lecture ‘Detachment means attach everything with Krishna!’ Very nice explanation. Thank you very much maharaj!

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  7. Radhanath Swami Ki Jai

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  8. Nice article by Radhanath Swami. Thanks for sharing it.

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  9. The secret of inner fulfillment is connection to God.. thanks to Radhanath Swami for pointing out that

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  10. Kalpana Kulkarni

    Very true! We are always walking around with so much of excess baggage that we are bogged down with that. Once we give up material attachments and instead get attached to spiritual life, then the burden disappears and we feel so light and happy. Thank you for showing us the way.

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  11. ““The nature of the mind is to interpret nonessentials essential. The mind creates artificial needs, believing it cannot live without them.”-Nice one.

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  12. Thank you for sharing the nectar

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  13. This is really nice article. Maharaj is blessed soul and appeared to deliver us.

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  14. Arjun K Ramachandra

    Classic statement -“We may never understand the extent of the burden till, like my books or the earwax, we’re free of it.”

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  15. Thanks Radhanath Swami for inspiring us

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  16. Radhanath Swami is telling us how to become spiritually, i.e. actually, rich by giving up our unnecessary material possessions.

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  17. Nice meditation by HH Radhanath Swami on how we should focus more on internal cleaning than getting attracted to the temporary external worldly allurements.

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  18. Material attachments are a great obstacle to spiritual progress. In order to overcome these attachments, we need to sincerely follow the instructions of a bonafide spiritual master

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  19. the more we vacate our heart from material attractions… the more we can allow Krsna to enter our heart and sit on throne of our heart … and for this am completely dependent on you Maharaj …

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  20. The more we take spiritual responsibility and constant engagement in this process the more we are relived from the slay of burden and hankerings, amazing points shared.

    Thank you

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  21. “To experience real happiness we need to focus on the inner wealth of our communion with God, rather than focus on the flickering externals of this world.”-Nice one.

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  22. Thank you for sharing :).

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  23. Material detachment means spiritual attachment.

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  24. very true! Attachment in wrong direction causes bondage.

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  25. “The nature of the mind is to interpret nonessentials essential”

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  26. “The nature of the mind is to interpret nonessentials essential. The mind creates artificial needs, believing it cannot live without them. In this way we carry a great burden of attachments throughout our life.” –
    wow!!!! wonderful realizations!

    My deepest gratitude to HH Radhanath Swami maharaj for writing such a wonderful book sharing his realizations with the whole world.

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  27. Attachment based on spiritual realization is the best and perfect.Also detachment from material things require proper spiritual attachment.This is possible only when we try to learn the art of spiritual practice,chanting God’s name to always remember Him and associate with those who Love God an serve Him.Very nice article by Radhanath Swami.

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  28. Thank you for reminding the basis of human life. These values we tend to forget very frequently and need to be ren=minded again and again…THANK YOU RADHANATH SWAMI.

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  29. Gokul Sundari Devi Dasi

    This is simply wonderful experience

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  30. Nice Realization on how burden of so many material attachments can stop you from progressing in Krishna Consciousness.

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  31. A very deep realzation about the nature of mind is narrated in this article.
    The nature of the mind is to interpret nonessentials essential. The mind creates artificial needs, believing it cannot live without them. In this way we carry a great burden of attachments throughout our life. Attachment is itself a great burden on our minds.
    Just by reading this and meditating on these words gives so much inner fulfillment …cannot be expressed in words.. Thanks a lot Maharaj for sharing these pearls of wisdom.

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  32. The test of spiritual advancement is how much one is free from material attachment.

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  33. Padma Lochana Bisoyi

    Very good article!

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  34. Thanks Swamiji for sharing your deep profound realisaitons…..

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  35. Krishna has a unique way to reciprocate with his devotees. Specially when a devotee is of the order and stature of Radhanath Swami Krishna personally takes care of such devotees.

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  36. We can relieve our material burden in the from of attachment by taking spiritual burden. Thanks to Radhanath maharaj for this point.

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  37. thanks to Radhanath Swami for bringing forth the important point of Attachment before all of us.

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  38. Thanks very beautiful insight–how we can relive from material attachment

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  39. The miseries of this world arise from material attachment.

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  40. Suryakant Krishna Das

    Radhanath Maharaj has highlighted important aspect of mind – interpreting nonessential as essential. If I can implement this then I am sure my life is going to change.

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  41. Thanks for posting this wonderful article.

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  42. wow… simply amazing understanding of how to get relive from material attachment.

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  43. The secret of real fullfilment is to know our connection to lord

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  44. Thank you Radhanath Swami for sharing your wonderful realizations on how it is important to focus on internalising our relationship with God.

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  45. Tallam Sita Ramaiah

    “We take up spiritual burdens by filling our lives with responsibilities for a spiritual cause. When we take the anxiety of uplifting others in their spiritual lives, we are automatically relieved of our own petty burdens.” What a great cause? It is so true. This experience is very enlivening.

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  46. Good article .. It very nicely tells about how to get rid of material burdens by taking up spiritual responsibilities of uplifting others. When we preach or help other our petty problems becomes insignificant.

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  47. shyama radhika devi dasi

    so profound article. thank u.

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  48. We are all yearning for this.

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  49. Very nice article

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  50. Really, when we see the problems of others and take spiritual responsibilty of uplifting them….first of all we feel so Grateful for what all we have got; and our problems become insignificant. We become satisfied.

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