There was a great monk who lived in the Himalayas. He had free access anywhere he went, because people loved and welcomed him. This monk used to go to the king’s palace and have his lunch there every day. The queen would serve him lunch in a golden plate and a cup. He would go, eat and then walk out. This was his routine.
One day after his meal, he grabbed a silver glass and a golden spoon and took it with him. He didn’t even tell anybody that he was taking it, that he wanted it or anything. People in the palace noticed. The queen noticed. He would never take anything at any time, what happened today? He took these things with him, without telling anybody! He just put it into his bag and left. Three days later, he brought back the cup and spoon and left it there. This was even more puzzling. Before they thought maybe he needed it, so he took it. Now he came and put it back. It was more puzzling! So the king called all the wise people and enquired as to why this happened. Why did he take it and then bring it back? They found all the wise people and pundits, who said, “Find out what you fed him the previous day or two.”
So they went and found out all that information. They found, they had fed him food they confiscated from some robbers (some Dacoits). They had found and arrested a few Dacoits a couple of days ago, and they confiscated a lot of grains and foodstuff (everything from them). That was then cooked and served to the saint, and made him rob the things from the palace. In ancient days, people used to look into all these things. If somebody did something very unusual, they went into the root cause of it. Why? Instead of accusing this monk who started stealing… what made the monk steal? The food! Who cooked the food, what was done in the food and what happened? They went into that detail and found the root cause of it.
It is ignorance to think we are the doers. And the way to come out of this ignorance, is definite understanding, definite knowledge in the mind that my body and the world is undergoing change all the time. The entire universe is in the form of fluids, in the state of fluidity. And it is all full of change, going on its own, according to its nature.
This definite knowledge: “I am not the body. I am the Self. I am the space. I am the imperishable, untouched, untainted by prakriti (nature), by this world around me. This body is all hollow and empty. And every particle in this body is changing and changing. The mind is changing and changing.” This definite knowledge is the way out of the cycle.
