(Aug 22,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – Yearning for Liberation by Sri Swami Chidananda

 Yearning for Liberation

Divine Life Society Publication: Bliss is within by Sri Swami Chidananda

The Bhagavata, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, Katha Vachaks and Pundits say that saying that you must attain Moksha is not enough. Individually, you must have within yourself a great desire to attain that state, whatever it is, whether it is Bhagavat-sakshatkara, Bhagavat-darshan or Moksha. Whatever that Lakshya is, you must have a keen desire to attain it, you must feel restless without attaining it. Otherwise, Sadhana will only be luke-warm, when done half-heartedly. Unless there is that great intensity of yearning and intensity of longing, that great hunger of the heart, there will not be that keen edge and intensity in Sadhana. Therefore, they say, again and again, Mumukshutva (burning desire for liberation).

Meera and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had that unbearable agony of separation from the Lord, which is called ‘Viraha Vedana’ in Bhakti Yoga. Is your heart feeling every moment that He is your all in all? Are you living, breathing and existing only for Him? Is that feeling there in the heart? In Vedanta it is called Tivra Mumukshutva, the feeling that this present state is a state of terrible bondage, unbearable bondage. How keenly a person longs to break the bonds when he is tied? How eager is a caged bird wanting to get free from bondage? So this must be felt by you, not merely heard and understood in an intellectual way. When there is keen hunger, then only will you go in search of food.

Sadhana, therefore, presupposes that you have thought over life. You have felt the need for something more than eating, drinking, sleeping, having some job and then retiring and drawing pension and dying. To reach a higher goal, Sadhana must be present in your life in the real sense. You must have a fixed higher goal, a keen longing to attain that goal and a clear concept of that goal. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to give the example of a person immersed under water and held forcibly. The way he will struggle to come out for a gasp of fresh air, the way he will be gasping and struggling, that is the way you should be longing to attain your goal.

Excerpts from:

Yearning for Liberation - Bliss is within by Sri Swami Chidananda

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