Immortal Talks (- Book 2)

by Shunya

Do all desires get planted on the soul from outside, or is there any such thing as a soul’s own desire? A desire to be prosperous, a desire to be happy, a desire to be free, a desire to be bounded by a contract like a marriage or a job, a desire to be spiritual, a desire to be materialistic – don’t they all sprout from external things, people and ideas? They all belong to the mind, not the soul. What, then, is a soul’s own desire? Does it always have to follow the mind it’s attached to?

The deformed jaw encourages the seekers to do the same: challenge the beliefs even if your community, your race, your kind punishes you, mocks you, or smears you with nasty labels. A broken jaw or a painful snide remark is not a high price to pay for the freedom you’d breath beyond the slums littered with beliefs.

‘Limited curiosity pulls you into the illusion and keeps you there. If your curiosity about an object is limitless, no matter what the object is, it will lead you to the truth.

‘When you ride a boat, the boat moves, not you. You feel the movement simply because you sit on the moving boat. In the same way, the soul just “sits upon” the body-mind and feels whatever they’re feeling. The soul is not the “doer”; it doesn’t do anything. There is no question of a soul controlling or changing anything happening in the theatre of Space-Time. The soul remains a mute spectator.’

Soul on a boat

curious tourist once visited a beautiful but mysterious valley. He was totally new to the place. He didn’t know where to begin exploring it. He saw a local shepherd who was searching for his lost sheep. The tourist offered to join him in his search. This way, he could fulfil his desire of exploring the valley. ‘The two unlikely companions kept wandering around the valley, one in search of his sheep and the other simply to explore the fascinating place. When the evening fell, the shepherd gave up all hopes of finding his sheep and began walking back to his home. The tourist accompanied him and stayed at his home at night. ‘Next day, the shepherd set out to graze his herd and to do other routine works. The tourist desired to accompany him because he was now addicted to everything the valley offered him: the visuals, the hardships, the sweat, the relief, and so on. The shepherd allowed him on the condition that he helped him in taking care of his sheep. ‘The tourist didn’t know how to do a shepherd’s work. So he simply started copying him. This went on for several days. Ultimately, he forgot that he was a tourist, not a shepherd. He forgot his true identity. The legend says that he wanders in the valley to this day, grazing sheep that are not his own. He suffers all the hardships of a shepherd’s life. He doesn’t have to do it. He could leave everything and become a tourist once again and move to explore some other place. Nothing is stopping him except his ignorance. If luck f...

Attachment of soul to a character

‘Once the lodestone gets attached to an iron piece, an interesting thing happens: the latter also assumes the power to move the former even though it has no magnetic power of its own. When the iron piece moves, the lodestone mimics the motion. Similarly, even though all the power of free will lies with the soul, once it gets attached to a character, it stops exercising that power. It starts mimicking the desires of the character. That means the character gets the power to decide the soul’s journey. ‘The job of a Guru is to remind the soul of its power of free will.

Lodestone analogy