Today’s materialistic culture makes us believe that the more possessions we have, the happier we will be.

However, such “happiness” lasts only as long as we are putting up a public front, as long as society is praising us for having got its prized possessions. After that, we start feeling the emptiness that inevitably results when our sense of satisfaction is tied to things external and peripheral to us.

What is central and essential to us is our longing to love and be loved. Fulfilling this longing brings the deepest satisfaction. We crave for possessions because we believe that having those possessions will make us more loveable. However, possessions make us more visible, not more loveable. What makes us loveable is our core character, our essential attractiveness.

Dependence on externals for propping up our self-worth sentences us to insecurity and anxiety. When we minimize our attachments, we feel far less insecure. The Bhagavad-gita urges us to stay away from undue attachments (13.10) and recommends seeking emotional fulfillment by cultivating fixed devotion (13.11).

We can find enduring emotional strength only in a connection that is founded on who we are, not on what we possess. And we all already have such a connection with our all-attractive Lord Krishna whose parts we are eternally. We just need to realize that connection by practicing bhakti-yoga. Such a devotional connection grants inner satisfaction, thereby increasing our core attractiveness and decreasing our dependence on externals. This in turn helps us decrease our material attachments, thereby lessening our dissatisfaction. And our connection with Krishna helps us find greater satisfaction.

If we strive for devotional connection with even a fraction of the effort we put in for material possession, we will reap the return of a far greater and deeper satisfaction.

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