Samani Bhavit Pragya
Liberation
The second virtue of religion is liberation, i.e. it is the exact opposite of attachment. Attachment is the strongest bondage of the soul. A person who loves himself can never find himself in a bondage. To love oneself is the feeling of fullness. To love oneself is the vision that helps us to see ourselves in all and all in ourselves. To love oneself is the foundation and apex of the pyramid of our existence. To love oneself means to be a friend with your own soul. To make a friend to our soul, we must start seeing and respecting ourselves. Once we know this, we start loving and accepting ourselves as we are. This is the beginning of a true friendship with ourselves and others. When this happens, we start unfolding qualities that help our growth and lead us towards liberation. The great central fact in a human life is the coming into a conscious vital realisation of oneself with the soul.
Attachment causes bondage. A person loves a few people that means he excludes others. This is the conditional love. This condition roots inability to love ourselves completely and inability to love others. When a person is wedded to attachment this is why he suffers from excruciating inner pangs. As we try being attached to others, we find that this attachment in no way relieves us from sufferings. Even though they build castles in the air there is no abiding truth in our conception of light. In reality, man is not loving within himself, which is why he wants to entertain himself by holding others. In such a way, he indulges like imprisoning a parrot, cat, dog within in a cage. There are innumerable bonds just as pride, fear, jealousy, greed etc.. All these are considered to be obstacles in the path of liberation. Lord Mahavira said, anger destroys love, attachment, Pride destroys politeness, Deceit destroys friends and Greed destroys all the qualities of the soul. All these put a full stop to life. If the man do not conquer his passions, then he can create a spiritual disaster to man.
Some people are unduly proud of their wealth, learning, social and political status, appearance, complexion and physical features. Not only the people but also the material things have proud. It would be clear from the following story. Once various organs of the body grow proud of their features they each begin to say, they are more superior than the others. The legs said, "We walk, run or play, we support the entire body therefore we are more superior to the other organs". The hands said, "We do all the work and without us no one would be able to work or embrace their friends". The mouth said, "I perform two great tasks, one is eating and drinking and the other work is speaking. Even so the tongue enjoys all the different tastes of fruits and sweets". The teeth said, "I chew the food and protect the tongue, by my powers of speaking and singing I can mesmerise people". The nose said, "I give beauty to the face". The eyes said, "We show the way to the body and enable them to see beautiful sights, programmes, pictures and paintings etc". The ears said, "If we did not exist, people would have been deaf. It is because of us that people can hear music, conversations, speeches and stories. That is why people decorate us with golden jewels so that we look glamorous." Finally the mind said, "All you perform your respective duties as per my instructions, If I am not well, people become mad, and due to this fact god placed me at the highest place of the body."
At the end Atmarama (soul) sent them a notice saying that they should stop their futile discussion. If Atmarama went away from the body, they would have no value. From that day they did not feel proud, became humble and would abide by their orders.
The English word 'I' is the synonym of the Sanskrit word 'Aham'. When the word 'I' occurs in a sentence it is usually written in a capital letter. Similarly, wherever a haughty (arrogant) man may be, he will keep his head cocked up. He thinks, "I am huge and the road is narrow." I am great and the world is petty. It is only his delusion and nothing else. Vanity is a cause of birth and death. The absence of the following eight elements shows modesty: Vanity of race, cast, strength, looks, penance, knowledge, gain and prosperity. Not to let malice enter any kind of activity whether it is physical, mental or emotional. These are external bonds as well as internal bonds. To be free from external and internal bondage of love, vanity, fear etc, a person should practice spiritual practices. Bondage creates bondage and liberation creates liberation. To be liberated from external as well as from internal bondage, a person should try to live like a lotus, in the world. Lotus lives in the mud, but does not get attached to the mud. Similarly, living in the world a person becomes free from any attachment, bonds of love and aversion. Gautama asked Lord Mahavira, "What does a human being achieve through liberation. The Lord replied "through liberation a human being achieves non-attachment and live in a blissful state."
Liberation is conscious, constant and unconditional acceptance of the will of our pilot (soul). Love to supreme inner pilot is the thing of paramount importance in our life. On spiritual plane, it is devotion to the supreme self. A person must pay whole attention to the light which is in our soul. Living detached like a lotus, a person represents conscious satisfaction in a life of stress and frustration. In reality, the inner pilot within us wants us to be free and achieve liberation. For that, each one should expedite divine journey towards the transcendental goal.
