The Way of Love

I designed a heart opening sequence yesterday that I'm tweaking. I am drawn to heart-opening poses because I tend toward closed-heartedness, posturally, anyway, and the reverse can be challenging but can also offer relief from neck and shoulder pain. But what really prompted me to go towards heart-opening was Chapter 12 of the Bhagavad Gita, "The Way of Love". Krishna is describing another way that one can come into his presence and divine love:

One who is impartial, pure,
Capable, detached,
Free from anxiety (uh-oh),
Who has completely relinquished all undertakings -
That one, who offers love to me,
Is dearly loved by me.

One who neither
Relishes nor loathes,
Who neither laments nor desires,
Relinquishing the pleasant
And the unpleasant -
That one, who is filled
With offerings of love,
Is dearly loved by me.

The same toward both
Enemy and friend,
Honor and dishonor;
The same in cold and heat,
Happiness and suffering;
Freed from attachment;

One for whom blame
And praise are equal,
Who is disciplined in speech,
Satisfied with whatever
Comes of its own accord;
Who is without
Attachment to hoeme,
Who is of steady mind,
Replete with offerings of love -
Such a person is dearly loved by me.

One sticking point here, however, is that relinquishing home and non-attachment to loved ones is mentioned repeatedly in the Gita and other texts I've studied. It is part of Buddhist meditative teachings as well, as I understand them. Yet, throughout the Gita, Krishna advises Arjuna, the warrior, to uphold his duties as a warrior in battle even though the civil war he is fighting in has pitted brothers against one another and students against teachers (both big no-nos in the teachings). Arjuna feels heavy-hearted and full of dread at the thought of battling these loved and revered ones, but here is God telling him that upholding his duty to kill is more important than his duty to uphold the lives of ones he has been taught to preserve and defend.

So, my point is that my duty now is to my home and my loved ones here, so, naturally, I'm going to have some level of attachment as a sort of work-related necessity; as I understand it, loving and cherishing my family is one of my duties - and I like to think that Krishna would advise me similarly to Arjuna - that even though the texts say I should relinquish feelings of attachment to home and to my children, in my case, they are understandable and important parts of my Duty.

Of course, then there's the Buddhist argument that any attachment causes suffering and therefore should be let go. I suppose anyone who has raised a child through their teenaged years would understand and feel where that advice is coming from.