becomes a teacher, an enlightener, when it can also provide an insight into the causes
thereof. Why is it that this experience has come, and how is it that my reaction to this
experience is of such and such a nature? To give a concrete instance: why is there
pleasure, or why is there pain? How am I happy under given conditions of
experience?
The bondage aspect of experience is due to the emphasis laid on the pleasurable or
the painful aspects of experience alone, minus the insight aspect which is also
implied there. But, the liberating aspect of the experience comes to relief when we
pay due attention to the other side of the experience also, not merely the pleasurable
or the painful aspects of it—namely, the conditions that have been responsible for
bringing about the experience itself.
Apart from the fact that a particular experience is pleasurable or miserable, there is
also another side to it—namely, that this experience has come due to some cause,
whether it is happy or unhappy. The pure emphasis on the happy or unhappy aspect
of the experience is the untutored reaction of the mind which is not properly
enlightened into the circumstances. But a cautious mind will open its eyes into the
circumstances of the case and learn by this experience.
If I am happy due to a particular experience, what is the cause of this happiness?
From where has this happiness come? This is how we learn by experience. If it is
pain, we also learn by that pain. How has this pain come? What is the reason behind
the pain that is attendant upon this particular type of experience? Why am I happy or
why am I unhappy at all, at the time of a particular experience? So, the
understanding of the nature of the cause of a particular experience is the aspect of
enlightenment involved in it, whereas the mere reaction of a tit-for-tat attitude in
respect of the pleasure or the pain involved in the experience is the bondage aspect.
But the ultimate aim of all experiences is not to create bondage, because the essential
nature of things is not bondage, it is freedom—and everything is striving towards
freedom. Thus, anything that happens anywhere, at any time, under any condition,
should be a step taken towards freedom of a higher degree. That this freedom is not
recognised is due to a different factor which has to be investigated. It is due to a
misconception in regard to the nature of the experience itself.
Every experience is an exhaustion of a particular momentum that has been
responsible for it, as we have noted in our previous studies. The karmas of the past
are mainly responsible for our experiences. It was mentioned earlier in a sutra that
these forces of past deeds, thoughts, feelings, etc., are the causes of the species into
which we are born, the length of life for which we live, and also the experiences that
we undergo. All these are conditioned, motivated by the forces generated by the past
karmas. Hence, the experiences that are provided by means of contact are processes
of self-exhaustion, just as fever is a kind of exhaustion of the conditions that have
been introduced into the system by toxic matter. The intention of fever is not to
punish us but to purify us, though it looks like a pain that comes upon us. In the
same way, every experience is a purifying process in the sense that thereby there is
an exhaustion of the causes that were responsible for the experience; and together
with the exhaustion of these causes by the diminution of the intensity of the
momentum thereof, there is an understanding involved. The understanding is that
experiences by means of contact with objects are revelatory of the nature of the
objects and also of the weaknesses of one’s own mind. Both these things are known at