Is man a master or a slave? He can be either. When is he a master and when is he a slave? The main reason of becoming a person slave is his attachment to the objects he desires. Whenever a person gets enamoured of an object, he desires it; he runs after it and keeps running till he gets it. Either he fails in this attempt; or even if he succeeds, by the time his desire gets fulfilled, he gets attached to something else. Thus continues an endless pursuit of running after the material objects. In this tale of running after the desires of senses lies the agony of slavery. But, when this thread of attachment snaps, situation turns around; and then he becomes a master.
To be a master means to attain self-realization. When self-realization dawns, attachment to the worldly objects ceases; and one becomes a master. Attachment and desires arise in us naturally and cause us to run after something or the other. This chain of attachment is very long and so is the long story of our enslavement. We often do not even realize that the cause behind what makes us keep running all the time is our attachment. If we like an object we begin to pursue it. If it is beautiful, we run after its beauty; if it is melodious to ears, we stop in our tracks to listen. Similarly, we forget everything else when we smell our favourite fragrance. We run after taste in a similar manner as well. But we must realize that running after objects of our desire and acquiring them does not satiate our senses; instead, their demands increase even more.
Attachment to senses is slavery. Forgetting our true nature, we just enslave ourselves to our senses. Attachment torments us. There is no end to its long path either, because even when we acquire for ourselves whatever we desire, our desires only become stronger and more commanding. This episode has been repeating endlessly forever.
For example, if we like a particular perfume we begin to wish to acquire it. The perfume begins to float in our waves of thought and fuels our desire. It begins to leapfrog in our fantasies and our imaginations. And then when we get it, we get so fascinated by it that we lose sense of everything else. However, this fascination and attachment lasts for only a short time. The moment our attachment to the perfume reduces, it loses its importance for us. Then, just like the perfume we get attracted to some other item, begin to crave for it and strive to acquire it. This sequence will keep going on and on till we feel satiated. But, the truth is that this is an endless and aimless pursuit, because it is impossible to fully satiate our senses.
Our senses are so designed by nature that they cannot provide the feelings of fulfilment and contentment. Senses may weaken after attaining excessive sensual pleasure but still do not feel satiated. If they could then people who have all possible means of sensual pleasures, luxuries and resources would have been completely content with their lives, but that is neither so nor can ever be. Enjoyments and sensual pleasures only incite our senses and the senses then get strongly attached to them.
How strong is this attachment of senses can be easily seen in drunkards and alcohol addicts. When they feel the urge to get drunk, they get so zealous and impatient that they break all barriers of morality and value systems and even commit acts that are completely inhuman. This is the bondage of attachment, tied in whose strong chains a man, just like a slave, meekly follows wherever his senses drive him.
If one breaks this bondage, one can develop awareness of the nature of one’s senses; and if he wins over his senses, an absolute metamorphosis takes place. Mahayogi Patanjali, a great exponent of human consciousness has said in this regard, “When a yogi wins over his senses, he attains the speed of his mind”, which means that his speed begins to measure up to the fantastic speed that our mind has.
We can also say that as the attachment towards sensual pleasures weakens, a metamorphosis begins to unfold in human psyche. A realized yogi, who has won over his senses, does not need to touch or smell an object to experience it. He can experience it without using his senses. He can see happenings in the invisible realms with his closed eyes. Such a yogi no more remains a slave; he becomes a master of the senses. This happens when his desires and aspirations break free from the clutches of senses and their connection snaps. The breakage of bondage means dawn of the glow of discretionary wisdom, and fostering of realization of the true self. As this wisdom and realization begins to grow, new experiences begin to unfold. This can be understood if we look back at our own lives from childhood to today. As a young child we demanded some object we liked and cried loudly, made huge fuss and not let anyone rest till the object was given to us. But such demands begin to reduce with growing age. There would be such a deep attachment in childhood to small objects, toys, clothes etc. that even a thought of separation from them would bring tears in our eyes. But as we grow, this bonding and attachment with objects also begins to fade. Similarly, in the light of discretionary wisdom attachment with senses begins to fade and with self-realization this attachment is completely destroyed. Attachment disintegrates gradually, it first gets removed from the senses, then from the prana, then from the mind, and finally from the chitta (psyche). A very difficult bond of attachment to break is of the chitta. This is because this chitta alone is the central basis of existence of all living creatures including humans. The state and form of each living being’s life is totally determined by the state of its chitta. The sequence of events that unfold in one’s life is also completely governed by the good and the bad actions performed earlier and the intrinsic tendencies (sanskaras) that are stored in this chitta.
When harmful sanskaras awaken and get activated in chitta, all events that unfold in life also get adversely affected. Nothing good seems to happen, and we are forced to face many unpleasant, unfavourable circumstances. This situation continues till the time the harmful sanskaras get completely cleansed from the chitta. In these times of difficulties, a person’s inner as well as outer life gets completely enveloped by difficulties and he is unable to figure out what to do. Because of these karmas and sanskaras in chitta, soul of every living being is so deeply connected with its life and its events. A living being is also not able to realize its true self only because of these deep impressions hidden inside his chitta.
Beyond the attachments found in chitta, there is one more attachment that ties a human being in the chains of bondage and these are the attachments in the realm of emotions. Even after rising beyond the body, prana, mind and chitta, the bond of slavery does not snap because emotions lie at the root of all life events. Till the emotions are free from attachments the enslavement does not end. The moment attachments get detached from emotions, a person gets liberated and becomes the master of his senses. A master who simply turns into an onlooker and getting established in his inner being, his self-realization becomes firm and unhindered. He then does not perceive time in the three divisions of past, present and future. He sees the events in all three times together. He masters time itself. Nothing remains in the world of which he does not have complete, all- encompassing knowledge.
When the bondage of attachment breaks, man becomes free. Freedom, mastery over self and complete knowledge of everything becomes his nature. He does not remain a slave anymore and does not move about confused. He becomes a master and everything comes under his control. There remains nothing in the world which he cannot get, if he wants it. After all, this alone is the difference between a master and a slave, a slave runs behind illusions while a master has no illusions. To be a master, it is imperative to relinquish all attachments.
Akhand Jyoti Magazine 2017 Mar-Apr