The way of the bird

The freedom that one has in reality does not come from liberation from bondage. It is a
freedom that has never known bondage and so can hardly be called freedom. It feels like
freedom to the one who believed he or she was bound but in fact it was there all the time
and has only been recognized. The realized person says "I am always free and you are
always free also." This freedom does not refer to freedom of action but to a freedom that
has never performed any action and so is not constrained to receive the fruits of those
actions. This freedom of the Self is like the freedom of the bird that can fly unhindered
above the crawling and walking creatures of the earth.
2.21 "When the package is opened, the package doesn't remain."
The package that Maharaj is referring to with this analogy is the body-mind-ego. This
package is a bundling together of different parts and functions, including the sense
organs, the power of perception, the intellect, emotions, and so on. The making of this
package is the inevitable result of the birth of the body and the mind. The package can be
unwrapped or opened in two ways: by the death of the body mind or by self-enquiry.
Through self-enquiry, the package is seen to be untrue; that is, it is understood that the
so-called individual person is nothing but a concept. When you remove the string and
paper that is binding the package together, what happens to the package? It is no longer
there. In the same way, the concept "I exist" is the string and paper that holds together the
package of the individual person. Remove it, and the illusion of the individual person is
gone.
2.22 "One should just be and forget this and that."
Being is one of the characteristics or qualities of Brahman in the traditional description satchit-ananda.
The word "sat" is often translated as "being." In this three-fold description,
being is not different from "chit," which means "knowledge" or "consciousness," and not
different from "ananda," which means fullness or completeness. To know oneself-to have
Self-knowledge-means also to be oneself. Being is the most real experience one can have
because it means also to be knowledge itself, the reality. But what is being? Being (sat) is
that which is present now, which always has been present, and which always will be
present. It is experienced as a stillness that is also pure knowledge and the feeling of
satisfaction as well.
The sat-chit-ananda triad unites the three realms of physical body, intellect, and emotion
which come together as understanding. As an aspirant, you may find that your path is
marked by an increasing frequency of experiences of this kind of understanding and less
and less disturbance from mundane concerns, which Maharaj here calls "this and that."
2.23 "Do anything, but understand where reality is. When you feel
nothing, it is there."
"Do anything" in this context, should not be understood from the point of view of an
imaginary "doer," but with the knowledge that it is the divine power that does everything,
as in "He is doing everything." If you understand that power as the real doer, you may