Several years ago, we walked in the hills of the Himalayas. One night we wanted to go to the top of a hill. We were in a mischievous mood. So we gathered a few people and quietly left the āshram which we were not supposed to do (Shankaracharya Nagar). There were guards all over. But we were very friendly with them and escaped by the back gate into the mountains. There was so much confidence that nothing would happen. If animals came, we’d apply a Siddhī (power) and the animals would go away. We’d make friends with them. There could be lions, tigers and elephants in those forests. So we walked and walked in the night. Up one hill and then down another hill, up and down three hills. It must have been very late in the night, around 3 a.m. We were walking with a small torchlight. We just wanted to have an adventure.
And at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., somebody said, ‘Stop! Don’t go any further.’ So we stopped. We were on a big cliff. A few steps further there was the edge – a fall of thousands of feet. It was so dark we couldn’t see anything. We saw it all the next morning. So after somebody stopped us, we took another road; maybe it was their property. We went another way-a very small walking path.
On the way back, the other two people who were with me, refused to come back on that road. It was after 6 am, daytime, and they saw it was a way you don’t dare walk on! In the night, we walked through and went to the small Shiva temple down below in the valley. I really had to convince the other two boys with me on the way back. I was responsible for the whole course there, including taking all the boys back to the course venue. But they refused to come back because path was so narrow. One had to walk through just a small strip. It was really frightening. It was a slippery, sandy road. If you slipped, you would fall down thousands of feet! Ignorance or darkness is also useful sometimes.
Na mē bandhō’sti mōkshō vā. Nothing was binding me. At night nothing was binding the people, they could simply walk down but the way back scared them. It is in the mind. It should have been the other way around. In the daytime people could have walked and at night they should have been scared of walking that path! But the reverse happened. Na mē bandhō’sti mōkshō vā . There is no bondage in me, so where is the question of liberation? A devotee is very dear to God, but an enlightened is even more, because in a devotee there is a little gap. The devotee thinks he is separate from the Divine, but an enlightened doesn’t see it that way. He sees no distance, no separation. It’s a jñāni and a bhakt. As Krishna says, ‘A devotee is very dear to me, but the jñāni, an enlightened, even more because he is never away from me even for a moment.
This story is an excerpt from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s commentary on Ashtavakra Gita.
