Bondage is in the Attitude

 

Photo Credit: Ramashram Satsang, Mathura

Bondage is in the Attitude

Bondage never happens in any situation; it is always visible in the attitude one takes while tackling the situation. If we move away from the situation, there is no bondage, but if we get stuck in it then there is bondage. If we don’t want to leave the situation, then the question does not arise. The opposite also holds true – if we want to be in the proximity of the Master but we have to go away, then that too is a bondage. If we want to hear the Master live, we can easily do so, there is no problem, the question doesn’t arrive. Bondage or freedom, both are attitudes, they are not situations.

If we want to attend Swamiji’s event, but some inner obsession keeps forcing us away, not allowing us to go there! We want to go but some inner demon inside keeps forcing us to stay away – that’s a bondage, going away is a bondage.  If you want to go away and some fear within you goes on insisting, “Don’t go away! If we go away, we will lose the contact, we will lose contact with the Master… don’t go away!” — a certain fear goes on forcing us to be here, and we want to go away - then it is a bondage.

Bondage is something which we have to do as an obsession, as a compulsion: we never wanted to do it and we have to do it. We have to go against our self, then it is a bondage - whatever it is. If we are just floating, it is what we always wanted to do and we are doing it completely with our heart, our total being, it is freedom. Now let us see it as a paradox: if we are free as an obsession, in our freedom is bondage; if we are a slave with total acceptance, in our bondage is freedom. It depends. It is the attitude, not the situation. So, only we can know about it, what it is.

We have to decide something within us. We have to drop the conflict, the crowd. We have to be one. In our oneness is freedom; in our split state is bondage. When we are one, nobody can make us a slave - nobody! We can be thrown in an imprisonment, we can be chained, but we cannot be made unfree. Our body may be chained: our soul will soar high. There will be no problem for it. How can our prayer be in bondage? How can our meditation be in a bondage? How can our love be in a bondage? How can our spirit be in bondage? In fact, the very definition of the spirit is that which cannot be forced to be a slave.

But we don’t have any spirit. We are just a crowd, so many people inside with no unity. That’s the trouble. If we are here we will feel in bondage; if we go away we will feel in bondage. Wherever we go, we will carry our inner conflict with us. 

Just focus your whole attention to your inner being. Wherever it can float easily, wherever it can have its movement without any hindrance, let that be your goal.