Om! How bondage is created - Atman Nityananda

How bondage is created

We build our prison like the silkworm builds the cocoon that imprisons it.

Our mind becomes more and more conditioned every time we react emotionally to what we experience by the senses and we are identified with the emotional and mental reaction although the emotional reaction may be very subtle. Each time we identify with the emotional and mental movement related to some object, person or situation we empower an already samaskara (a stored in the subconscious mind impression conditioned by certain mental and emotional formations) or we create an new one; and this happens to the majority of people most of the time.  
For example when we see something (object, person or situation) and a like, dislike, pleasant sensation, aversion, attraction, fear, anger etc. arises in us then our mind becomes conditioned by this experience which is stored in the subconscious mind as a samskara, viz. an impression which is a mixture of the image of the object together with other sensory inputs (sound, smell, touch), the thoughts and the emotion which manifested in relation with this object, person or situation.

Our suffering is due to the accumulation of samskaras which are charged with great amounts of negative emotional energy.  

Our bondage and suffering is made from all these small daily experiences because we live in a state of waking sleep, in a state of forgetfulness of our true Self and identification with the mental and emotional reactions.  Little by little our ‘small’ experiences, due to identification with the false mental and emotional reactions create our prison. We build our prison like the silkworm builds the cocoon that imprisons it.

Our future experiences are conditioned by the samskaras that have been created from the past experiences and we will react like a computer with the same or similar way when we will find ourselves in the same external conditions and sensory inputs.

When the emotional reaction or the desire is strong then the samskara that is recorded is also strong; the samskaras become also strong by the repetiiton of the same experience although the emotional reaction is not so strong. The stroner the samskaras the stronger the conditioning of the mind.
 When the samskaras are strong then the urge to react under the influence of the samskaras becomes stronger and it will become more difficult also to free our mind from this mental-emotional samskaras when we will try to do so. The main task in spirituality is to dissolve all these samskaras that have been cteated in the state of ignorance and identification with the egoic mind.

Of course the central factor that keeps us in this state of identification and forgetfulness is the egoism or ego which is oriented to sensual pleasures; its rajasotamasic nature clouds the higher capacities of our intellect and thus we fail to realize our divine nature.

By not recognizing our true nature we easily identify with the lower aspects of our existence, (senses, body instinctive, and lower emotional mind) and the external objects and thus we become victims of them.
By not experiencing the peace, freedom and bliss of our true Self we seek pleasure, pleasant experiences, strong emotional experiences, satisfaction and happiness by any mean in the outer world through the contact of the mind with the sensory inputs.

Thus gradually we develop the well known egoic tendencies (greed, jealousy, anger, hatred, avarice, pride, fear, gluttony, lasciviousness etc.) which condition our mind increasingly and because of this we move more and more away from our true nature and the experience of peace, bliss and wholeness or Oneness.

Due to the fact that the sensory experiences are very limited by nature we only can get some trifling pleasant and pleasurable experiences which never can fulfill us and which fade out as the body becomes weaker by diseases, by wasting our vital energy and by the by the senility.
Τhe price is the disorientation of the mind its conditioning by heavy painful energies which cause suffering and diseases (mental and physical). Moreover the multi-face ego leads us to actions against the laws of nature and against our fellows and all other creatures which we have to pay as a painful karma in the future.

There is not escape from the miserable limited life and the suffering if we continue to live identified with the ego and its mental and emotional creatures.

We must find a way to disidentify from the compulsive mechanical thinking and the emotional reactions. We must  find a way to dissolve little by little the tamasorajasic egoic energy which is accumulated in our psych (subconscious mind and energy field) which hypnotize the mind and intellect and impede us realize that we are divine consciousness ever free, blissful and peaceful.

To be or not to be? This is the great philosophical question that applies to each moment of our life; to be aware of our true Self or identified with the egoic self and its mental and emotional creations?

By being aware of our true Self we open the door of freedom, peace and real happiness, while by being identified with the ego we remain imprisoned in the vicious cyrcle of pleasure and suffering.

READ ALSO:
HOW BONDAGE IS CREATED by Sri Ramana Maharshi
INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF EGO