Attachment is Detachment

It is often said that a Shakta, in contrast to other dharmi sects, has such a love for Goddess that he or she will forego liberation, of being absorbed into the infinite supreme and thus freed of the cycles of reincarnation, in order to spend time in Her presence in Her respective loka.  It is such a level of devotion towards Deity that all should strive to obtain, because once we yearn for Her and reach out for Her, She will return the embrace and cling onto us even harder.  Like the hold of a lover seemingly gone forever, our sufferings lapse because we are relieved of a separation anxiety that seems to have afflicted us since birth.  In that embrace, we experience bliss.

It is our attachment to the transient world that creates a detachment from realizing our inner divinity, the atma, and therefore from experiencing the state of sat-chit-ananda in knowing the boundless love of the Mother of the Worlds.  That is why we continue to return time and time again to the physical world.  It is the Law of Attraction overclocked:  like attracts like.  If we constantly cling to the idea of having the New Best Thing™, of bowing down to the bottomless stomach of status and material hoarding, we will return to that very world.  If, instead, we cling to Devi, it is to Her that we then go. 

This is not to say that the material world is evil and its sensual pleasures are to be avoided.  The yuga of asceticism is long behind us.  One can be well-to-do and surrounded by creature comforts and still have the capacity of experiencing atma-jnana, moksha and the fullest of Goddess.  It is, after all, not what we have but rather how it is acquired and, of course, our priorities.  If it is acquired through shafting your neighbor or the objects of the senses are to keep up with the Jones', then you are simply adding to the divisions of the world as opposed to bringing it (and yourself) to Oneness.

Sanatana Dharma views the world panentheistically.  Panentheism means "all within God", in contrast to the notion of "all is God" of pantheism.  Pantheism is rather flawed because if you deduct "all" (as in the world around us), then logic would suggest that Deity would non-exist.  In panentheism, all things exist within the divine current and the Divine would exist even if we cease to do so.  Obviously, something started all of this, preserves it and will end it at the ebd of this yuga, only to start it again.  This is shakti, power, the fluid, transcendant and immanent Devi.

Because all things exist within Devi, nothing can be inherently "bad".  The physical world is not "sinful" and we are not born damned.  It all, instead, goes back to what you do with what you are given.  You can detach from the world while living.in it.  You can attach to Devi while having a fantastic lifestyle.  Creating more suffering to ourselves is the last thing She wants.  We just have to learn that this is not the whole of the world. 

Instead of becoming a hardcore renunciate, we need to see things through atma-vision:  that is, to identify "I" as atma, "I" as Devi, because it is our real nature.  In doing so, our mind is tuned to Her and we cling to Her.  Through it, we see the Oneness in all things;  we reconcile the manmade opposites of us/them, good/bad and holy/profane on a vision both egalitarian and with equinamity.  This is the prescription for this yuga, after all, the remembrance of the Name (of your ishtadevata) and this brings liberation.

By transcending attachment to such transient objects and ideas, we sieve off the false assertion of detachment to Deity.  We have never been detached from Her.  Our seperation anxieties are a delusion- a bloody lie!- acquired by allowing ourselves to feel like "filthy rags", by allowing ourselves to feel superior to the other, by feeding the Ego and starving the spirit.  Want to be part of the real revolution?  Stop lying to yourself.   In the truest sense:

I am God.
You are God.

No.

We are God.

So, start looking inward and discover that.  TVs burn out, clothing becomes torn, food spoils and we all grow old, but That which is within you does not change as She is forever.  Don't wait a dozen incarnations later to think about it. The fact that you are reading this may even suggest it is time for that introspection.  Only you can do it.

Jai Jagatambe!