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Freedom
from Bondage
Realising the ‘self’ means the state of realising
that one is actually the ever-free self which was never bound in the first
place, never bound at all. Self-realisation or moksha does not mean becoming
free from something; but realising that one is always free but has been labouring
under the illusion that one is not. It is ultimate freedom; the freedom from
which one never falls back to bondage.
The Guru’s role is to be the pointer to the path.
Which means, the guide, the teacher, or the friend who has crossed to the other
side, who has learnt to swim and cross the ocean of ‘samsara’ – meaning the cycle
of birth and death and rebirth to which humans are bound.
Such a teacher who is our true
friend, teaches us how to swim so that we can cross the ocean. He can’t give us
the ocean because the ocean doesn’t belong only to him. It belongs to us too.
Freedom belongs to him as well as to all of us. So, no one can give it to us
because it is already ours.
It’s not anybody else’s but then we don’t realise
it because we haven’t learnt how to go into it. How to survive, how to swim in
this ocean? So, the Guru teaches us how to reach, how to swim, how to
enjoy, how to discover this ocean which is us individuals, not only ourselves,
not only us not only ours but the ocean is all of us. But we don’t know it.
We think we are this little pool of stagnant water
that stands on the way with no movement whatsoever. The Guru says “Look
my dear fellow you are a lion; you are not a goat. You are not this little pond
of stagnant dirty water that stands there, you are the ocean. So
don’t live under the illusion that you are limited, you are the unlimited”.
To point that out is the job or the part of the Guru. Beyond that,
the person has to discover for herself or for himself. One can be taught to
swim but we will have to swim by ourselves. We can be taught to go this way but
we have to walk the path.
The Guru is just the guide – he will bring us to
the lane closest to our inner abode and leave us. Thereafter the journey is
ours and ours alone – nobody can accompany us on this journey. It is for the
true seeker to find his/her inner abode.
How much time one needs depends entirely on us –
if we are really thirsty we will go directly, if not we will meander around,
waste time and if we are lucky we will reach home in this birth itself. Else, the
next birth awaits us for completing the journey which began several births ago!
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