Ātmaśatakam: Verse 3 continued... Part 5 Na dharmo na cārtho na kāmo na mokshaH. I am not any of these four purusārthas: dharma, artha, kāma and moksha. “But Swamiji, I am not even moksha? But, that is what I want!” Moksha, freedom also belongs to the mind, because bondage belongs to the mind. Let me illustrate this with a story. Once upon a time a guru and his disciple were living in a hut in a forest. The guru had four cows. Disciple learnt at the feet of the guru, and also served the guru, and therefore, he would perform different chores for the guru. One of his jobs was to take the cows to the forest for grazing, early in the morning. One evening when he returned to the hut with the cows, he found that one of the ropes to tie the cows was missing. So he tied three of the cows to the post, but not the fourth one. He was worried that the cow would walk away at night and told the guru about his problem. The guru asked him to act as if he were tying the cow, that is, to go through the motions of tethering it, despite not having a real rope. The disciple brought the cow to the appointed place and went through the motions of tying it to the post. The cow stood there quietly. That night, the disciple got up frequently to check on the cow. The next morning he untied the three cows and they started walking with him. The fourth cow, however, did not move. The disciple went to the guru and asked him for advice. The guru now told him to go through the motions of untying the cow. The disciple then pretended to untie the cow, and it started walking away with him. The cow was ‘as though’ bound; there was no real bondage. All that was necessary for the cow was to think that it was bound. In the morning, the cow thought that it was liberated, and therefore, felt liberated. The bondage that the mind feels is like the bondage of the cow. I think that I am bound right now. Therefore, I should now think that I am liberated. Liberation is not for me, because I was not bound in the first place. Liberation is of the same degree of reality as bondage. I have nothing to accomplish as I am already a complete being. Therefore, none of these puruśārthas are for me. Who am I then? CidānandarūpaH śivoham śivoham.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 16:09:33 +0000
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