Page 189 - Complete Works of Dr. KCV Volume 1

what I would say to all the preceptors, because it has been his study that any attempt to make this grosser for the understanding of ordinary men, believing that the ordinary man is grosser than you is a mistake. All efforts of spiritual being are at heart. I emphasize the word "at heart", because the first thing in this System we are dealing with is to clean the heart so that the heart becoming simple, you can understand the subtle, simple process. Therefore, Master firstly wants us to create in us a sense of 'non-attachment' to the `gross ways' of worshipping or praying or meditating to God. Even this you may say, is very difficult for you to achieve. Now, he suggests, therefore, that the individual should take to meditation through "Pranahuti". Of course, that involves a person who could do this Pranahuti. It is a subtle force which is infused into the heart of the man who is sufficiently aspiring to get out of the miseries that surround him. And therefore what happens is, the individual's heart gets cleaned and that cleanliness itself leads to non- attachment to everything, except that particular course.
It is true, non-attachment is said to be the first practice by other people. Vairagya is very necessary. But real vairagya does not mean giving up of of possessions, family or duties. Real non-attachment is non-attachment to the things of the world in preference to realization of God. If you cannot think that God is more valuable than the world, then, there is very great difficulty. And, many people instruct that the world is valueless just because things in this world are transient. They are fleeting. Everything grows, becomes old and finally dies. Therefore, why do you hold to them? Therefore, be prepared to drop this body at any time, drop your attachment or hold on things of the world like wealth or pleasure. And this non-attachment can be practised at any place, if you do not practice greater attachment by going to a forest, leaving everything here and getting attached to something.
As we know, there is an old story of a saint trying to preserve his kaupeena. For this purpose, he had to get a cat to preserve his kaupeena from the rats. Then, for maintaining the cat a cow and for preserving that cow, he had to have wife and so the family started, and it was in the forest for all practical purposes, unattached to city life! Village life has not made people less attached. Most probably, the people in the urban cities are more detached for the obvious reason that everything has become a disillusionment. Disillusion may be had and detachment is developed more in the context of