Eknath Easwaran's Commentary
Remember Jonathan Swift’s description of Gulliver tied with thousands of little strings anchored to the ground with thousands of little pegs? Similarly, we are tied down by numerous selfish attachments, large and small.
We can get attached to anything, from our heirloom china to our comic books. Things are not meant to be loved but to be used wisely. People are to be loved, but there, too, we must be careful not to come to see people as possessions – which is quite different from loving them. Through the practice of meditation, we can learn to recall all our selfish desires and slip free of the fetters that bind us to a limited way of life. For it is then, when we are not selfishly attached to anything, when we are living for the welfare of everybody around us, that we are likely to be given a long life, health, and plenty of energy to go on contributing to the peace of the world in whatever way we can.