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:3 :
THE PLAYGROUND OF CONSCIOUSNESS
FREEDOM FROM SELF-NEGLIGENCE
Once a traveller came across a demon. The demon asked him if he could compose a metrical verse containing the phrase "What a wonder' as the last phrase of the line of the verse. The traveller who was an intelligent man composed the following lines :
Day by day men pass into the abode of Death,
And yet those alive wish to live eternally. What a wonder !
If I were to compose such a verse, I would say : We possess infinite strength and yet we beg And show ourselves to be wretched. What a wonder !
We possess infinite strength and yet we are ignorant of this fact. We are not wakeful because we are lost in passions and, therefore, we show ourselves to be wretched everywhere. We cannot keep sitting continuously even for a single hour. We cannot bear heat. We complain of headache when we sit down to meditate. It is a wonder that inspite of our possessing limitless power we are SO wretched. It is a wonder because we are forgetful of the strength we possess. We are unaware of our powers because we are not wakeful. This non-wakefulness is like an ironcurtain which hides our spiritual wealth. We have become cut off from this wealth.
When consciousness is not able to manifest itself, our energy also remains dormant and vice versa. Both are inseparably connected with each other. The progress of the one depends on the progress of the other. In the absence of the manifestation of consciousness, we remain unaware of the vast spiritual wealth we possess and because we are unaware
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