Now what is the bondage that was talked about and what is the freedom? The bondage is I remain in the material world, I remain in a material body which is destined to cause me nothing but pain and suffering, that is the nature of the material body.
As soon as one takes birth, it begins. Even before, in the womb, “Ah, so cramped in here, not very comfortable in here.” And as we get a little bigger, we start kicking and the mother is saying, “Ohh, nice little guy.” And the baby is calling, “Let me out of here, I can hardly breathe and it’s so tight.” And then, “Boom!” blasted out the birth canal, “Whoosh!” Oh, glorious birth! And the baby is thinking, “Oh man, what was that about?” Have you ever seen a newborn baby? (Shows newborn baby face, audience laughter) “Where have you been, man?” “Oh, don’t talk about it, let’s forget that part!” (Laughing) In fact we do, anybody remember being born? No, it is so painful that we forget it.
Actually one night I was giving a lecture on reincarnation, that was the lecture I was speaking about that night, I had mentioned something that I just did, and this man came up after the lecture and said, “You know what? I remember being in the womb, I remember being born, I remember my mother taking me, putting me on her breast, I remember my first drink of milk from my mother’s breast.” I said, “Wow, that’s great. What was it like? Can you describe it?” In the Vedic scriptures it describes life in the womb, very, very detailed. And his description was almost identical with what we learn from the Vedic teachings, a very hellish condition.
That is just the beginning; that is where it all starts and then it continues on. All the pains of baby life, so many things going on and I can’t communicate, I can’t talk yet so all I can do is cry and the mother doesn’t know what I need so she is thinking I need something to eat, I don’t need anything to eat, I need something else; a very difficult time.
Then gradually we start getting it together, we can start to try be a little mobile, but we crash all the time, “Waah”, get up and we go through that crashing period so we can walk a little bit and cause a lot of trouble and get scolded for it. Parents, “Aahhh, stop it! Don’t touch this, don’t do that!” “But man, I just want to do stuff!” (Laughs) They put locks on all the cabinet doors so I can’t open them (shows), frustrated. And then we grow up and we figure out how to crack the locks and cause a lot of trouble that way. Anyway, you can get the pattern, it starts before we are even born in the womb and it just continues on and on.
Teeth, part of the body, right? If you’ve got teeth, they will cause you problems. Even before they come out, they cause you problems. The baby is crying all night. “What’s wrong?” “He is teething.” He doesn’t even have teeth yet! (Laughing) And the teeth are making him miserable. Then they come in and they start falling out, and you are walking around with no teeth up here. Of course, what is the next little lie they tell us? “Don’t worry, for every tooth… the tooth fairy will come and give a reward.” It is kind of to ease the pain; take that old tooth and stick it under the pillow, next morning there is a dollar bill there, “Oh, the tooth fairy came! Ohh!” He is happy about that. Part of the illusion; propagate, propagate.
Then we go on and we get older and all the other pains; and then it starts the emotional pains. “Oh, I am not a beautiful lady or my body is weird or nobody likes me,” and all the teenage stuff and then the puberty.
Where does it all end, at death? (Laughs) That is not easy, either. Old age (makes sounds of pain), “Oh, that’s the golden years, don’t you know? That’s the golden years, my friend, don’t worry!” That is some young guy calling it golden years. Old people say:
– It is hell!
– Oh, don’t think like that. That is golden.
– Yeah, that’s when the leaves fall off the trees, don’t you know that? (Laughs) Getting ready to die here! (shows a leaf falling)
And then there is that fearful time of death. Boom!
Then what; It all starts over again. Because we are eternal, it doesn’t end at death. No matter how much you believe it does, it doesn’t. That is another part of the illusion, just another lie. There is that whole philosophy, “You are the body and when you die it’s finished, don’t worry.” But you die, the body is there and you are here, it didn’t finish. “Wow, what is this, let us stray again.” And then we enter into another womb, we forget all that misery and start all over again, “Wow, this is great!” (Laughs)
That is called material bondage. And along the way we are never happy, we are never satisfied. We’ve done everything to be happy, but we are not. We’ve bought all the toys, experienced all the joys, been here, done that kind of thing, and we are still not happy.