Speaking from a state of deep Tamas — voluntary stillness — and drawing on encounters from his recent Dakshineshwar trip, a gathering at Eco Park, and observations during the return flight, Shri Praveen Radhakrishna reveals the fundamental distinction that governs all progress in Sadhana: the difference between the physical being and the spiritual being. Every question about detachment from parents, handling a difficult boss, or navigating a career under pressure answers itself once this distinction is understood.
The Physical Being and the Spiritual Being
Brahma had four heads of knowledge, and through them we operate in the world — digesting food, pursuing careers, experiencing family life, and fulfilling desires. But there is a fifth head, the one Bhairava severed, which represents the highest spiritual awareness. The entire journey of Sadhana is a gradual transition from the four heads to the fifth.
Until you are a physical being, your Ahamkara (ego-sense of "I") is paramount. The physical being asks: "Have I been served first? Have I been respected enough? Why is my pain not acknowledged by the world?" The spiritual being, by contrast, does not attach to such stimuli. Like a fresh leaf on a tree, it bends in the wind but does not ask the wind to stop blowing.
Shri Praveen illustrates this through the recent Eco Park gathering. Among the fifty-odd attendees, some had traveled for hours on a two-wheeler through the cold night, driven purely by the desire to hear the Leela (divine play) of the Devi — not thinking once about tea, coffee, or whether a chair had been arranged for them. Others were acutely aware of every social slight, every acknowledgment missed. The first group represents the spiritual being. The second, the physical being. Both are fine — they exist in different Kala Chakras (cycles of time) — but they stand at fundamentally different positions on the path.
Ma Sati, Ma Devaki, and Ma Yashoda: The Two Mothers
A young Upasaka at Dakshineshwar shared something striking: while his mother was alive, she was a devoted Krishna Bhakta (devotee of Sri Krishna), and so was he. But after her passing, he could see only Ma Kali. Why?
The answer lies in understanding Ma Sati and what Her story means for every Sadhaka.
Ma Sati is Ma Adya Kali in Her most physical form — the perfect bride, the devoted daughter, bound by every thread of physical love to both Mahadeva and her father Daksha. And precisely because She is so perfectly physical, She cannot be spiritual simultaneously. When Daksha insults Mahadeva at the great Yajna, Sati faces an impossible tearing: loyalty to father versus loyalty to husband. There is no resolution within the physical plane. So She makes the supreme choice — She jumps into the Agni (fire) of the Yajna, voluntarily burning every physical attachment to ash.
This is a cosmic lesson: until physicality is at its highest, spirituality will never even begin. Ma Sati demonstrates that you cannot hold the physical form fully and simultaneously rise to spiritual heights. Something must burn first.
Now Ma Devaki is also Ma Adya Kali — a name from the Sahasranamavali. She gives birth to Sri Krishna, the divine Avatara. But Devaki could not raise Sri Krishna. That privilege belonged to Ma Yashoda — Yashoda-akhya, another name of Ma Adya. Why? Because the physical Yoni of Ma Sati was sacrificed and now rests as Ma Kamakhya in Assam. She can birth, but She cannot nurture directly in the same form.
- Ma Devaki — the physical mother. She births you into this world. She carries the Karma of your birth bond. The kiln and the ceramic plate are inseparable at the moment of creation.
- Ma Yashoda — the spiritual mother. She takes you after the birth bond is complete, nurtures your Jiva (soul), cleans your mouth when you eat mud, and raises you to be the full expression of Sri Krishna.
As long as you cling to Ma Devaki — your birth mother, the physical bond — Sri Krishna, your spiritual self, remains within the womb. The Avatara cannot fully rise until that bond loosens naturally. Ma Yashoda waits, Her eyes full of longing, ready to receive the moment you step free.
How to Detach — The Leaf on the Tree
This does not mean walking up to your mother and declaring: "From today you are no longer my mother." That is violence — to both the leaf and the tree.
The correct method is the leaf falling in the natural wind of Karma. A new leaf is born bright and tightly attached. The winds of life hit it again and again. Prakriti itself acts upon it relentlessly. It ages slowly. And one day, on its own, it falls off. A dried leaf leaves no mark, no wound, no scar on the branch. That is how the detachment should happen — so naturally that neither you nor the mother bleeds.
The forced detachment — like the ancient Sati practice in which widows were thrown into funeral pyres — only creates more Karma. The woman who was forced into that fire had to return to countless more births to fulfill the desires that were not yet complete. Ma Sati was not forced; She volunteered. She detached because the cosmic weight of the lesson for Loka Kalyan (welfare of all worlds) demanded it.
Not every Sadhaka is at the stage of voluntary fire. If the relationship with your birth mother still carries warmth and genuine love, there is Karma left to fulfill. Enjoy it. Give her all the respects the body deserves. The separation will come naturally through the winds of life — whether she passes away or you simply grow and grow until one day you look at her and see both Devaki and the invitation of Ma Yashoda simultaneously.
However, there is a second signal: when the relationship has become so suffocating that every encounter burns — when you cannot sit in the presence of your birth parents without finding yourself destroyed — that is the fire of Ma Sati calling. The toxic relationship is the Yajna. Enter it willingly. Burn. Both the slow leaf and the voluntary fire are valid. Ma Kali chooses the pace for each Jiva.
At twenty-four, Shri Praveen underwent this transition — his birth parents alive and well, the love genuinely present, but spiritually the mother-title had already transferred to Ma Adya Kali. The body continues to give full respect to the birth mother; the spirit had already run to Ma Yashoda.
Examples from Daily Life: Seeing the Two Beings
Dakshineshwar and the return journey home offered Shri Praveen a constant stream of living illustrations.
