Emperor of Detachment

Detachment is opposite to attachment. Scientists have shown that our default brain settings naturally cling to attachment. Naturally, we are glued to relationships through friends and family, colleagues, hatred, praises, comments, feedback and what not constantly impacting us throughout the day. While we feel happy to be praised, we struggle in the face of negativity. The most common result of this negativity is a tendency to react back building stress within our body.

In the words of Sri Aurobindo - 

“Detachment means standing back with part of the consciousness and observing what is being done without being involved in it. There is no “how” to that; you do it or try it until it succeeds.”1

In simplest terms, it means that one has to activate the “witness soul” as stated by The Mother. The witness soul is just an observer and it does not react to praises and criticisms.

Yoga teaches us to be more focussed and disciplined and calm our mind. A controlled mind is more detached. A detached person will not readily adhere to external stimulus but will analyse things and move away. The sense of attachment to anything leads to more attachment and invites pain. This pain is entirely self-created harming our ability to take better decisions.

Arjuna in Mahabharata struggled a lot in order to dissociate himself during the war of Kurukshetra. Lord Krishna came to his rescue and showed him the eternal path to detachment empowering Arjuna to do his Swadharma.

In today’s life a simple meditation or japa or walking by the Nature for five minutes daily can trigger the faculty of detachment. Detachment leads to reduced stress, better decisions, greater rigor, utmost inner peace and overall wellbeing. 

On a personal note, I do practice detachment by following a simple method and looks like it worked beautifully for me. I would like to share a few steps for the community and you can incorporate it with your regular schedule.

  1. Pick any work of Sri Aurobindo (or, The Mother).
  2. Read 6-8 lines daily at a fixed time.
  3. Think about those lines, metaphors in the present context.
  4. Look for the meaning of the words you don’t understand.
  5. Re-read the lines again for better understanding.
  6. Move on to read the next set of lines and repeat the process.
As Sri Aurobindo indicated above, the act of detachment is a self-directed practice and we have to keep trying without giving up. The positive results can be felt within a month and you will gradually progress to become the Emperor of Detachment without being affected by the praises or criticisms.

Are you ready to progress?

- Abhishek Ghosh (India)

1 Sri Aurobindo, CWSA vol.30, 'Inner Detachment'

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