We are delighted to share that our newest publication, “Bondage or Freedom” by our dear Swami Veda Bharati was released on the sacred occasion of Maha-shivaratri by Swami Ritavan Bharati, our Ashram Pramukha, along with Swami Tattavananda Bharati and Swami Maa Tripura Bharati. This book is the fourth one from the series Mind, Emotions and Relationships.

Bondage or Freedom answers the eternal question as to how we bind ourselves into the complexities of life and our own personalities. The answer to this eternal question is the essence of this book. Our beloved Swami Ji with his experiential wisdom and profound knowledge guides us through the efficacious ways to free ourselves from the bondages created by our own self.

We wish to express our gratitude to Rajini Prakash ji, for her devoted service to Swami ji’s mission by editing this book. We were delighted to have Rajini ji at SRSG during the book release and she beautifully introduced Swamiji’s book,

“First of all, this book would not be possible without Swami Ritavan’s grace. And he has been the guide and the inspiration behind it. We have had a wonderful team working on the book. Rabindra ji, who is heading publications as a Director, Divya, who is an integral part of the publications team, Deepti and Aruna, who have worked very hard in the background to bring the work to fruition. So, without them, it would not have been possible. It is teamwork.

How can one even introduce something of Swami Veda! Every word he has said, we all know, is pearls of wisdom.

Swamiji said in his talk on Yoga Sutras that the mind stream, the mind field can flow in two different directions. In one direction, we can weave a beautiful tapestry of lovely, lovely colours, tapestry of life that could bind us tighter and tighter into the world of Samsara. And on the other hand, we can go towards freedom, towards moksha.

And that is what this book is all about. It’s beautiful; it’s very profound. Swamiji talks about what is true freedom.

Swamiji used to talk about confluence of minds. This morning one of the initiates—of Swami Rama said, ‘what is true freedom I would like to know’. And we were going to have a wonderful time discussing that question. We will read the book to find out.”

Swami Ritavan then introduced the book through a humorous word play, giving us a glimpse into what the book would be about and inspiring us to grab our own copy of the book, “As sadhakas, in the Mantra tradition, you know that there is a science of Mantra. It actually means a science of language. It’s the secret language.

But this particular way in which we said bondage or freedom – those that know about bondage in the analogy of ‘this shore’. We live our lives with this relative reality, meaning on this shore only. And every so often we look across and we see the other shore. So, the question becomes, ‘Oh, what is that and how to get there?’
Of course, you need a boat.
But what do you do in a boat?

You take an oar.

So you need the oars to work your way from bondage to freedom. You become free, but you have to do the work. You have to do the oar-ring.”

Editor’s Note:

Please write to hyptbooks@gmail.com for a physical copy. For Kindle edition, click on Bondage or Freedom.