Are we bound by the modes like a cow bound by a rope?

Answer Podcast

Yeah is it that all of us are tied like a cow tied to a pole by a rope like that we are tied by the modes yes rather than that is one example which conveys the point that there is a limitation to how much we can change things but still to just extend this example if the cow stays very close to the poles center to the pole and there is no grass available and the cow becomes weak and dies whereas near the circumference of that circle made by the rope there is some food available some grass available and the cow goes there and needs that so even within the limitations that we have say for example even there is an alcoholic even when people are addicted people still have choices they may say I have to drink but it’s not that an alcoholic has to take every drink that they drink so often if alcoholics that means if alcoholics every time they get an impulse if they have drinks ready close to them that they will drink much more if they don’t have drinks close to them then sometimes they may go to a shop and purchase it and get it but other times they just forget it I won’t take it so yeah whatever pleasure they may feel they get out of it so the point which I am making is that they cannot wish away the craving for alcohol immediately the craving will be there still but how much they act on the craving that is not uniformly determined so that’s why that is so that’s why three things it is said that avoiding the association that further stimulates them to drink and creating obstacles between themselves and the object of craving and thirdly trying to become more and more self-aware now I am feeling like drinking but maybe I should do something else because many times when our passions catch us we don’t even realize what we are doing till after we have done that thing so if we become so by these things even alcoholics can decrease the magnitude of that addiction so what bhakti can eventually do is the desire itself will go away but but that will take a long time and there are various practical measures by which indulgence can be decreased just like Vishwanath Chikkadakar used the example that if somebody decides on Ekadashi I am not going to take grains then just by that resolution they can avoid a substantial amount of substantial amount of the desire to eat they can avoid so here that means there is external regulation and there is internal resolution and by this combination they are able to regulate themselves they are able to stay away from the food so like that certainly so I would say going back to the example of the cow and the rope so we could say that the length of the rope is the amount of time we can stay away from the craving so for example some people can fast for 6 hours or 8 hours or 10 hours some people find it ok I can fast till noon but I cannot fast the whole day other people may say that I can fast for the whole day but at night I have to break my fast other people may say ok I can fast but I need to drink water at least or I have to drink some juices so different people can have different capacities of fasting but even within those capacities based on how they conduct themselves if a person who can fast goes all day and stays in a kitchen with other people who are eating constantly they will find it very difficult to restrain themselves so that way whatever is the intensity of our craving and strength of our addiction, strength of our attachment that will determine the length of the how long or how short the rope is but even within whatever is the restriction created by craving we have freedom and based on that we can either maximize our bondage or we can minimize our bondage so put it another way going back to the earlier example of talent and temperament that the length of the rope is the talent some people have phenomenal talent some people have limited talent, mediocre talent but what we do with the talent that we have that will vary or another more practical example could be that different people get different amounts of inheritance from their parents so now some people they may get a small inheritance but they invest it wisely and they live with relative financial security throughout their lives other people they get a generous inheritance from their parents but they just squander it and then within a few years they are in constant financial anxiety so the length of the rope is we could say like the inheritance that we have got so how we use it is still up to us and sometimes we have the idea that nothing in our life is controllable which I feel is not an accurate idea but some things are definitely within our control and the more we use what is in our control the better we can change things the better we can improve things