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Are the worldly bonds the strongest?

[Shri. Ajay asked:- Even though a devotee is associated with God, why such devotee is pulled back by the worldly bonds? Are the worldly bonds the strongest?]

Swami replied:- Let Me accept your assumption that the worldly bonds are the strongest. In such case, there should be no greater bond to pull the devotee towards its side since the worldly bonds are the strongest. I am giving an example of another bond that drags the human being from its grip of worldly bonds. For example, take the case of a drunkard. In spite of the attraction towards worldly bonds, he is dragged by the wine and he does not care about the normal worldly bonds. Similarly, let us take a fellow, who is trapped by a prostitute. His worldly bonds fail to drag him into the normal life that is gripped by the worldly bonds. In both these cases, the grip of the worldly bonds fails and the victim is unable to return back to the normal worldly life gripped by the worldly bonds. Whenever God Dattatreya appears, He appears as a mad drunkard or as a mad fellow fascinated with the prostitute. This means that He is asking you the reason for the above question.

God Datta as Krishna gives the answer to above question in the Gita. He says that the two reasons are i) Abhyaasa:- repeated attachment to wine and prostitute and ii) Vairaagya:- the detachment from the worldly life achieving this state. Similarly, if you repeatedly attach to God and simultaneously maintain detachment from worldly life, this state is quite possible. Here, you must note one point that the wine and prostitute are negative items, which are very much looked down by the public in comparison with the normal worldly life. Even then, this state could be achieved. Compared to normal worldly life, the association with God is very much high in the eyes of the public. In this case of God, how easily you can achieve this state! This is what God Dattatreya is preaching us whenever He appears as a mad drunkard and as a mad fellow fascinated to a prostitute. Repeated attachment to God (Abhyaasa) and simultaneous detachment from worldly life (Vairaagya) are the two hand sticks for a spiritually lay person to walk in the spiritual path. Once you are totally attracted to God and totally detached from the world, these two hand sticks are not necessary. God becomes a magnet and attracts you forcibly so that the worldly bonds are spontaneously dropped away. But, in the initial stage, you must make an effort till the God starts attracting you like a powerful magnet. We must always question ourselves that why we are failing to achieve this state with the help of a positive example whereas we could achieve this state by one of the two negative examples!

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