The illusion of our bondage

We all have the hidden feeling that we are bound by the material world and have the urge to be liberated from the vicious cycle of rebirth. But is the bondage real? Let's ponder over it. Once upon a time there was a merchant who was travelling to another village to bring the goods for selling in his village. He took a herd of donkeys along with him to carry the goods back. While he was passing through a jungle, it became dark and he was forced to halt there for the night. So, he started tying the donkeys one by one to a big tree with a rope. When it was the last donkey's turn, the remaining rope was not enough to tie it to the tree. He was worried that the donkey may wander into the jungle in the middle of the night.

A saint also happened to come to the same tree to spend the night. He inquired why the merchant was so worried. When told about the rope not being enough to tie the last donkey, the saint said, "Child! it's a donkey and it doesn't know. Just pretend of tying the donkey to the tree with the rope and it will stay here the whole night." The merchant couldn't believe it but he had no choice but to follow the advice. The next morning he was happy to see the donkey still there. He started untying each donkey and patting them on the back to get them started on the journey. 

As the last donkey was not tied, in his view, he just patted the donkey on the back. To his surprise, the donkey didn't move. It didn't move even after multiple pats. As the saint woke up, the merchant pleaded for his help again. The saint said, "untie the donkey and it will move." Perplexed, the merchant wondered, "But sir! I never tied it in the first place." The saint calmly replied, "It's a donkey and it doesn't know. It thought last night that you tied it. Just pretend to untie it and it will move." The merchant followed the advice and the donkey moved!.

Now, let's come back to our feeling of bondage. Isn't it the same feeling the donkey had the whole night? We don't understand that the whole world is an illusion and it doesn't have the power to bind us. Our true state is of liberated. We are only bound by our ignorance and the illusion of bondage. In Vedanta they give an example of illusion. It's called Rajju Sarpa Bhranthi. When there is a coil of rope lying on the ground and you see it in semi-darkness, you see a serpent lying there. Once the fear of the serpent seeps into your mind, you start seeing the movements and hearing the hisses. This fear from illusion can only be quashed by someone bringing a light. When the light drives away the darkness, you realize that it's just a rope and not a snake. There has always been the rope and never a snake. But it was an illusion because of the semi-darkness. Another example is the illusion of a thief looking at a tree trunk in the semi-darkness.

If we think deeper, in both the examples the non-moving thing is mistaken to be a moving thing. In the same way there is only God all around, who is omnipresent and thus has no space to move. And in the darkness of ignorance, we mistake Him to be the moving world and feel bound by it. For this illusion to occur there are two prerequisites - darkness and prior knowledge of the moving thing. Since the day of our birth, we have been feeding the knowledge of the moving world to our minds through the five senses. And we are living in the darkness of ignorance.

The knowledge of the world always leads sorrow only. For example, let's say we go out in the morning wearing a new shirt and a crow poops on the back. As long as we don't know about it, we go around our daily activities happily. We meet friends and colleagues, eat out and do all kinds of happy stuff. And in the evening someone notices the bird-poop on our back and intimates us. That moments on wards, we constantly think of it and feel ashamed and lose our peace of mind until we go home and change the dress. As long as we didn't know about the worldly things we live happily. But once we gain the knowledge we lose the happiness.

Let's take another example. We work and earn money. We feel happy and contented with whatever we are being paid. But, once we know one of our colleagues is being paid more than us, we feel constantly disturbed. Thus the knowledge of the world and the ignorance of the spiritual gives us the illusion of bondage. Like in the example of the rope and the snake, when the Guru comes with the light of spiritual knowledge and shows us the real world(God), we ignore the illusion of the world as we know and be in a blissful state forever.

It's hard to believe that there is only God and this world is non-existent. But let's take the example of a dream. As long as we are in the dream, we never realize that it's not real. We go through all the emotions and experiences that are brought in our way in the dream. We feel fear, sorrow, pain and all other emotions as real as they can be. But once we wake up and realize that it was a dream, all our sorrows and fears go away and a smile comes to our face. In the same way when we wake up to the true spiritual reality, we realize that this material world is not real and it has no more power bind us.

In the Vedanta they say "Kevala Mokshapeksha Sankalpo Bandhah" - "Even the desire to be liberated is a bondage". Why so? Because as long as you desire to be liberated, you still have the bondage. Spiritual liberation is not something to be achieved. It's only to be realized. Because that is the ultimate reality and the bondage is only an illusion.

