Ques: Desire to realize one's true Self & desire to attain Moksha - Is it the same thing? Many times I have heard that the most deserving seeker for Gyana is the one who possess Shat-sampati (six-fold virtues), Viveka (discriminative intellect), Vairagya (dispassion) & Mumukshutva (intense desire for liberation). I am still unclear about the meaning of Moksha and the desire is to realize my true Self. This created a confusion & then the question arose in my mind that - are both of these same or different? We can call them same as well as different. It does not matters. For now... What is bondage? First understand this. From the viewpoint of Atman - I am the truth. But mistakenly I consider this body as 'I'. What is the nature of the body? Change, illness, getting old, & die. Ok tell me one thing - if you have 100 billion dollars, will your body not get old? 100 billion dollars... if you have, will you not get heart attack? Will you not die? So money has nothing to do with this. But the amount of hardwork that you are doing for the money, if the same hardwork was done to attain gyana then you would have attained freedom from the bondage of - 'I' am this body. 'I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die...' Since he does not have gyana therefore he is considering the death of body as his own death. Faults of the body as his own faults. Weaknesses of the mind as his own weakness. This is what the bondage is. This itself is the cause of suffering. I am recalling this child...In Delhi, year of 1995-96, one child came to meet me after arranging the time to meet. So I came to know that he has cancer. He was 9-10 years old. 9-10 yrs old child - he was undergoing chemotherapy due to which his whole body was swollen, his hair were all gone. He looked like a Tibetan kid. Kids who go to school, the ones who are trained to be monks. So he looked like a Chinese monk. This child came to meet me and the whole time, he did not want to ask me anything. He just wanted to see me up close. At that time we had evening satsang in Delhi. 8:30 pm to 10 pm. It used to be very crowded. Now, in the congregation of 8-10,000 people, who knows where this child was sitting & he was not able to see me. In those days, we did not even have the screens. So they called up & informed that their kid is sick and he wishes to see Gurumaa from close. I could not deny this, so I called him. Now the way this kid was beaming with smile!! This child just kept on smiling. I wish I had his photo with me today so that I could show you how sweet this child was. He was simply happy, very happy. Then he said to me, only one thing he said that 'I am Sat-Chit-Ananda. I know this. And this body has to die one day no matter what, even if it turns 80. Just tell my mother to donate my organs.' 8 year old child is speaking this. Give organ donation. 'Tell my mom she just cries on listening that I will die and my mom does not understand that this body will die not me. I am Sat-Chit-Ananda. Then why giving the organs of this body... why is my mother denying this? Please make her understand.' This child was asking me to make his mother understand. Look at his determination & conviction (in gyana). Some complications arose & then I think he lived for approx. 3 more months. Anyways, he was hospitalized. And his... I am not sure if his organs were donated or not because normally cancer patient's organs are not in the usable condition due to radiation therapy. I am not confirmed on what exactly happened. But in that child the conviction of this gyana was very clear. How did that happen? By listening. Since he was sick, he was always in his mother's lap & whenever his mother used to hear the satsang then this child was also listening. Passive listening. But who knew this child will have better clarity. The mother is crying whereas the child is saying donate my organs. He said he is not at all afraid of death. 'If this body leaves, I will get a new one afterwards.' He was very confirmed. So confirmed. So the suffering that results due to considering this body as 'I', how do you get freedom from this bondage? By Self-realization. Mind keeps on changing. This is our... She is sitting right in front of me. Her daughter in England, she had some issue in her heart. There were some complications due to which they wanted to place a devise in her heart. But she refused because even after inserting that device, pain/discomfort increases. With surgery too discomfort increases. She simply refused that - I don't want to get anything done. I am alive until I am. If the body dies so be it. One day at her house she was doing meditation and while doing meditation the prana left her body. And his son wondered, 'It has been so long that mother did not get up.' He shook his mother but she did not respond. Then he called his father. His father checked and found out that she passed away. She said, 'Let it be until it is alive. If it dies, let it be. If it cannot be cured, I do not want to get the surgery for no reason.' She refused to get the surgery. 3 years ago she came to the ashram and stayed here. She practiced Yoga-nidra, She used to practice asanas too, her health had started to improve. But the disease was such that complete treatment was not possible. Body passed away. But how did it go? No wails of pain, no grief, no crying, no give & take! Just passed away while in meditation. Now, while the body was alive, one who is freed from the fear of the death of the body - How did that happen? Bondage of ignorance was shattered. This body is 'me' & this body is 'mine' - when this bondage is broken, whether this body lives or dies, from both these outcomes, he is free. So what is bondage? Considering body as 'I', mind as 'I', intellect as 'I' and then becoming happy or unhappy because of them. And then with the help of Brahm-vidya (knowledge of the Self) you learned that 'I am Atman'. What are the attributes of Atman? Sat (truth), Chit (ever-conscious), Ananda (blissful). And the Atman is Omniscient, not limited, it is limitless. Why are you stuck in the 'I' & 'mine' of this limited body whereas your true Self is something else. But when he will know the Atman, then he is free from the bondage. If someone says, 'I want freedom from bondage, I want to attain moksha.' What is moksha? To realize the Atman is moksha as there is no bondage in the Atman. So actually it is the same thing. They are not two different concepts. Whether you call it mukti or you call it realization of true Self, it is one & the same thing.
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