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certainty that it is not ours.
You say, "I have fallen in love with somebody," without considering whether that love affair was your decision or not. Listen to what lovers say: "We do not know when it happened. We did not make it happen." Then how can that be ours which happened of its own accord? If it happens, it happens. If it does not happen, it does not.
We are so dependent, so regulated, as if somewhere everything is fixed and determined. Our condition is similar to that of an animal tied with a rope to a stake. The animal will go on circling round and round the stake on its rope and will live in the misconception that it is free because it is circling freely. It will forget the rope, because to remember it is painful; the rope tied to the stake gives us pain because it reminds us of our dependence. The truth is, that it tells us that we are not our true selves.
We are not fit to be even dependent, let alone consider the matter of becoming free. To be one's dependency -- that is, to feel the rope's pinch -- it is necessary to be aware of one's being; and that we are not. The animal roams around the fixed stake, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right and thinks, "I am free," and when it thinks, "I am free," the 'I' is there. Then, by and by, it must begin to persuade itself that "It is also due to my willingness that I am tied to a stake. I can cut the rope whenever I desire, but I am thinking of my welfare."
We create so much delusion in our lives. We say, "I became angry, I made love, I disliked, I hated, I made friends, I became an enemy..." but none of these doings is our decision. Have you ever become angry and been the doer of that anger? You have never done so. When there is anger, you are not there. Have you ever made love which is made by you? If you can make love, then you can make love with anybody; but the fact is that you are able to love someone and you are unable to love someone else. You are able to make love with someone even when you don't want to, and you are unable to make love with someone even though you wish to do so.
All the feelings and emotions of life come from some unknown quarter -- they
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