Geethartha Chinthane 137: If house catches fire, grief is not for the fire!

If our house catches fire, we feel sorrow, but if someone else’s house catches fire, we do not. This means that fire itself is not the cause of sorrow. The sorrow arises because we perceive it as ‘my house’. If the fire itself were the cause, we would feel sorrow when someone else’s house burns too.

Similarly, when our children receive an award, we feel happy because they are ‘our children’. In the same way, the thought of ‘my house’ becomes the cause of sorrow. If the attachment to ‘mine’ is absent, we would not feel happiness or sorrow, even if a prize was awarded.

This sense of attachment resides in the mind. The soul experiences joy and sorrow because it mistakenly identifies with what belongs to the body as its own. Material objects (jada) do not inherently have emotions or attachments. The notions of ‘my home,’ ‘my children,’ and ‘my body’ reside in the mind and become the causes of sorrow.

When the sense of ‘mine’ diminishes, sorrow also diminishes. For example, when the mind is disinterested, we do not decorate or care much for the body. We might think, ‘One day, I too will be like this.’ Yet, at other times, we insist, ‘My body must be like this, it should look like that.’

In essence, the stronger the attachment, the more emphasis we place on it. When the attachment reduces, so does the focus. Ultimately, attachment (abhimana) is the root cause of both happiness and sorrow.

 

~ Sri Sugunendra Theertha Swamiji of Paryaya Sri Puthige Sri Krishna Matha

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