It is because we do not give a thought to how short life on earth is that we run after things that have a temporary charm. Our attachment to our family is excessive because of our ajnana. None can love us more than our parents, and yet they are our parents only in this birth. Who knows who will be our parents in the next janma? Nampillai gave an example to make us realise this, said Kidambi Narayanan in a discourse.
One day, Nampillai saw some boys playing on the banks of the Cauvery, in Srirangam. They were building houses of sand. They divided their houses into different sections and said one was the living room, one was the dining room, one was the kitchen and so on. One of the boys pretended to be a mother. Another was a father, and a few others were children. Nampillai watched while they played. After some time, they demolished the houses of sand, which they had built, and began to play some other game.
Nampillai then said to them, “You were so long playing the roles of father, mother, children etc. But now, suddenly, you have forgotten those roles.” The children said, “Now we are playing a new game, and so our roles have changed.” Nampillai used this simple game that the children played to explain how, in life, we merely play roles. A person is daughter to someone, wife to someone, mother to someone. But when life ends, all this comes to an end, in the same way that all the role playing of the children ended. That being the case, is attachment to people or things in life justified? Our attachment must be only to Lord Narayana, for there is none equal to or superior to Him. This is what the Upanishadic statement, Ekam eva adviteeyam, stresses. Bhagavan is the only constant, and we must focus on Him.
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