💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐

        🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺

    

                🌿Chapter - 17🌿

         ~ Honouring The Secret ~

                   🌱 Day - 91 🌱

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐

अष्टावक्र उवाच

तदा बन्धो यदा चित्तं किंञ्चिद्वञ्छति शोचति ।

किञ्चिन्मुञ्चति गृह्णाति किञ्चिद्धृष्यति कुप्यति ॥

तदा मुक्तिर्यदा चितं न वाञ्छति न शोचति ।

न मुञ्चति न गृह्णति न हृष्यति न कुप्यति ॥

तदा बन्धो यदा चित्तं सक्तं कास्वपि दृष्टिषु ।

तदा मोक्षो यदा चित्तमसक्तं सर्वदृष्टिषु ॥

यदा नाहं तदा मोक्षो यदाहं बन्धनं तदा ।

मत्वेति हेलया किञ्चित् मा गृहाण विमुञ्च मा ॥

What is bondage? What is the difference between someone who just wants to be in a room, people who want to remain in silence confine themselves to a room, and a person who is in jail? The person who is in jail wants to get out of it. He feels that being in jail is bondage. The person who is in a room, wants to be there. He doesn't want to go out. So he doesn't feel it to be a jail. Now, where is the jail? Is it in the mind, or in the event, in the situation? The phenomenon is the same. A man does not stir out of his room. There are several yogis who confine themselves to a room. This is done in all religions and traditions. There are several San Franciscan monks, who stay in a room or a cell for many days. In Assisi there are many rooms or cells for such people. People take up silence. Buddhist monks are confined to small cells in the Tibetan hills. There are Hindu monks who never stir out of their rooms.

Janaka said, 'Bondage in the mind begins when the mind starts wanting something.' It begins when the mind desires something or feels sorry for something. If there is anger and excitement in receiving and giving back, then that is bondage. If you reject something without anger, then that is not bondage. But if you reject with anger, then that is bondage. If you receive it with excitement, that is bondage. Whatever is done with anger or excitement makes a strong impression on the mind, and that becomes bondage. What happens when a particle of dust enters your eyes? It irritates you. In the same way, any impression in the mind irritates, creating feverishness and anxiety.

Ashtavakra says very beautifully that bondage is not anywhere outside; it is in the mind, in the consciousness. If something gives you great joy, the craving for the great joy doesn't let you rest peacefully. The fear of something that agitates you and puts you off balance does not allow you to be peaceful and to rest within yourself. This is such a profound truth. Then, when is there freedom? When the mind does not crave, want or feel sad. Desire and distress are a couple and go together. You desire and when it gets fulfilled, it gives rise to another. Distress is just postponed with each desire. You have fulfilled many desires over the period of time, but has it brought you freedom? I'm not saying you shouldn't desire. It is alright if desires arise. But hankering to fulfil them, and thinking that you will be happy only when they are fulfilled is an illusion. न मुञ्चति न गृह्णति न हृष्यति न कुप्यति । He does not reject anything nor does he make an effort to accept anything. When you accept, it means that you already have a sense of 'I'. You feel that you are accepting; that you are doing an act; that you are doing a favour; that you have excused somebody. You are not doing anybody a favour if you excuse them. The sense of 'I' is involved. Even if you do someone a favour it puts pressure on you. How many times do you think you have done this favour? People become very unhappy because they have done someone a favour, and that person did not respond the way they should have. They had loved a person so much, but he did not even talk to them; that he was very nasty. It is as though they did a favour by being good to another person! They are not being good just by their nature; they made an effort to be good, and such good never endures. It is better to be a bad person rather than to 'cultivate' being good to someone, because that causes more unhappiness.

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