Question: How can I get more satisfaction from detachment?

Sri Chinmoy: How do you acquire the power of detachment or the light of detachment? It is easy for the sincere seeker, and at the same time, very difficult for the insincere seekers. Even for sincere seekers, as long as they exist in the finite, with the finite and for the finite, there will always be attachment. But when they feel that they have come from the Infinite, they are in the Infinite and they are for the Infinite, then they don't have to cry for detachment. Detachment itself runs towards them, and they feel that they are nothing other than detachment itself.

You are attached to the body. What is the body? It is the limited consciousness, the finite consciousness. In the spiritual life, we use the term 'devoted.' We are attached to the finite, but we are devoted to the Infinite. Now I wish to say that if we are devoted to the Infinite, rather than attached to the finite, then we automatically get the power of detachment. When we live in the finite and want to satisfy the finite, then it is all attachment. But when we want to remain in the Infinite and serve the Infinite, then it becomes all detachment.

It is not that the finite becomes separate from the Infinite. No. The finite makes a conscious surrender to the Infinite. The obscure part of us has to surrender to the illumined part in us. Then the finite and the Infinite become one. It is like my feet and my head. They are on one body. If my feet are now dirty and filthy, and my brain tells me that my feet are dirty and filthy, then what do I do? I go and wash them. This is the brain's power. In the spiritual life also, the higher part can illumine the lower part. The Infinite has the capacity to illumine the finite. Now the finite has the message of attachment. But again, this finite can easily be transformed into the Infinite. The finite is a tiny drop. But when it enters into the vast ocean, it loses its own tiny individuality. The tiniest one gains its largest, most sublime individuality. So when we consciously and soulfully devote ourselves to something vast and infinite, then attachment is bound to be replaced by detachment.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The significance of a smile, Agni Press, 1977
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