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.
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