A devotee had always been worried about being too attached to her children. In Sandeepany, Mumbai in March 1984, she mentioned to her friend, “I have a big problem. I wish I could meet Swamiji.” Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda would be called ‘Swamiji’ then. She had been attending his lectures at Powai but had never met him one to one.
The headquarters of Chinmaya Mission is in Mumbai, so whenever he came he was always busy at his desk, and there would be a long queue of devotees waiting to meet him just to be able to greet him personally. Another devotee kindly arranged a meeting for her, telling Gurudev that she had a ‘big’ problem.
She was overawed by him and went in hesitantly, did her pranams and sat quietly because he was busy writing. No words would come out because she was so nervous. Gurudev looked at her and patiently asked her what she wanted to say. She hesitatingly told him about her strong attachment to her children and asked how she should deal with it.
He continued writing for a few minutes and then just pointed his pen upwards, looked up, and said, “Attach!” The devotee got her answer that one has to practice what Gurudev called ‘the yoga of attachment–detachment.’