Breaking the Mental Chains

“Freedom does not mean we have to change all our situations. We do not have to turn our life or situations upside down to become free because one situation is not better than some other situation; don’t ever believe that. It is just a choice.”

—Sadhguru

Question: How does a person become free of their bondages when they are in a family where so many people are dependent on them and there are certain chains around you?

Sadhguru: Maybe you cannot release your body from the chains but you can definitely release your mind from the chains. That is in your hands, isn’t it? Right now, maybe you cannot take Sanyas and live in an ashram – your husband, wife or your children will not allow you, but you becoming mentally free, can anybody stop you? No. The bondages have come only because of yourself and nobody else. Freedom does not mean we have to change all our situations. We do not have to turn our life or situations upside down to become free because one situation is not better than some other situation; don’t ever believe that. It is just a choice. Somebody chooses to live in this situation and somebody else chooses to live in another situation; everything has its pluses and minuses. The important thing is how you are within yourself, isn’t it? So, you may not be able to change your external situation immediately, maybe there is nothing wrong with it and there is no need to change it. But you should change your inner situation because it is bothering you.

This mind can become a ladder to divinity, it can make you ecstatic. Many times this mind made you happy, isn’t it? And many times it made you very unhappy, fearful, tense and frustrated. So the same mind is doing both. It is doing whatever it wants because this little instrument of a mind is not in your hands, it has gone out of control. You can take your car and reach the next city or you can ram it straight into a tree. It is left to you. So, it is just about what you do with it. You can reach very far if you keep the controls in your hands.