Relevance of Spirituality Q&A

When I said irrelevant, I did not mean that we should be immoral. What I meant is, you see, I have to practise truthfulness, suppose. If I am alone, where is the question of practising or not practising truthfulness? I have to be unselfish.

When I am alone, what is the meaning of selfish or unselfish? I am the only person. In that sense, when I am living with somebody, then I have to find a way of living in such a way that there will be harmony, peace, cooperation. So necessarily, we have, both of us have to practise this quality.

Otherwise, there will be clash. This is what I meant. But morality is not the end of life.

This is only an instrument, because our scriptures tell us we have a spiritual side and if you exercise only one part of your body, what happens? Lopsided development. So, we have to be healthy physically, we have to be healthy mentally, we also have to pay attention to the spiritual developments, because it is part of our personality. Otherwise, you won't get the complete fulfilment.

That is what I meant. Yes. How do you differentiate between attachment and responsibility? Well, that is a very nice question, because we think attachment is indifference.

You know Swamis? They are all irresponsible people. No responsibility. See, attachment means you think that I am not responsible for anybody.

That is not the right understanding. Understanding is, I do what I have got to do, but I am not responsible for the consequences, results. This is called detachment.

So what happens, suppose you are attached, and you do something. Attachment means what? You are expecting, if I do this, this should happen. It may happen.

It may not happen. So if it happens, then you are in deeper trouble. You know why? The next time you are convinced that every time it is going to work.

You are in a rude shock. If it doesn't happen, of course, again you are disappointed, frustrated. So this is because future is unknown to us.

We don't know the consequences of things, what happens. All that is in our hands is to do to the best of our ability whatever we are supposed to, right? This is the correlation between detachment and responsibility. It is not irresponsibility, indifference, coldness.

That is a totally wrong view. Otherwise, Swami Vivekananda put it beautifully. A cow never tells a lie.

Have you ever seen a cow telling a lie? Have you seen? I have seen. You know, Indian cows are very clever, some of them, not every cow. Indian cow keepers, they just let the calf go.

It is what is called cranking, starting. As soon as the calf starts the milk machine, then they pull out the calf. But some cows are so clever, only when the cows are there, they give milk.

You pull the calf and go there, no milk is there. Anyway, Swami Vivekananda used to say, cow never tells. But nobody considers a cow as a saint.

It is only a conscious human being who consciously practises certain virtues like truthfulness, unselfishness, etc., who can be called a saint. Otherwise, animals never show ingratitude, never rebel against you, they are not jealous of you. In fact, they are much better than human beings.

Much better. That is why more many people trust their pets than their partners. Sorry about that.

It is true, because they give so much love, they don't withhold anything. I will tell you a funny incident, you know. In India, there is a custom.

When some devotee goes on pilgrimage, holy places, they have to give up something. As a token of penance or tapasya or love for God. If I love you, this is the sign to show you that I am loving you.

One lady, very rich lady, she went to Kashi and she came back. Her husband was a very intelligent person. He asked her, did you give up something? Yes.

You know, the rule is, whatever the person loves most, that should be given up. It could be mango or coffee or jewellery, whatever. So this lady said, yes, you know, that necklace which I used to love most, that is what I love most.

I have given up. So, me husband, you don't love so much. If you loved me more than the necklace you should have given me up.

No hope. Alright, any more questions please?