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Don't let the donkey loose || Acharya Prashant, on Saint Lalleshwari (2017)
Acharya Prashant
522 views
8 years ago
Lalla
Mind
Worldly Entanglements
Meditation
Freedom
Death
Karma
Desire
Description

Acharya Prashant explains the metaphorical meaning of Lalla's verse regarding the donkey and the neighbor's saffron garden. He identifies the donkey as the mind and the neighbor's garden as the world. The mind has a natural tendency to wander into the world because it finds it attractive. When the mind is let loose without discretion, it creates unauthorized entanglements and mischief. While the mind performs the action, it is the individual who must suffer the consequences and pay the price through unnecessary relationships and obligations. These entanglements force a person to engage with others and lose their individual meditativeness. Acharya Prashant further elaborates that letting the mind wander results in being laden with needless relationships that demand one's time and energy. This prevents a person from attaining the state of 'nakedness,' which represents singular isolation and spiritual freedom. Because of these worldly debts and unfinished tasks, one is forced to keep living to settle accounts and bear the fruits of their actions. This creates a future and prevents the freedom of dying to the world. The speaker emphasizes that failing to understand or control the mind leads to the misery of being unable to find fulfillment or closure, as one remains under the obligation to repair the damages caused by the wandering mind.