By: Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji
I visited Baroda sometime in 1975 or so. My hosts took me to Baroda Zoo. Earlier on the previous day I had a dream, in which I saw a padlocked, wooden gate in the middle of a vast, open field. A standalone gate. It got me thinking. Are we not somewhat like that padlocked gate, living rooted in Maya, the illusory material world, in the vast expanse of a horizonless universe? As I went around the zoo, I was struck by a cage holding a lion and the lion attracted me I went near the caged door and affectionately fondled the lion. I told the lion that both of us are caged, while the lion has two cages and I have only one, that of the body. We try to find happiness in give-and-take relationships and temporary material gains, solace in rites and rituals, and seek guidance from spiritual guides. Though, all we must do is look within, our innermost soul.
Seers of Vedas and Upanishads tell us we are part of that which is ‘Poorna’, whole and complete. Isha Upanishad proclaims, “That is complete, this is complete. From completeness has come completeness. When this completeness is taken from that completeness, completeness only remains.”
The moment we start believing this completeness, the illusory ‘Brama’, is separated from our spirit-soul, the ‘Atman’, we limit ourselves, become victims of duality, and get stuck in preconceived, prejudiced notions and man-made religions.
To discover our true selves and our identity, we must find the path on our own. We are consciousness, beings of light, and to complement that completeness, we must emerge from the narrow bylanes of stagnant belief systems. ‘Maya’ keeps us confined to the constricted domain of self-identification with personal relationships, positions in our social hierarchy, ego, and emotion. We stay like the padlocked gate, as in my dream, forgetting that the key to removing the fetters is also with us, and stay tangled in our role on the world stage, in the play called Life.
Awaking of the Self happens when there is awareness, and we are in sync with the universal vibration. According to the Kathopanishad, “This atman is hidden in all beings and does not shine forth, but it is seen by the subtle seers through their sharp and subtle intellect.” Even here, the soul encounters the nights of doubts and dilemmas, of denials and devotions. To emerge from this whirlpool, we must move inwards to explore the transformative power within us. The passport to this mystic world is the stillness of mind. In the words of poet Rabindranath Tagore, “In the mountain, stillness surges up to explore its height; in the lake, movement stands still to contemplate its depth.”
Elusive happiness, allure of pleasure, fear of pain, and humiliation of failure are but reflections of ego, shades of darkness limited mostly to the body parameter. Life is not to be lived in denial but with detachment, discipline, and dedication, as opposed to desires, demands, and doubts.
The mind makes us victims of circumstances and yet when it metamorphoses into silence and solitude, it transfers us to a realm of contentment and peace. The awakened soul neither owns nor owes anything. It enters a space of illuminated nothingness, where an eternal kinship is forged with Nature and the soul reverberates with the vibration of the universe, the state of anand.
On closer inspection, I recollected that the iron padlock had not rusted, and green branches were growing on the wooden gate.
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