From Hostel Hugs to Heartaches: What Krishna Taught Me About Attachment

Let’s not be philosophical for a second. Let’s be real. Goodbyes suck.

It doesn’t matter if someone’s leaving for a week or forever—it triggers something raw in us. A fear. A gap. A sudden silence in the routine.

That one friend who always bought you chai… gone. That one roommate who blasted music while studying… not around. That one group that sat on the stairs every evening like it was their throne—disbanded.

We attach ourselves not just to people, but to shared lives. Shared spaces. Shared time.

And that’s where it gets tricky.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna something so powerful and so difficult to accept:
Translation? Change is not loss—it’s nature.

That friend leaving for a week? That month when we all leave forever? It’s not the end of love. It’s just the next phase of life.

The hostel version of us—chaotic, cranky, caffeine-addicted, carefree—is being gently retired. And that hurts because it was beautiful. But Krishna reminds us that we’re souls on journeys, not statues meant to remain fixed in one moment of time.


Here’s where the Gita truly helped me cope:

Attachment isn’t love. It’s fear wearing love’s mask.

Affection is pure—it gives space.
Attachment clings—it suffocates.

When Arjuna refused to fight because his teachers, cousins, and friends stood on the other side, Krishna didn’t scold him. He understood. He acknowledged the pain.

But he also told him:
In our hostel context?
You have the right to love your friends. But not the right to freeze them in time.

You have the right to laugh, cry, share, grow together—but not the right to expect they’ll never move, never evolve, never leave.

Nothing is permanent—but that doesn’t make it meaningless.
That late-night walk, that rooftop rant, that shared silence—it mattered. Deeply. Even if it ends.

Letting go doesn’t erase love.
You can release someone with grace and still carry them in your heart.

Presence > Possession.
The best friendships are those where you don’t cage people in your life—they choose to stay, even if not every day.

Memories don’t die, they transform.
One day you’ll walk into a new room, in a new city, and smile because a memory from this hostel taps you on the shoulder.

So what do you do when your chest feels heavy and your heart races at 2 a.m. because your bestie isn’t in the bed next to you?

Feel it. But don’t drown in it.
The Gita never tells you to suppress emotions. It says to observe them, not become them.

Try this:

Write a letter you’ll never send. Say what you feel. Pour it all out.
Start a goodbye box. Fill it with inside jokes, scribbles, photos. Give it when you part.
Say what you need to say—now. Don’t wait for the last day to confess your love, gratitude, or weird memories.

Here’s the part I didn’t expect from Krishna—but needed most:

The Gita subtly reminds us that our identity isn't just in relationships.
You are not just “their friend.” You’re you—a complete being with your own path.

You’re meant to love. But also meant to grow. Sometimes those two things walk side-by-side, sometimes they part ways.

Either way, you remain whole.

…and that’s okay.

One day the stairs will be quiet.
The mess hall will echo differently.
Someone else will sleep in our beds, laugh in our corners, and call this place “home.”

And we?
We’ll carry pieces of each other into our new lives.
Not because we’re stuck in the past, but because we honoured it.

That’s the detachment Krishna spoke of—not cold indifference, but warm acceptance.


This morning, I made snack box and instinctively made two. One for me, one for... And then I remembered—we're away this week.

My heart sank a little. But it also smiled. Because even in the absence, our rhythm continues.

And maybe that’s what the Gita meant all along.

We don’t escape grief. We grow around it. We don’t run from emotions. We learn to hold them gently. We don’t stop loving. We simply stop holding so tight.

So when the last day comes and we stand there with packed bags, trying not to cry—remember this:

You’re not saying goodbye to love.
You’re only saying goodbye to this version of it.

And that’s enough.

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