A story told by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

A group of traders were trying to cross a desert and they arrived at an oasis and they decided to take rest for the night.Everybody were so tired, even the camels. When it was time to secure the camels, they found one of the hitching pin to tie the camels was missing. They tied all the camels except one. None of them wanted to stay awake watching the camel neither loose it by letting him free. Then one of the men came and took the rope and after he went through all the motions of tethering the animal to a pin- an imaginary pin. Afterwards, the camel was bedded down and he was convinced that it was securely bound and everybody went to sleep.

Next morning, the camels were released. Everyone made ready to continue there journey,except the camel, which was tied in the imaginary pin. It refused to get up and move. Everybody did all the possible things, but the camel didn't moved. Meanwhile the man who did the trick last day realised the reason for the animal's obstinacy. He went to the camel's imaginary hitching pin and went through all the usual motions of untying the rope and releasing the camel. Soon it stood up without any hesitation believing that it was now free.

We all are like this camel. Even if we are free as the untied camel, we like to compare ourselves with others and this will limit our potentials. In our life we limit our capacities and potentials misconceptions as we believe we are bound firmly. We all are free to explore ourselves,and develop our potentials to its best.