From Momos to Liberation
Author Kedi Ganapati
✦ Table of Contents ✦
Pleasure from the Talk, Not the Touch
In 2015, I went to a woman's house to give her a massage. During the massage, she asked me, "Why do you do massage work?" I said that I wanted to study Kama Shastra and philosophy, and to gain real-life experience of them, I would provide massage services to people for a few months or years. Hearing this, she was surprised and asked me many questions about Kama Shastra and philosophy. Every answer I gave was surprising her.
Even after the massage was over, she wanted to continue talking to me. She said, "I'm ordering some food, you can eat something before you leave." Whenever anyone offered me food, I could never refuse. She ordered momos and noodles. The hotel was near her building, so the food was delivered quickly.
She did not want to eat anything; she only wanted to talk. So, she ate just one piece of momo and told me to eat the rest. While telling her stories related to my Kama Shastra and philosophy studies, I attacked the momos. I was very hungry. I ate all the momos and noodles by myself. I even ate the red chutney made with chemicals.
The lady said, "I enjoyed your conversation even more than your massage. I never thought a spa therapist would talk about spirituality and Kama Shastra together like this." I said, "I am researching every subject related to human existence." The moment the word "existence" came out of my mouth, I felt ashamed of my own existence. While talking, I had eaten all the food by myself. I became a little uncomfortable and quietly left her house immediately.
Free Food, Lost Money
As soon as I reached home, I remembered that I was allergic to food coloring. There was so much food coloring in those momos and noodles that getting sick was certain. For two days I waited to fall sick, and finally on the third day I became ill. I started having indigestion, vomiting, high fever, and pain throughout my body. Those momos and noodles probably cost 250 rupees, but after eating them I remained sick for a full four days, and during those four days I had to cancel a total of nine appointments. By eating chemical-laden food worth 250 rupees, I had to give up 14,000 rupees worth of business. Even if I had a mild fever, I would not provide massage services to anyone for two days.
It was not the first time that food poisoning had caused me losses. Every year, three or four times, some customer would offer me chemical-laden food. I could not refuse, and then I would fall sick for a week. For the last two days, I had been lying in bed day and night. At 2 PM in the afternoon, for the first time, I wished to attain liberation from food poisoning, so that I could eat any food in the world and not get food poisoning.
Liberation from Unwanted Reaction
Whenever I want to obtain something, I first ask Ganesh. There is another mind within me; its name is Ganesh.
Kiran: I want liberation from food poisoning. How can liberation be attained?
Ganesh:Then you'll have to die. Liberation is attained only after death.
Kiran: I don't want liberation from life, I want liberation from food poisoning.
Ganesh:What is liberation?
Kiran: I want liberation from having to suffer the wrong reaction that I am suffering. I want that kind of liberation.
Ganesh:Don't do the wrong action, then neither will you have to suffer the wrong reaction nor will you need liberation.
Kiran: I want that even if I do the wrong action, I should not have to suffer the wrong reaction. I want liberation from the wrong reaction.
Ganesh:You should not ask for liberation from the reaction; rather, you should ask for liberation from your current existence.
Kiran: How would anyone want liberation from their own existence?
Ganesh:In the last 8 years, you worked in 12 different companies 12 times to attain liberation from your existence. Your current existence instantly agrees to free food. If you attain liberation from that existence, then no one will be able to tempt you with free food, and you too won't be able to eat other people's discarded chemicals, and you won't get food poisoning.
Kiran: I didn't understand anything. It all went over my head.
Ganesh:Your body has certain limitations that will remain for life and cannot be changed. Chemical food will upset your stomach. Your current existence knows this very well, yet it does not refuse to eat chemical food. If your current existence changes, you will no longer desire chemical food and will be able to refuse it easily. Therefore, whenever liberation from anything is needed, the current existence has to be changed. The moment existence changes, liberation from the thing you wanted liberation from is attained automatically.
Kiran: What if someone's current existence is enjoyable?
Ganesh:Then that person cannot desire any kind of liberation. Enjoyment and liberation are opposites of each other.
Kiran: How?
Ganesh:One who is enjoying life does not want liberation. One who is not enjoying life wants liberation.
Kiran: Do the monks who seek liberation do so because there is no enjoyment in their lives?
Ganesh:Not having enjoyment and not being able to enjoy are two different things. Some monks seek liberation because they cannot enjoy, while some monks give up enjoyment in order to attain liberation.
Eating Momos to Marrying 'Momo'
Kiran: What is true liberation?
Ganesh:Then you'll have to die. Liberation is attained only after death.
Kiran: What is true liberation?
Ganesh:To fully live the current existence, renounce it, and completely accept a new existence is true liberation. Liberation does not mean losing something; it means attaining a new existence.
Kiran: If the current existence has to be renounced anyway, why should it be lived fully?
Ganesh:So that after renouncing it, no desire arises again to perform some leftover deeds of the old existence, and you do not have to take up the old existence again in order to perform those deeds.
Kiran: If I change my existence to attain liberation and my current desire itself disappears, then what is the benefit?
Ganesh:When existence changes, desires change too. It is possible that the desire to eat momos may disappear, and the desire to marry a girl named Momo may arise.
The Cosmic Liberation
Kiran: What is the liberation attained after death?
Ganesh:That too is a change of existence. If liberation is attained from Earth, the earthly existence will be erased and transformed into a heavenly existence.
Kiran: What will happen after that?
Ganesh:After attaining liberation 7 times across the 7 planetary realms, there will be a transformation into the final human existence in Hiranyaloka.
Kiran: What will happen after that?
Ganesh:In Hiranyaloka, the final supreme liberation from human existence will be attained, and by emerging from Hiranyagarbha, you will become a particle of God. The human particle will be destroyed forever.
Kiran: Is it possible to attain the supreme liberation that takes one directly out of Hiranyagarbha from Earth?
Ganesh:Just as one must live 99 years to celebrate a 100th birthday, similarly, to attain supreme liberation one must take 7 births across the 7 planetary realms and then the final human birth in Hiranyaloka. Only after that can supreme liberation be attained. Only after supreme liberation will the human particle transform into a particle of God.
Human Particle to a Particle of God
Kiran: “What will happen after becoming a particle of God?”
Ganesh:For eternity, you will remain a particle of God because that will be perfection, and no perfection undergoes any change. But you may insist on becoming a human particle again in order to become imperfect once more.
Kiran: Can one become a human particle again after becoming a particle of God from a human particle?
Ganesh:Once a human particle becomes a particle of God, the journey of its human existence comes to an end. It remains a particle of God for eternity. But I am not certain about you; your inconsistency will not let you remain a particle of God for very long.
Conclusion
On that day, unknowingly, I learned 5 things about existence and liberation:
1. Even something received for free demands paid maintenance; therefore, if you cannot afford that paid maintenance, you should distance yourself from that free thing.
2. If you want liberation from anything, you must change the current existence, because the current existence itself is the root cause of the current problem.
3. Happiness and liberation are opposites of each other. Where there is happiness, there is no liberation; where there is the desire for liberation, there is no happiness. Therefore, if life is filled with suffering due to the current existence, then the only way to attain happiness is to attain liberation from the current existence.
4. Changing existence is not escape, but evolution.
5. Attaining liberation is not emptiness or renunciation, but the next stage.
Note: This content represents a chapter of Kedi Purana, a 64-chapter work authored by Kedi Ganapati. Kedi Purana is a modern Purana of the present and final Kaliyuga.
