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The family tree of ours is very large. It has its roots above us and the branches are ever growing below. This tree has its roots in the past and the branches are in the future. If not cut with the sword of discrimination, it binds us as slaves to it. Vairagya or detachment is the only weapon with which we can be freed from this enslaving tree-tree of time, space and causation.
People like King Janaka are ever free in spite of the tree of kingdom, society, family or body. Yagnavalkya was teaching his disciples the greatness ofvairagya. Janaka too was listening to the master as a disciple. The other students were a little jealous of Janaka because the master appeared to give more importance to the royal disciple while teaching. The master created an illusion of fire burning the city of Mithila. While the king sat unperturbed listening to the master's discourse, the remaining students ran to save their belongings from the tongues of fire.
Janaka is free from all. He is not bound to anything or anybody. Neither body nor mind, nor even the kingdom and wealth can ever bind him.
"Misery comes through attachment, not through work. As soon as we identify ourselves with the work we do, we feel miserable; but if we do not identify ourselves with it, we do not feel that misery.Reserve unto yourself the power or detaching yourself from everything, however beloved, however much the soul might yearn for it; however great the pangs of misery you feel if you were going to leave it; still, reserve the power of leaving it whenever you want."--- Swami Vivekananda
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