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.”
