This morning, as I sat in the waiting room of my doctor's office, awaiting my turn, my attention turned to the aquarium at the far corner. The aquarium had been in its place for years. I too had be watching it passively for years.
(Credit : Wikipedia)
The however, something happened. Watching the fish move in patterns inside the limited space in the aquarium, I thought to myself : Freedom is NOT being in that fish tank. Look at me with so much more ability to move around in so much more space, with the ability to make my own decisions and drive my direction in life.
And then another realization struck. Am I not just like the fish, just in a larger tank, I call the world or samsara ? Am I really free ? The fish believes that the aquarium created with artificial sand, fake plants, an electric bulb that simulates sunlight, the sea shells that create a feeling of an ocean bottom when it is really just the glass floor of the small tank it has been imprisoned in, is real. It swims about this illusion in imagined bliss., from left to right, nibbling on the fish food dropped from above. It sleeps at times, moves around at other times, brushing it's fins against other occupants of the tank. It lives in a prison, while believing it is in a vast ocean.
Is my existence any different ? I too identify too closely with this world, which while vast, is still but a small atom in this boundless existence. I too attach importance to events that are fleeting, giving them more energy than they deserve. While I house the infinite in this finite body, i waste a large portion of my life on the finite, fleeting temporary situations in my life. I am bound (though less often now) by my anger, lust, jealousy, attachments to people, things and situations.
Aho ! I wondered about how the above thought process transpired and finally attributed it to my restarting my reading journey with the Yoga Vasishta recently. Truly our scriptures were written with the express purpose of lifting this human mind from the mundane to the ethereal, from misery to bliss, the finite to the infinite.
Salutations to my Guru with whose blessings, i was able to start reading this glorious scripture again. Infinite gratitude to my Guru who provided me with the tools to free my mind from the above trappings on a daily basis. Gratitude to the person who reminded me it was time to begin this reading again.
ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय ।
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।
मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Jai Gurudev,
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