At the Ganga Ghat, he witnessed a man washing his hair with a sachet of shampoo in the sacred river. The purpose of Snana (bathing) in Ma Ganga is not physical cleaning. The divine water is meant to purify the Jiva spiritually — one dip, one touch of the Para Brahman water, and the spirit is cleansed. To bring shampoo to the Ganga Ghat is to arrive at a temple and clean only your shoes. Meanwhile, a girl named Molly had once slipped and been completely submerged in the river during a previous visit. An elderly couple appeared from nowhere, lifted her out, and disappeared. Though she was fully drenched, her office bag was completely dry. She had been bathed by Ma Ganga Herself — not physically cleaned, but spiritually received.
At the airport shuttle bus, a woman with a pram blocked the entire aisle with her husband's luggage while he settled comfortably at the back of the bus. An elderly woman could not pass. When gently asked about the bag, the wife stated plainly: "I am with child — this is not my problem." Her Karma had produced a husband who places his burden in the center of the world and walks away; she had now made that burden the entire world's burden. This is the physical being in its clearest form — externalizing personal Karma as universal suffering.
Her three-year-old daughter in the pram, however, reached out to every passenger with a luminous smile, saying hi, going so far as to touch Shri Praveen's hand. The mother kept shutting the pram's canopy to prevent it. She refused to share the child's Shakti with the world — while freely sharing her own pain. The physical being withholds light and projects suffering. The spiritual being, even as a three-year-old, radiates light regardless of its mother's condition.
On the flight from Kolkata to Chennai, a man in his late sixties and Shri Praveen's six-year-old son were both visibly impatient for their sandwich. Age teaches nothing if the spirit remains physically reactive. His wife, stirred by their son's nagging, urged him to call the air hostess and expedite the sandwich. He declined — it would arrive in two minutes through the normal service. And it did. The spiritual being sees the arc of the moment. The physical being empowers the impatience and disturbs the flow of duty for a two-minute gain.
Handling Career, Boss, and Daily Life
Many young Sadhakas struggle with this specific conflict: how do I handle a difficult boss, a demanding career, and the friction of daily life while pursuing Sadhana?
The answer begins with Karma Yoga: you shut up and you show up. The physical world has its kings and thrones. If an unworthy person occupies the chair on your office floor, you are not called to dethrone them. You are called to bow before the chair — not the person — and quietly do your duty.
The analogy is Yudhishthira in the court of Duryodhana. Even as the most righteous man in the room, he listened. Even as Panchali was being dishonored in the Bhari Sabha (royal court), Arjuna did not immediately reach for his bow. He watched, waited, and surrendered the moment to Sri Krishna, his Ishta (chosen deity). Sri Krishna would tell him when to act.
This is the operating principle for every Sadhaka in the workplace:
- Respect the chair — physically bow to the position, regardless of who holds it. This is not weakness; it is Karma Yoga.
- Surrender the pain spiritually — speak to your Devi, your Ishta, like Panchali. Say: "I see what is happening. Hasten this." Do not fight in the Durbar.
- Wait for Kurukshetra — the moment where non-action itself becomes Adharma (violation of Dharma). That moment will come by itself. It will not need your manufacturing.
The deeper reason for this restraint is one of spiritual physics. Every time a spiritual being reacts physically to a provocation, the reaction is amplified a hundredfold. A Sadhaka carries Shakti. Kali Purusha — the force of dissolution in Kali Yuga — waits precisely for this amplification. One reactive outburst from a spiritually awakening person can cost them their career, their Sadhana space, their stability, and give Kali Purusha the very opening it needed.
So be like the leaf. Let the office wind blow. Let the boss speak. Let the small indignities pass. Stay non-reactive. Stay steady. And Ma Yashoda, Yashoda-akhya, will always clean the mouth of Sri Krishna even as he plays in the mud of this Mrityuloka (realm of death).
The Arrow of Dharma: When to React
The bow and arrow is Arjuna's weapon for a specific reason: once an arrow leaves the quiver, the archer is immediately detached from it. Arjuna does not run after the arrow to supervise where it lands. He shoots. He forgets it. The divine takes over.
This is the complete model for action in daily life:
- Wait — until Kurukshetra opens not by your making, but by the sheer accumulation of Adharma from the other side.
- Listen to Sri Krishna — your Ishta, your Devi. When She says now, pick up the bow.
- Shoot the arrow of Dharma — completely, with full force, without hesitation.
- Detach from the outcome — entirely and immediately. The arrow belongs to Devi now.
You do not go to your office each morning looking to start a Kurukshetra. You do not fight for your dignity in every small encounter. You absorb. You surrender. You wait. But the day comes — and Ma guarantees it will come — when the bow and arrow must be picked up. On that day, the Sadhaka who has remained non-reactive, internally strong, and spiritually clean will shoot straight and true.
Until then, Ma Yashoda is always present. She is cleaning the mouth. She is there even when you eat the mud of the Mrityuloka.
Conclusion
The entire teaching flows from one source: physicality and spirituality cannot both be at their highest simultaneously. Until the physical holds first place — career, respect, comfort, parents, daily stimuli — spirituality remains a practiced pose, not a lived truth.
The path is not overnight detachment but natural aging — the leaf that falls only when Karma's winds have dried it completely. Ma Devaki births you and holds you; Ma Yashoda calls when you are ready. Both are Ma Adya Kali. Both are sacred. Both are real. But one is the beginning and one is the destination.
Go through your career, your family, your airports and long commutes and difficult bosses. Go through all of it with one hand on the bow and one hand in prayer — non-reactive, watching, waiting. And Yashoda-akhya, the spiritual mother, will always be there to clean every bit of Mrityuloka mud from your mouth and smile as you grow.