The Mind is the Cause of Bondage and Liberation
Parable of The Ants and Mountain of Sugar
There were thousands of ants living on a hill of salt. Being informed by an ant that there is a mountain of sugar nearby, some ants went to have their fill from it. Many of them walked on and on, but throughout the mountain they could find nothing except salt, because they had in their mouths salt particles which they were reluctant to leave aside. Some few left aside the particles of salt and took their mouthfuls of sugar, thinking that they are carrying the whole of the mountain!
Similar is the case with the ordinary persons of the world, who cannot find Bliss even if they are informed that the mountain of Bliss lies with them, or that they are walking upon the mountain itself, for they are reluctant to leave aside the attachments and selfish ends to which they are fast bound.
Mind itself is the cause of bondage and liberation. If the salt-particles of attachment are not renounced, one cannot get abiding peace anywhere, throughout the universe. Some few are able to practice renunciation to a small extent. Thereby they experience only a little reflection of Bliss. Blessed is he who merges himself into Bliss, thereby becoming Bliss itself, the result of the supreme renunciation of all desires and attachments.
Source: pgs. 104-105, Parables of Sivananda
There were thousands of ants living on a hill of salt. Being informed by an ant that there is a mountain of sugar nearby, some ants went to have their fill from it. Many of them walked on and on, but throughout the mountain they could find nothing except salt, because they had in their mouths salt particles which they were reluctant to leave aside. Some few left aside the particles of salt and took their mouthfuls of sugar, thinking that they are carrying the whole of the mountain!
Similar is the case with the ordinary persons of the world, who cannot find Bliss even if they are informed that the mountain of Bliss lies with them, or that they are walking upon the mountain itself, for they are reluctant to leave aside the attachments and selfish ends to which they are fast bound.
Mind itself is the cause of bondage and liberation. If the salt-particles of attachment are not renounced, one cannot get abiding peace anywhere, throughout the universe. Some few are able to practice renunciation to a small extent. Thereby they experience only a little reflection of Bliss. Blessed is he who merges himself into Bliss, thereby becoming Bliss itself, the result of the supreme renunciation of all desires and attachments.
Source: pgs. 104-105, Parables of Sivananda
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