THE WORLD IS A BIG JAIL

The above statement may come as a surprise to many people. What is our concept of jail? Criminals go to jail as a punishment/for correction. They are confined inside the four walls and are not free to go outside, till their term is complete.
If we extend our thinking, we can perceive other invisible jails, in which are imprisoned. We are apparently free, but are in prisons without being aware of it.
First of the prisons is physical --- We are bound by the body. We have to carry the bones, muscles and flesh, which we call our body, all through our life. We are always in the body till the time of death. Ordinary human being is extremely body conscious. He thinks, he is the body and takes extensive care of it all the time and thinks the body’s attributes like skin, color, height, weight etc are his attributes. Any injury/sickness to the body makes him worry continuously, till it is cured. If we take the case of children, particularly below the age of one year, they are not at all body conscious. If they are injured, they cry momentarily, but forget it very soon. They do not bother whether they are naked/clothed, what type of clothes they are wearing.
Further to this, we are imprisoned by our possessions in the material plane. We think that we are masters/owners of the material possessions, but a moment of reflection will show that we are prisoners of our possessions and they are our masters.
The second type of prison is mental/emotional. We react to certain situations in much the same way throughout our life. Praise, and ridicule/criticism bring the same kind of reaction again and again and there is no respite throughout our life. We are imprisoned by our likes/dislikes and go to any extent to cultivate the pleasant and avoid the unpleasant.
The third prison is intellectual type. We have our own views on everything under the Sun and we don’t like persons with opposite views. This goes with our views on religion also. We do not try to understand other religions and many of the ills dogging the society today are because of this.
But, when we touch the spiritual plane, we understand gradually about these prisons and make an effort to break them and be free.

THAT IS REAL FREEDOM, FOR WHICH HUMAN LIFE IS MEANT.

------- K.V.RAO