Is there anyone in this world that does not desire to be completely free? It is an irony that I was instead doing things that were making me captive. A story I heard few years back depicts my dilemma really well. A man once captured a beautiful parrot and put it in a majestic cage. He took good care of the bird by giving it food, water, and petting it regularly. The bird forgot its previous life where it had complete freedom to fly and explore the world with its fellow birds. It started enjoying the easy life where someone else fended food for it and gave it love. After few months, the man was not very regular in feeding the bird nor did he talk to the bird as much. The bird would keep waiting, but the man would forget many times even to fill the water container. Eventually when the man filled the container, the bird would be very happy. A friend of the man came to visit the man. The parrot kept saying ‘freedom’ again and again, so the friend opened the cage to see if the bird wanted to fly for few minutes within the house. The bird would come out, and then go back into the cage. In reality the bird was just saying ‘freedom’ mechanically, but did not really desire it. It is important for each one of us to check if we truly desire freedom and are doing everything that keeps our freedom intact. Or are we like the parrot telling the whole world we deserve to be free but are actually creating boundaries that are restricting us?

Why do we become bandaged when our true desire is to be free? It is a reality that every human being desires stability, peace, and happiness. We become dependent on the outside world if we are unable to fulfill this desire on our own. It is good to check if we are relying on objects, people, and many other things to experience happiness. My experience has been that the outside world fulfills us momentarily and leaves us mostly emptier than before. The feeling of being limited or empty within arises because these sources that we rely upon are not working consistently. The number of sources outside to satisfy ourselves are increased. We start becoming even more dependent, restricted, and limited when our reliance on outside world increases. Slowly this dependency on the outside world for our well-being makes us bandaged.

What are the various kinds of bondages?

I found out through Brahma Kumaris knowledge that relying on anything that is limited, perishable, and inconsistent for our well-being results in a bondage. Everything of this physical world is limited, perishable, and constantly changing. Let's look at some things of this physical world and do a self check if these things would ever satisfy us.

• Time is limited, and constantly changing

◦It does not wait or stop for anyone, and it is constantly changing.

• Body is constantly changing and perishable

◦It falls sick, gets tired, and decays after death

• All physical things including food are perishable and changing in nature.
• Financial wealth is perishable and changes.
• Relations are limited, perishable, and constantly changing.

◦Human being’s emotions change, they are unable to give unlimited love, and have perishable bodies.

How do we unbind ourselves from this world when we are living in it?

Should we all move away from this world as it is binding us? That sounds like an escapist route, and a little selfish that for our happiness we run away from the responsibilities. The various bondage that we feel are self created, and hence can be finished only by us. We have been depending on the outside world for our happiness, and that method has made us move even further away from real happiness. We need to instead rely on a source that give us unlimited, consistent, and imperishable happiness. Imagine having this kind of support in our life that gives and still does not bind us. Wouldn’t a bond with that source make us feel fearless, carefree, and peaceful? That source is none other than Supreme Soul, God himself. He is the only being that is unlimited donor (Ocean of happiness), ever pure (consistent in qualities), and eternal (imperishable as he has nobody). He is the only one that is selfless (does not have any desires for the self) and hence does not bind anyone to him.

How do we develop a bonding with Supreme being?

Any relationship is developed slowly by knowing the other being. There are gazillion ideas about the Supreme being and yet nobody has been able to meet him or experience his company. Who else other than the Supreme being can give accurate introduction about himself and teach the method of forging a relationship with him. Raja Yoga meditation course not only gives the true knowledge about the Supreme being, but also teaches the method to develop a bonding with him.

In the last few years my experience has been that bonding with the Supreme being is (by only relying on him for my well-being) finishing my bondages slowly and steadily. I have become self-reliant and fearless. The Supreme soul is known to be an eternal donor as he gives unlimited treasures to every soul. I had only heard and read praises about the Supreme being. It is my extreme good fortune that I am practically receiving his love, and noticing how his love is making me pure and truthful. My bonding with the Supreme being has made me realize that relationship is not about expecting, demanding, or requesting respect from others. The method of wanting to receive from others makes us dependent. The Supreme being teaches us a new method, ‘Giving is receiving’, and this method of giving respect to others is freeing me of self created bondage's.

I have felt limited many times due to the tiredness of my body. My thoughts inside at that time would be, ‘I have to do so much and body is getting tired and old, Nobody in the family understands how much I have to do, when will all my tasks get done, when can I rest, I deserve some rest’. I was feeling limited or bondaged because I thought I could only be happy when my body got rested and family helped out. I used to feel frustrated with my body and family when this happened. Now, I use my relationship with Supreme to handle hundreds of chores. I invoke him via my thoughts and request him to stay with me so that I can peacefully finish all the work. I tell him that I do not want to get upset at anyone. Magically he touches one of my family members, and they walk down to offer help. I still remember the first time this happened, and how I touched I was by practically experiencing his care for me as a parent. Many such experiences with the Supreme are making me understand that I can become self-reliant by relying on him.

To summarize, only the Supreme soul never experiences any bondage, as he stays eternally free and pure. He never comes into the cycle of life and death. His quality of being ever pure makes him powerful, and hence he is called the Almighty. We the souls on the other hand take multiple births and come into the cycle of life and death. Overtime we lose our power because we lose the ability to be in our natural state of happiness. The Supreme being’s company gives us the power to free ourselves from all bondage, his love heals us, and uplifts us. This has been my experience, hope you give it a try too.

@2018 BK Meghana Jain