December 9, 2024
The touchstone or the characteristic of enlightenment itself is that it never sleeps, it is never taken unawares. The price of freedom is this unwinking vigilance - in the words of my guru Swami Sivananda, 'eternal vigilance'. Eternal vigilance, in the beginning, looks like a discipline. But, once you have found the key to this whole spiritual movement, eternal vigilance is natural.
Until this freedom from the tyranny of the mind becomes natural, one needs company of saints and holy ones, which is regarded as supreme blessing. If you and I could appreciate this blessing that has been showered upon us, I am quite sure that we would instantly transform ourselves into so many bees and imbibe the nectar - and become honey.
The body, the mind, the emotions, the senses and the life-force seem to impose a whole lot of limitations upon us. They seem to draw our energies and enslave us. One has to experience as a fact that we are being enslaved by some unknown forces, maybe within ourselves, maybe outside. The mind cannot be seen and yet this thing called 'mind' enslaves us so thoroughly it is disgraceful. How to be free from the tyranny of the mind? It is this question that is considered to be 'longing for liberation'.
Liberation is liberation from the mind. When we come into this field of finding freedom from this mind, or the ego (both mean exactly the same thing), how do we go about it? In other words, who is seeking this freedom from whom? Is the seeker also the mind? Does the mind want to gain freedom from the mind? What does it mean?
In answer to this question philosophers have invented all sorts of theories. We are not concerned with whether all these theories are true or not. All that we are concerned about is: are we getting any closer to clarity?