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Source: The Hindu (http://www.the-hindu.com)

 

Freedom has to be discovered within

 

CHENNAI, APRIL 21. There is a common mistaken notion that a

spiritual aspirant has to undertake intense austerities and

torture himself to realise the Self. The practices enjoined in

the scriptures are all meant to develop control over one's mind

as only a meditative mind can intuit the bliss of the Self. A man

of Self- realisation continues to engage in all activities of the

world at the level of the body, mind and intellect, but he is

always poised in the Self. For example, thoughts continue to

arise in the mind but a man of realisation ceases to be a slave

to them and hence is unaffected by them.

 

Just as food can be digested only according to one's capacity to

ingest or else one develops indigestion, so also, thoughts that

are not assimilated lead to mental disturbance. When the object

of a thought itself is insecure then how can one hope to get

security from thoughts by themselves?

 

The situation is similar to two frightened children finding

comfort in each other. In each other's company their fear is only

temporarily forgotten but it has not gone away, which is the case

with our thoughts also. We cling to our thoughts because we

derive comfort from them but it does not take away the fact that

thoughts are dependent on objects which are ephemeral in nature.

It is only the discovery that happiness and security can be found

only in the Self that dependence on thoughts ceases.

 

In his discourse, Swami Suddhananda said that it was not possible

to dismiss thoughts from the mind but one could with practice

stop converting them from taking root as desires. Once a person

becomes Self- aware then it is this discovery which one can share

with others. But it cannot be gifted to another like sharing some

empirical knowledge. The Self has to be realised by the other

person for himself.

 

Just as one cannot look for freedom or bondage outside in the

world, all our joys and frustrations are also within oneself. It

is realisation of the Self that liberates one from the sense of

bondage and is the true taste of freedom. The Self-realised

person is free, yet moves about in his workaday world. Sage

Ashtavakra gives the analogy of a dry leaf which has fallen away

from the tree fluttering in the wind darting about wherever the

breeze takes it. The fallen leaf's relationship to the tree is

severed and its functions over but it appears to be active when

it is blown hither and thither by the wind. The enlightened man

also may appear to be active like any other person but his

actions are not prompted by the ego.

 

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