What are the things we need to be attached to and detached from during the initial and advanced stages of spriitual life?

From: Puri Ashishkumar

What do we need to inculcate/shed in the initial stages and as we advance of these, Material/Emotional Attachment, Material/Emotional Detachment and Spiritual Attachment/Detachment since ultimately the philosophy teaches Bhagavan Satya Jag Mithya.

Transcript

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Question from Ashish Kumar Puri.
What do we need to inculcate or shed in the initial stages and as we advance among these? Material emotional attachment, material or emotional attachment, and spiritual attachment or detachment? Since, ultimately, the philosophy teaches Bhagwan Satya Jag Mithya. Answer? Firstly, the philosophy doesn’t teach Bhagwan Satya Jag Mithya. The philosophy says that the Jag is also Satya, because it is an energy of Krishna.
What is Mithya is the emotion that the world is forming for our enjoyment. What comes from the real is real. The Bhagavad Gita does not talk about the world as illusion at all.
It says it is my energy. Apareyam itas tvanyam prakritim viddhi. This is my apara prakriti, Krishna says.
Mayadhyakshena prakriti. To call the product of divine artistry and divine intelligence as illusion is in one way to insult the Supreme Lord whose artistry and intelligence is manifested in this world. So, the illusion is only that this world is for our enjoyment.
And that illusion expresses itself through material attachment. So, actually, material attachment and emotional attachment are not different things, because attachment is an emotion. And when that emotion is directed towards material things, then it becomes a material attachment.
When that emotion is directed towards spiritual things, it becomes a spiritual attachment. So, of course, spiritual things are not things. Spiritual things are beings.
Ultimately, they are Krishna or manifestation of Krishna in some way. So, in the initial stages, we do try to develop a little bit of material detachment. Firstly, from those things which are directly opposed to the owner’s service.
So, the four aggregate principles, we give up the activities that involve breaking up those four aggregate principles. Then, we also minimize our attachments to those things which will distract us from focusing our mind and heart on Krishna. Although these distracting things may not in themselves be sinful.
So, for each of us, they may vary. There may be certain hobbies from the past, certain friend circle from the past, certain other activities which we love too much, but which emotionally entangle us now. So, that will vary according to person to person.
So, we do try to develop certain level of material detachment from those activities which are directly anti-devotional because of being sinful or those activities which are anti-devotional because of being emotionally entangling and highly distracting from Krishna’s service. And we try to develop spiritual attachment to Krishna. So, we try to develop attachment not only to Krishna, but also through all His manifestations, His devotees, His scriptures, His holy name, His deities, His temples, His service, His remembrance, His pastimes.
So, all these are what we try to attach ourselves to. And the more we become attached to these things, the more we become detached from material things, not in the sense that we start thinking of them as mithya, but we start seeing that those material things have no potential for bringing happiness to me in and of themselves. Still, even those material things, if I use them for Krishna’s service, they can expand Krishna’s service and help purify my heart and engage others, facilitate others to come closer to Krishna.
So, if we have wealth, if we have academic education, if we have social position, if we have certain musical or speaking talents or other skills, we can use all these in Krishna’s service and then they will have these benefits. They will share Krishna’s message and help new people to come closer and they will also purify our hearts. So, therefore, we don’t give up those material things, but we give up the illusion that those things will make us happy.
Now, of course, some people who want to focus exclusively on Krishna’s service, those who take to Brahmacharya, they also don’t renounce everything material, but because they want to focus more on Krishna, so they avoid the entanglements of family life and they are able to have more time, facility and freedom for practicing for serving Krishna and helping others to connect with Krishna. But that is the exception. In one ashram, most people would be grahasthas who would be in material life, but padmapatra nivambasa, as Bhagavad Gita tells in 5.10, like a lotus petal in water, they try to be untouched by matter while being in matter because of their connection to Krishna.
So, with respect to attachment and detachment, there are four different kinds of people. There are materialists who are attached to matter and detached from Krishna. There are mayavadis who are detached from matter and attached to Krishna.
Sorry, they are detached from matter and detached from Krishna. There are sahajiyas who are attached to matter and they claim to be attached to Krishna. But they are sahajiyas because they will chant and dance and shed tears and then they will do illicit activities also after that.
Whereas the devotees, they are detached from matter and attached to Krishna. So, they are detached from matter not in the sense that they reject matter as illusion but they understand that matter in and of itself cannot give me any happiness. So, they without any possessiveness towards matter utilize matter for Krishna’s service.
So, as aspiring devotees, we initially as well as in the later stages try to primarily increase our devotional attachment to Krishna and the various manifestations of Krishna. And we stay away from those material things that distract us from developing our attachment to Krishna and we utilize those material things that help us in developing our attraction to Krishna. That’s why our process is the process of Krishna consciousness.
It is not a matter unconsciousness. It is the process of primarily focusing our mind on Krishna and developing our attachment to Krishna and by that itself we will gradually develop attachment for everything else. In Vishwamitra Bhagwatam, 1st Canto, 2nd Chapter, 7th verse it is described that when we practice bhakti then ashu vairagya quickly vairagya develops because we see experience of serving God is so sweet and so satisfying that I don’t need any other sources of satisfaction and that experience makes us detached from other things.
So, rather than bothering too much about becoming detached, we focus on becoming attached to Krishna and then orienting our material life around what will best enable us to become attached to Krishna.