Detachment is the way to achieve peace, satisfaction and happiness which, is real in the sense that it is not followed by inevitable sorrow. Happiness through material objects is ephemeral and it soon gets eclipsed by sorrow.
The journey of spiritualism starts with detachment from both materialistic thinking and practice of sense gratification. A person in today's world can’t go and live in jungle but in his thoughts he can be ascetic. One may be out of this material world even when he lives into it. He may use everything available but for a purpose or need. But, one should refrain from gathering things just to pacify his greed, ego, proud and just for gratification of senses. He should strive to fulfill his minimum needs so that he can live with peace, can perform his duties well, can serve others and can keep himself healthy and calm. He should not cling to those things which are with him, should try to shed the feeling of ownership and should not hold them too tight. If he does hold his possessions too tight then he invites big sorrow and pain as and when all his possessions get destroyed which is inevitable and universal. It is due the law of nature that no material object is eternal. Their destruction is sure to happen.
The tendency of people to get attached to things stems from a sense of ownership or sense of belonging which is totally false. In fact, there is nothing like a permanent owner. Owner of any material object changes all through its life. For e.g. I manufacture a toy. I would say that toy is owned by me. I get attached to the toy. But, after some time I sell the toy and the person who buys it becomes the owner. Again, when the toy gets destroyed it is thrown in the scrap. Now, the scrap owner owns the toy. Despite all these facts an owner holds that toy too tight and always apprehensive about losing it and at times gets proud about the ownership. He is so ignorant of the fact that he has just got the toy from someone temporarily and tomorrow will be owned by someone else. So, he should not feel proud or show it off because tomorrow someone else will be displaying the same toy to him with proud. Even our beautiful bodies about which we feel so proud are not permanent and not owned by us. We have got it from nature for few years and will have to give to back to nature one day. But, human tendency is to shy away from bitter truths and run after sweet lies.
It is known to every one of us that pleasure from any material object is followed by sorrow and pains. Simplest example is the pleasure of possessing huge cash is followed by fear of losing it or worry of securing it. Pleasure of possessing an expensive vehicle is followed by stress, fear which results from damage to the vehicle. So, even before one gets pleasure from a material possession that pleasure gets hijacked by the fear of losing the object and pains from the damage that might occur or has occurred to the object. Even pleasure of holding some high post in job is followed by pains of bearing more responsibilities, less time to yourself and loss of peace of mind. But, since we are talking about to be in the world in a detached and spiritual way we need to find a way out of all these sorrows and pains and we simply cannot leave everything. The way clearly is detachment. To get that way one should start shedding the sense of ownership on his possessions and start looking at them like they are the means provided to him so that he can carry out his responsibilities, duties, and purpose of life in a comfortable manner. One should remember that these material objects were with someone else yesterday; they are with him today and will go to someone else tomorrow. One should always be modest about his achievements, free from proud, sensitive about others' needs and problems and aware about his ultimate end even if he possesses great material wealth.
The wealth of a rich person may play a positive role in bringing the person towards detachment but it may prove to be a bottleneck also. Similarly, it’s easier for poor people to get detached but it may be difficult also because of their adversities. A rich person experiences the fact that all material possessions could never give him eternal peace and happiness and instead invited more problems and pains. This understanding would make it easier for him to get detached from the feeling of possession. But, at the same time since he has too many material possessions he would find it difficult not to think about them and losing the sense of ownership. It’s like rich people are in a sea of material possessions and its difficult to swim through a sea. In case of a poor, his basic needs are still not fulfilled and so he would still be dreaming and working hard to acquire those material possessions. On the other hand, since, he has nothing much to lose and less possessions it’s easier for him get detached. It’s like poor people are in a pond of material possessions. As compared to sea it’s easier to swim through a pond. So, the class of people who are at greatest advantage are the ones who do not have many worldly possessions which can make them proud and more apprehensive about losing them but at the same time they have enough means available which fulfill their needs of a comfortable life in a minimal way.
Ascetic people are wiser than others. They understand bitter truth of materialism and get detached in order to save themselves from the inevitable sorrows and pains. They search for the truth, the eternal the permanent. Whatever is permanent is truth and whatever is ephemeral or temporary is a lie. Just try to see around you and identify what is the truth, what is that which is permanent and you would find yourself surrounded by lies and only lies. And then you will start searching for the truth. While on the way to the ultimate truth you will experience peace, happiness and calmness in abundance and which doesn’t get followed by sorrow or pains.
