It should be clear by now that detachment means the complete absence of affinity as well as malice.
And there’s one more thing for complete detachment and that is the absence of the awareness of detachment, the awareness of renunciation.
There’s a wonderful story that is told in the scriptures to clarify this point.
There was once this king who was suddenly taken up with the thoughts of renouncing everything. Consequently, he approached a saint and requested him to accept him as a disciple.
But the saint merely said, “Go away. First renounce the world, then come to me.”
The king pondered over these words of the saint. After much thought and consideration, he came to the realization that he had forgotten to take off his kingly garments, his kingly robe, before asking for initiation into the life of an ascetic. So he at once took off his royal robes and went to the saint, wearing only a strip of cloth around his waist. But the saint again sent him away, repeating what he had said earlier.
“Go away. Renounce the world, then come to me”
The king again thought about these words of the saint and discarding even that piece of cloth around his waist, came before the saint saying, “Please accept my humblest apology. I have taken such a long time to renounce everything. Would you kindly initiate me now?”
But to his great surprise, the saint again scolded him and told him not to return without having renounced everything. Now the king was completely disheartened. He began to think that there was no use for this body of mine which is not being accepted by my honorable guru. Thinking in this way, he gave up eating and drinking and sat under a tree in meditation on God and guru.
Meanwhile, the saint was noticing everything from his ashram. And he was waiting for the king to become completely eligible to enter the life of an ascetic. Not seeing the king for a number of days, the saint himself went to search the king on the seventh day. He called out to him.
He addressed him as, “Oh king.” But there was no reply. The king was meditating at that time.
The saint now addressed him as, “Oh renunciate.”
Even now there was no answer. Since the king had completely forgotten that the terms king and renunciate had any connection with him.
So when the saint said, “Oh disciple of mine”, the king immediately opened his eyes and prostrated himself at the feet of his guru. He had now become eligible to become a disciple. He had become qualified.
So the implication is that as long as the king was not accepted as a disciple by the saint, until he had reached the stage of total renunciation, that is to say that until he had renounced even the feeling of having renounced everything. As soon as his ego vanished, he became eligible to be initiated into the life of an ascetic.
