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Freedom as exploration of the Self
The word Freedom has many connotations. Many people express freedom as if it were an ideology. Freedom goes hand-in-hand with free will.
But it is important to understand the nature of freedom in the larger context of the life process. To become free cannot be a mere concept that manipulates our life experiences. It cannot.
Only when we look into the what it is to be free, can the exploration of the Self begin.
What cannot be Freedom?
If one is able to do whatever one wants, then that is not necessarily freedom, in fact it is never that. It is our conditioning alone that comes into action whenever we try to imagine what it is to become free is like.
Although at a personal level we may pacify ourselves that we are able to do what we want, still that so called “free-becoming” is only a variation of bondage and nothing else.
It is to be understood that we are born in a bound condition. Our parents, friends, society, etc, heavily influence us. These influences dictate the way we function or behave.
Not only that, it is this very conditioning that decides our likes and dislikes. What we claim to be ours is nothing but the way we are already influenced by our surroundings.
There is nothing within our minds that we can call our own. In such a case, can we act other than these influences? Hence our conditioning can never allow the freeing experience.
Let’s now define what being free is.
What is the nature of freedom?
It is born out of freshness of the soul. It is born through the vivacity of the spirit and is never a slave to the whims of the mind. If we say that I shall enjoy, it relates to the senses and the imageries of the mind. Hence it can never represent free action; such action is born out of the mind, out of the past which is already dead, which has no spontaneity.
When all the coverings on the spirit are removed and actions are born spontaneously in the here and now where there is no influence of any conditioning, it represents true freedom.
Releasing the mind from all its compulsive behavioral patterns, is the best definition of Freedom. Then there are no pre-conditions for action, that is the nature of free living.
When the heart becomes pure, flooded with purity, it is an expression of free living.
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What can Freedom give us?
The free living experince essentially belongs to the domain of spirituality. Spirituality or spiritual discipline unleashes our waywardness, wonkiness of thought, word, and actions.
All discrepancies of thought, word, and action are born out of worldliness. Through sustained spiritual endeavor, we are able to abandon our desires.
Our thought, words, and deed lose their materialism.
With becoming less materialistic, we end up becoming more joyful, more free than ever. Thus, we enter the domain of the freeing experience. When one picks up a spiritual discipline like Jnana, Bhakti, or Karma Yoga, the conditioning of the mind slowly dissolves.
When our views and perspectives with which we perceive our surroundings broaden, there is a release of compulsion. We stop looking at time, place, and circumstances through myopic viewpoints of opinions and we treat them with the broad-mindedness of spirit which is natural and unhindered.
It also means that we are not un-intelligently liberal that levels doubts on inner character. Freedom is born only out of impregnable character. Discipline goes hand-in-glove with our freeing experience.
Only a truly disciplined mind can give rise to regulated character which defines the way the freeing mode operates within us. The freeing phenomenon expresses itself only through a mind that has become utterly transparent and uncomplicated, that does not have biases, strong likes and dislikes, attachments, and aversions.
True freeing experience is never opinionated.
There is nothing that can separate Truth and Freedom if we get deeply involved with the freeing phenomenon. Our intention must direct us towards inner release from distress and discontentment. This sincere pursuit eventually grants true escape from that which binds us even a wee bit.
When we pay attention to what drives the life process, this can be a good beginning towards freeing ourselves from the binds of our personality which keeps us bound to our compulsive thoughts and behavior.
What can give us true freedom?
It is important to first admit that views and opinions of the world, influence our decisions and our perception. We most often look through the lens of the world and this is the problem, the cause of manipulation.
This is the first step towards inner release. We can only begin our journey towards this release only through Truth and truth alone. Our limitations and fears, condition our living. It prevents us from experiencing emancipation. Hence it is important for us to relieve ourselves from the weight of society.
For true maturity to emerge, it is important that we follow some disciplined practice that will align our internal energies.
Samskaras play a great role in shaping our views which are in many ways distorted. Our samskaras are the impressions of good and bad as defined by the world that lie entrenched in the crevices of our minds.
Taking up a spiritual practice shall slowly remove the mental blocks that limit our cognition, perception and expression. There are many people who are agnostic and wayward in their positions and do things that are preposterous and outright toxic in the name of freedom.
One has to become sensitive and own responsibility for one’s thoughts, words, and actions. This is the preliminary condition for being free unlike the popular, whimsical approach of trying to implement the whims and fancies of the mad mind.
Hence, our freedom of expression must be appropriately put forward, without hurting others. Freedom can never mean infringement of the other’s expression.
Freedom should only promote the positivity of character and encouragement to the depressed. That is the hallmark of being free. Freedom does not mean, being without limits but it means applying appropriate limits at all times.
A Vedic Approach is needed for Freedom
When we release our grip on things of the world, one shall experience freedom. Freedom from worldly compulsions and pressures. The end of compulsions is the release of the unconscious.
The unconscious part of our consciousness lies under one’s automatic instinctive character which is animistic in nature whereby our human potential is submerged in the darkness of our unknown, undiscoverable dark character.
Unless one lets go of one’s grip of what one feels, one’s needs to control and maintain, one shall never know the possibilities of the infinite which lies hidden, seemingly unattainable, in the depths of one’s heart.
The Vedic lifestyle is that one should look up to so that all the basic elements of freedom fall into place. Unless one strives to attain true happiness in one’s life through authentic Vedic processes, the thought to become free from life’s compulsions will not come as a thought in one’s already cluttered life.
First, one must understand freedom, before one even desires it. One shall automatically become deserving if one’s desire for True freedom is genuine and consistent.
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