[Advaita-l] An Allegory for the Self's Freedom

[Michael Chandra Cohen]

"Though this very Self is Brahman, we mistakenly consider ourselves
bound—much like a wealthy man imagining himself to be a pauper. Though ever
free, we struggle to attain liberation. Consider the story of a thief
repeatedly imprisoned, who once managed to escape by outwitting the guards.
When a friend asked, “Which gate was the hardest to escape from?” he
answered, “The one that was open!”

That gate opened outward, but the prisoner had exhausted himself pulling it
inward. Finally, dejected, he leaned back against it—and the door swung
open by itself! The illusion was that the door was locked, when in truth it
was not. Similarly, we are already free, but due to a mistaken sense of
bondage, we labor in vain, seeking a liberation that need not be acquired.

All our efforts made in the fog of ignorance often deepen our entanglement.
Like the thief, when we finally cease striving in the wrong way and fall
back in surrender, the door of Truth opens—by the unseen grace born of past
merits.

These are the Universally Accepted Teachings of Śrī Śaṅkarācārya
-from the book of the same name by Sri Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati,
draft translation