The Holocaust of Attachment

A. Parthasarathy is an internationally acclaimed philosopher with a multi-disciplined academic base including postgraduation from London University. He has researched for over sixty years on the state of human beings and focused on the urgent need to revive, rehabilitate the human intellect. His resolve has emerged into four distinct avenues of service:

Vedanta Academy

Parthasarathy founded the Academy in January 1988 in Malavli Hills, 108 kms from Mumbai, India. It offers three-year residential courses designed to build intellectual ability and instil higher values of life in students from India and abroad.

Public Discourses

His discourses on intellectual development have captivated audiences the world over for more than fifty years. And have been widely acclaimed by prestigious universities, institutions and organisations.

Corporate Seminars

He has been a distinguished resource of the Young Entrepreneur's Organisation (YEO), Young President's Organisation (YPO), World President's Organisation (WPO), World Economic Forum and several multinational corporations.

Writings

Parthasarathy has published ten books which present ancient philosophical teachings and wisdom of thinkers from the East and West. Three of them have earned bestselling status. These ten books have also been combined into a single volume entitled The Complete Works of Swami Parthasarathy.

The fall of the human intellect has caused an explosion of the mind leaving behind a holocaust of attachment. That is now threatening extinction of the human race. Yet people round the world remain unaware of their attachment to virtually everything in life. Ironically attachment appears in the garb of love. And is accepted as a humane quality by the society at large.

To suffer from a disease is bad enough. But to contract a disease and not be aware of it could prove fatal. So are people totally blind to this holocaust. They dismiss attachment as prima facie absurd, a pessimistic view. And treat the threat with indifference as smokers treat tobacco for causing cancer. Even the intelligentsia round the world are lost in ignorance. Hence your approach to the subject of attachment would need a true spirit of enquiry without the interference of preconceived, undigested notions.

You need to start with a study of the human constitution vis-a-vis that of the animal and plant. The fundamental distinction lies in the provision of the intellect for humans alone. The intellect plays a vital role in the life of a human being. It needs to be developed and used in all transactions of life. A human bereft of his intellect in the world would share the fate of a rudderless boat in the vast ocean.

You must realise that you are born in captivity, you live in captivity and die in captivity. You are showered with do's and don'ts, maxims and mandates by your elders all through your childhood. Later in life you are victimised by the community and country you live in. As a result of these external pressures your mind caves in. Furthermore, the mind develops attachment and possessiveness towards practically everything it alights upon. You remain enslaved by them. Hence the need for a powerful intellect to rise above captivity and enjoy your fundamental liberty.

There is a fundamental difference between love and attachment. Love is a divine quality in a human. But when it becomes self-centred, selfish it turns sour. It takes the form of attachment. And attachment is deadly. There is hardly any love left in the modem world. Instead, selfish attachment and possessiveness has spread to person, family and society. And the aftermath of attachment has been devastating. It has taken its toll on human beings. This pernicious trait of attachment operates in every facet of human life. It is a virus causing havoc to the human race. The antivirus for the entire range of attachments that humans suffer from lies in the intellect. A strong intellect alone can quell the virus.

Interestingly, no other creature suffers from this virus. Only the human mind develops a variety of attachments. For wealth, family, name, fame and the most devastating of all, the attachment to one's religion.

Any form of attachment causes the mind to be agitated and depressed. So the solution lies in maintaining objectivity and poise with the active use of the intellect. That is the stance of detachment. But human beings as a whole fail to appreciate this fine trait and reject it. Hence they need to understand the role of detachment and adopt it in their lives.

The present state of affairs in the world poses an emergency to programme the rehabilitation of the atrophied intellect. The author has provided the necessary literature and founded the Vedanta Academy where students study and implement it. However people are not even aware of the existence of the intellect. Much less able to evaluate the status of their intellect. The existing scholars and luminaries possess the knowledge of their subjects. No more. They have hardly developed the intellect. They do not see the need to develop it.

The state of the intellect and the deterioration of human beings calls for the services of the United Nations Universities, governments and educational institutions to set up Vedanta Academies round the world. Launch on a concerted effort to build the human intellect. Human beings need a powerful intellect to control and direct the unrestrained mind wreaking havoc on individuals, communities and nations.

The ultimate goal in life however is to discover the bliss of the Self within. The intellect plays the vital role to cross over one's mundane involvement and gain the Self. Attain spiritual Enlightenment.