The Real Meaning of Freedom

There is nothing as valuable in the life of a man as freedom. If you give the man all the wealth of the world, make a palace of gold for his residence and provide him the best food available in this world but take away his freedom, his life is miserable. There is no happiness in life, if we are dependent on others as Saint Tulsidas had said, “One who is dependent, has no happiness even in his dreams.” (Hindi-Paradhin Sukh Sapneu Nahi). It is, therefore, no surprise that the ultimate goal of human life is said to be Mukti which means liberation or freedom.  Though, we often understand the meaning of Mukti as the freedom ‘from this world’ i.e. from the cycle of life and birth, it can also be inferred as freedom ‘within this world’.

Freedom is also important for love. Only when people are free, they can love. There can be no love between the capture and the captive, master and the servant. The desire of freedom is there in every human being. Yet freedom means different things to different people and the same person has many meanings of the word “freedom”. Let us understand what freedom means.

1: Freedom from Something: People are suffering from different problems in life. They want freedom from pain (physical and mental), injustice, hatred etc. Some people do not like their spouse, their job, their bosses, their subordinates and they want freedom from them. Some people want freedom from corruption that is prevailing in their country. Some people want freedom from ideas like socialism, capitalism, democracies, reservations etc. They feel that their suffering has a cause and they want to become free from such causes.

2: Freedom to be Something: The second type of freedom is to become something. We all have some desires like to be become a writer, painter, Prime Minster or President of our country, a film star but we are constraint by the rules of the world or the pressure from our parents, society, peer group etc. So we want freedom to become what we wish to be in life.

3: Freedom to Choose: We all have different choices in our life. What is desirable for one is not desirable for other. We want to choose our cloths, our jobs, our girlfriend/boyfriend, our lifestyle etc. We want freedom to visit the place of our choice, follow the religions which we like and so on.  We want freedom to choose our governments.

4: Freedom to do Everything: For some people, the meaning of freedom is to do everything they want. They want to break free from everything and wish freedom to smoke, take drugs, alcohol, indulge in sensual activities, and drive as fast as they want, drink and drive and so on. They are suffocated by the laws and moral values that restrict their freedom

The Illusion of Freedom

Our concept of freedom remains an illusion throughout our life. It is because; when we get freedom from something we get trapped in another thing. We are so much integrated with the world that there is hardly any existence of man as an individual. We choose socialism over capitalism and now we are suffering from the problems of socialism. It is same for those who have chosen the opposite. We chose a job which we aspired and still we are unhappy since the job too restricts us and we want freedom from that job for yet another. Even when we have the freedom to choose our government, we find that our freedom has no meaning since most other people chose the other party which we detested. Even if by luck the party which chose is elected, we find that their people do not deliver what they promised.

We often chose the career for ourselves and become writer, politicians or painter but we are still quite unhappy as we are not very successful in our chosen field and unable to earn money or fame as we thought. We are trapped in our ambition and we spend our life chasing our dreams and like most people end up failing to achieve what we desired.

What is Real Freedom?

The real freedom can never come from anything as we just choose between devil and the deep sea. You leave one woman/man to choose another woman who turns out to be equally bad. There is also no possibility of any country allowing its citizen unlimited freedom of indulgence. Let us realize that our ambition, ideologies bind us rather than make us free as our ambitions are in respect to the ambitions of other people.  So the clash of ambition is unavoidable and everyone can’t be victories in such conflicts.  All writers can’t be best-selling authors nor all politicians can be PM or President. All actors can’t be Superstars. There is just one slot on the top and everyone can’t be there.

The real freedom is the freedom of mind. When our mind is free from all ideologies, persons and situations, then only there is real freedom. You can be free even when you are working in your office ten hours a day if your mind is free to take decisions and accomplish your goal by self-discipline and knowledge. On the other hand, you may lead a life of monk and yet may not be free as you need food, water, shelter and company of people to live your life.

The Way to Freedom

Most modern societies provide us the freedom to choose our career, life, friends and governments. Many of us freely exercise this freedom also but we don’t take the responsibility. Hence, if our choice is good, we take credit for the choice. But when it is bad, instead of blaming ourselves for taking wrong decision, we are quick to blame others. Most people refuse to exercise the choice and they want someone else to solve their problem and to tell them what is right for them. This gives them advantage of blaming others when they fail. Yet they only fool themselves as any amount of blaming can’t convert your failure to success not can reduce your suffering. So freedom must be exercised with responsibility and one must bear the consequences for his choice

We are also captive of the ideologies and ideals which divide the society to different denominations like Hindu, Muslims, Christians, Communism, Capitalism, Indian and American, violence or nonviolence. Each ideal in its attempt to unite people under one umbrella also create discord and division with others. You can’t be Hindu and Muslim at the same time. You can’t be Indian and American at the same time nor can you accept Communism and Capitalism simultaneously. One who is tied with any ideology is never free. Only when we go beyond these ideologies and ideals, we can claim to be free as our mind then shall have the ability to think freely and clearly.

It is important to realize that freedom is never free. We have to earn freedom through different means over a period of time to enjoy freedom later. For example, when you work for many years, you may earn enough money to have the freedom from work as you can live a comfortable life without working everyday. The freedom of mind too comes from disciple that comes from within. When you are self-disciplined and perform your job without anyone telling you to do so, you need no external person for disciplining you and hence you acquire freedom.  The currency of freedom is self-discipline that comes from self-knowledge which is the most difficult and courageous task. Carrie Jones has rightly said, “The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.”