Inquiry

Our Gurudev Sri Babuji Maharaj used to narrate a story. There were this group of people called Gunupudi Jangams. They didn't have any personal possessions and used to beg for a livelihood. Once they all met in a place and wanted to build houses for themselves. As they didn't have any money for buying bricks, cement etc. they looked around and found a field of banana trees. They found the banana trunks so round and shiny and thought they would make great pillars for the house. They cut the trees and constructed houses for each one of them with the banana trunks as pillars and the leaves as roof.

One of the Jangams wanted to know what is inside the banana trunk. He took a knife and started peeling the layers of the trunk one-by-one. Finally, there was nothing left except for himself. A short while later a huge gust of wind blew and all the houses made of banana trunks fell down. the Jangams were very sad and started crying. but the one Jangam that did the inquiry into the true nature of the banana trunk already knew that it wouldn't last long and he remained blissful as ever.

In Vedanta, there is a process of inquiry called "Neti Neti Vicharana" - meaning inquiry that rules out all the things that are not "I". The inquirer starts with all the worldly things he finds around him and rules each one of them out realizing "This is not I, this is not I." Then he realizes his own body, mind and intellect are also not himself. By such inquiry one realizes the true "I" or "Atma". Once he realizes that there is no fear or sorrow of losing the worldly things and he remains in his blissful state no matter what comes his way.

Thus, he attains the true state of a Sthita-Prajna as described in the Bhagavad Gita. No joy or sorrow can touch him as he realizes his oneness with the all-pervading almighty. Sri Gurudev used to give another example also for this kind of inquiry. He used to say, "You start peeling the layers of an onion to see what's really inside it. Once you peel of all the layers, there is nothing left except 'You'." 

The secret to peace of mind

We all want peace of mind, but don't know how to get it. But first let's see what's causing restlessness to the mind. There are two things that rob us of our peace. The constant desire to get something that we don't possess and the constant fear of losing the things that we already possess.

I'm sure most of us do impulse buying the moment we see something new out attractive on a shopping site or a store. And if we can't afford it, we start saving for it and always keep thinking about it. This causes restlessness and we lose the peace of mind. We also have the constant fear and tension of losing our jobs, relationships and other pricey possessions. This builds stress and then there's no scope for peace.

Our Vedanta philosophy prescribed four tools in the path to attain Moksha. These are called Sadhana Chatushtayam. And the first two are "Nityanitya Vastu Vivekam - the wisdom to differentiate between the permanent and the temporary and always seek the permanent" and "Ihaamutrardha Phala Bhoga Viragam - renunciation of the desire towards both the earthly and the heavenly outcomes of your deeds."

Our Gurudev Sri Babuji Maharaj used to say, "always remember that every breath could be your last breath." I used to wonder, "wouldn't that cause more tension and constant fear?" But to the contrary I recently found that this is the secret key to peace of mind. 

We came to know about 5-6 months back that we are moving back from USA to our Ashram. Suddenly we lost interest in buying anything that's not absolutely needed in our remaining stay in USA. Even if we went to a shop or a mall, we mostly return without buying anything. The same things that once used to attract us now evoke a mere indifference. We now buy only things that are essential for our temporary stay here. Isn't that the first tool of sadhana mentioned above? 

And the fear and tension about losing the job or not satisfying the bosses evaporated into thin air. There is this sense of fulfillment that nothing needs to protected against now. I was still doing my work to the full potential but now there is nothing to fear. There is nothing I can get by doing more work and nothing I can lose by not satisfying others. Isn't that the second tool of sadhana?

This lack of desire and protection from fear is what lead to ultimate peace of mind. Even though these few months were daunting both physically and mentally, the peace of mind we are experiencing is priceless. We all know that our stay in this world is temporary and we all need to die one day. But we keep forgetting that fact and constantly indulge in desires and fear losing our possessions. Just imagine - if knowledge of the departure from a foreign country back to your native place can lead to such a peace of mind then what ultimate bliss we can achieve by knowing our departure from this land to the abode of our creator. If we practice to remember the ultimate truth of our lives, we stop desiring and only work for what is absolutely necessary. And since we know that we can't take anything with us, the fear of losing things also vanishes. But this is possible only when we are assured that we are going back to the lotus feat of our creator and not going to have another birth in a different form. And only a true and able Guru (Samartha Sadguru) can give that assurance.