Guruji, what is liberation? Why do people seek it, and from what are people seeking liberation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Suppose you are made to sit on a chair for 10 hours, and you are ordered, ‘You should not get up from the chair.’ You say, ‘Please, my legs have gone to sleep. Please can I wake them up?’ Will you say this or not? That is seeking liberation.
You just ask children the day their exams are over, ‘How do you feel?’ They come home, throw their books on the couch, and they sit on the couch and watch television. You say, ‘How do you feel?’ They say, ’Aah! Liberated! Done!’
Liberation means feeling, ‘I am done! I have done what I needed to do. Finished!’
Total satisfaction; total freedom; there is nothing more to be done, nothing to be compelled to do.
‘I have achieved what I want. Inside I feel free.’
Liberation is always attached with bondage. When there is bondage, then to get rid of bondage there is liberation.
We are born by our own mind, our own desires, our own cravings, our aversions. When cravings and aversions are gone then you feel that freedom from inside, that simplicity!
Everyone has experienced some degree of liberation in life, somewhere or other. But when it becomes a permanent reality in life, your whole energy changes, and nothing whatsoever will bother you. Nobody can take away your smile from you. Nobody can change you by any stimulant. Nobody can push any buttons. Do you see what I am saying?
There is no button left to be pushed. Otherwise, in life our buttons keep getting pushed by small little things. A little thing goes wrong and that is it!
You just ask children the day their exams are over, ‘How do you feel?’ They come home, throw their books on the couch, and they sit on the couch and watch television. You say, ‘How do you feel?’ They say, ’Aah! Liberated! Done!’
Liberation means feeling, ‘I am done! I have done what I needed to do. Finished!’
Total satisfaction; total freedom; there is nothing more to be done, nothing to be compelled to do.
‘I have achieved what I want. Inside I feel free.’
Liberation is always attached with bondage. When there is bondage, then to get rid of bondage there is liberation.
We are born by our own mind, our own desires, our own cravings, our aversions. When cravings and aversions are gone then you feel that freedom from inside, that simplicity!
Everyone has experienced some degree of liberation in life, somewhere or other. But when it becomes a permanent reality in life, your whole energy changes, and nothing whatsoever will bother you. Nobody can take away your smile from you. Nobody can change you by any stimulant. Nobody can push any buttons. Do you see what I am saying?
There is no button left to be pushed. Otherwise, in life our buttons keep getting pushed by small little things. A little thing goes wrong and that is it!