Casual Causes Casualty

There are serious lessons to be learnt from the incident of Maharaja Bharata. Before discussing them, it’s important to note that great souls may sometimes act in anomalous ways to teach people about the potential pitfalls. By the example of their own lives they show the consequences of transgressing the laws of God and material nature, and ignoring saintly advice and counsel. In Bharata Maharaja’s case, his compassion for the deer was indeed laudable. The difficulty, however, was that he became neglectful and inattentive in his spiritual practices as a result of that affection. Furthermore, in the seclusion of the forest, there was nobody to correct him or offer constructive feedback. His example highlights the dangers of distraction.

In all aspects of life, the message runs through loud and clear – a casual approach will inevitably produce casualties. We’ll witness this principle constantly playing out in our own life. While ‘casual’ can refer to being relaxed and accommodating, it does also relate to being careless and unconcerned. When being ‘casual’ means we lack serious intention and withhold quality attention, we can predict we’re in for trouble. Modern culture tends towards the casual, and as children of the age, it’s inevitable that we may reflect that in our approach to spiritual life.

Most spiritual aspirants are not bad practitioners, but just casual ones. Luke- warm, let’s say. Strict on a few things, and loose on a lot more. We take a bit of this, add bit of that, ignore the rest, and blend it together with half-hearted attention, and pray it’s the recipe for enlightenment! An attitude survey by the think-tank Theos, revealed that about 70% of the British population is neither strictly religious nor strictly non-religious, but rather moving in and out of the undesignated spaces in between. Casual spirituality, however, won’t generate profound existential awakening nor deep spiritual experience. What’s more, casual spirituality leaves room for materialistic desires and illusory ideas to creep in, take root, and eventually wreak havoc.

Practising spirituality in a distracted way will cause one to slowly become more and more disinterested. That disinterest will eventually lead to disengagement with the process. On the other hand, attentive spiritual practice will generate attraction. When that attraction matures, it will create genuine, powerful, spontaneous attachment. We may want to pause for thought and question which direction we are going in.