Now I tell of those free from worldly attachment -- listen to their way, giving your mind to it. They have joined their love to God alone, and severed it from all the rest of the world. They have no attachment to body or universe, no interest in all fourteen worlds -- this is the way of the unattached: they first regard the body itself as impermanent. Seeing it from beginning, middle, and end, only then does one form attachment to the body, if it can be valued at all.
When one examines this body with discernment, one sees, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, nothing but a pit of hell. Pus, bile, and impurities are well known within it; mucus flows in various streams. Phlegm, spit and saliva are said to continually emerge from the mouth; much sputum comes up in vomit; one sees only a row of bones as teeth. Marrow, fat, flesh and blood, and the body is filled with excrement and urine; the skeleton of bones is merely draped in skin, and within it are only the workings of past karma. Blood fills every vein; it is hell flowing through nine passages. Even the nails and hair are merely stuffed into the skull's little gourd. Sweat, semen, phlegm, and bile, worthless -- seeing one's own body thus, the sant knew it clearly to be as unclean as a tanner's pit.
Having seen this clearly revealed within the body, the sant understood and set aside all attachment. How, then, could there be attachment toward this body's relations in this world? Wherever the soul has taken birth, there it formed a family -- mother, father, sister, brother, wife, sons, daughters, and in-laws. Among these, who is greater and who is lesser? All these relations are equal alike. With whom, then, should one form attachment, and from whom should it be severed? Eighty-four lakh types of bodies have been one's family; this entire universe has been filled with one's own relations. Just as that vast former family was left behind, so has the sant, understanding this, left behind the present one too.
Just as a Brahmin who wandered by mistake into the untouchables' quarter would not forget his own true nature and continue to wander proudly there, so too, having severed attachment to the body and its relations in every way, whoever has broken his attachment to the body itself -- how could his mind settle anywhere else?
Hearing of the pleasures of heaven, they do not desire them either -- within a single day of Brahma, fourteen Indras come and go. They have not the slightest fear regarding that -- so blind and reckless are the beings there in their intoxication, where there is only eating, drinking, and revelry, men and women utterly drunk with pride. Just as a youth frequents a brothel, so is heaven's endless round of pleasure day and night; when one's merit runs out, one falls back down -- therefore the sants remain unattached even to this.
If somehow one manages to reach Kailash, there dwell ghosts and fierce Bhairavs; extremely wrathful and fierce in nature -- such beings dwell in the company of Shiva. Bhang, datura, impure food, filled with dark inertia and excess pride -- what happiness could one find dwelling there, knowing this? Therefore the sants remain unattached even to this.
Hearing of the happiness of Brahmaloka, the mind does not become attached there either -- even Brahma himself, in that realm, was once overcome by lust and became agitated within. Moreover, gods were born from his very thigh, and yaksha-demons appeared instantly. They rushed forward to seize Brahma's own honor; others ran to devour him. Seeing such a disordered realm, the sant, understanding this, formed no attachment there; whatever happiness exists there, it too passes away -- therefore the sants remain unattached even to this.
Thus, having seen the body and the whole universe, such a view causes attachment to vanish entirely; whatever little there is will also pass away -- therefore the sants remain unattached to it. In heaven, on earth, and in the netherworld, there is nowhere truly worth dwelling; whatever body one sees will not last -- therefore the sants remain unattached. Whatever is called moving or unmoving -- all of it lies within the mouth of Time. Understanding this, why should one form attachment to it? Therefore the sants remain unattached.
Thus speak all the sants together -- listen, you who are virtuous: as long as one considers oneself to be the body, so long can there be no true freedom from attachment. Following the body come worldly ties -- sin and merit, and family too; happiness and sorrow, honor and dishonor, joy and grief, gain and loss. All these follow after the body; as long as one identifies with the body, all of these will be accepted as one's own. Only when one becomes truly detached from the body does attachment to everything else break.
When one comes to regard oneself as the Atma, then all affliction departs; when one comes to regard oneself in the form of the soul, then a person attains true freedom from worldly attachment. The Atma has no mother or father; the Atma has no caste or lineage. It has no clan, no family, no relations; the Atma has no son or wife. The Atma has no "self" and "other," no enemy, no friend, nothing else besides. The Atma has no land or abode; the Atma has no country or village. The Atma has no wealth or possessions, no food, clothing, ornaments, or delicacies. Therefore, when one comes to regard oneself as the Atma, then one becomes free from attachment to all things.
Having become one with the form of the Atma himself, he worships the Lord in the form of the Supreme Soul; he keeps his love fixed upon Purushottam alone, and his mind settles nowhere else. Such a devotee has become truly Ekantik, in whose heart Hari alone dwells. Those who have understood in this way have become free of obstruction and free of worldly attachment. Those who have not understood in this way are neither truly free of attachment nor free of obstruction. If freedom from attachment is achieved by any other means, attachment will bind itself somewhere else regardless.
Whoever renounces while still identifying with the body, his detachment cannot endure. Wherever there is a body, there is the body's lineage -- the body is the root of all attachment. Just as cutting a tree from the top, new leaves will still sprout elsewhere on it; but when the tree is severed at its very root, its branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit all perish together. In the same way, when one no longer identifies with the body, all affliction is uprooted completely. Thus have the wise sants understood, those who have attained the Ancient Supreme Person.
Their love has become fixed on the Dark Lord, and everything else has become distasteful to them; their mind has inclined toward this one direction, and never turns back at any time.
Having thus told the way of the unattached, the sants remain naturally established in this state at all times; there is no rise or fall in it for them -- such is the grace of Swami Sahajanand.
This is the beautiful way of the sants -- thus they remain free of worldly attachment; toward body, universe, and all objects they never form attachment, at any time. Having conquered lust, greed, taste, and attachment, these people sit established; the pride that the sages have renounced -- I shall tell of that too, listen all of you.
Thus, in the Bhaktachintamani composed by Nishkulanand Muni, disciple of Shri Sahajanand Swami, propagator of the glorious Ekantik Dharma, the chapter named "The Vow of Freedom from Worldly Attachment," the one hundred and ninth chapter, is concluded.