WHAT IS BONDAGE----3

[Guest guest]

DEAR FRIENDS

In the previous posting we saw what the Sastras declare viz., owing to ignorance man identifies the Self with the non-Self and that is the bondage of man which bring in its wake, the miseries of birth and death. Through this, man considers his perisheable body as real. He identifies himself with it and nourishes,bathes and preserves it with the help of sense-objects. Thereby, man becomes bound like the silk-worm in its cocoon woven by its own threads. We know that the silk-worm spins fine threads from its saliva and weaves a cocoon around itself. The cocoon becomes stronger and stronger untill at last the worm gets entangled in it and can not come out. In the same way. once the misunderstanding that,"I am the Body" has arisen, this false notion makes endless demands for the preservation of the body. These demands multiply and they become strong so that the individual gets gagged and bound by them. Under the circumstances, our personality becomes conditioned by these endless demands and our essential capacities, and intelligence fail to bloomand express themselves as they get shackled and conditioned at all times by our past, which we have woven into inescapable patterns around ourself. All along we have been living misunderstanding ourself to be the matter equipment of Body, Mind and Intellect, the not-self (anatman). In this condition, we come to experience sufferings. This is called bondage(Samsara-duhkham).

(to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian