Real Freedom

Freedom! Wow, the word itself generates a pleasant feeling in our heart. One of the innate aspirations of the people today is to be free. When we are free, we can listen to our own feelings and follow our own heart to lead a life with purpose and reach our destiny in our own unique style. In short, we want freedom to choose, to take risk and to succeed.

Happiness we get from this process of deciding (“what we want to do”,” how we want to do it”) and doing it successfully on our own is a great feeling. There is no better sense of fulfillment in the world! But to experience this freedom, we have to first free our mind from many restraints we have imposed on ourselves, for example:

1. Restraints of Attachment: a) Attachment to Name: your fame makes you think, “What will others think if I do this? “and it stops your free thinking; b) Attachment to POSITION: when we get attached to a particular position, we become dependent and subservient to our superior in organization. These restraints of attachment create negative traits in us such as jealousy, hatred, ego, etc. These negative traits will imprison our thinking pattern, thereby making us a life time prisoner.


2. Impressions of the past and worries of the future.


3. Influence (but not inspiration) of friends and family members who have dominant presence on our thoughts and actions. Inspiration is great thing but not Influence. Influence is a subtle restraint which makes you dependent whereas inspiration frees you and motivates you to do and achieve something bigger and better than you ever thought possible on your own.

How do you break free of these restraints?

1. Self-Belief: Believe in yourself; set time for your hobbies and listen to songs of your heart.


2. Knowledge and wisdom: Gain enough knowledge and wisdom from all available sources.


3. Self-Mastery: Train yourself and become master of your mind, feelings and emotions.


4. Spirit of Adventure: Get out of your inertia and develop new ideas, plans and take calculated risks. Do not worry of failures; a person who never failed is person who never tried anything in life.

Freedom, however, is also a word that is highly misinterpreted and has led to many problems and wars. Freedom brings responsibility. Experiencing and enjoying Freedom is just like freedom of driving an automobile to the destination of your choice via the route you prefer, subject to the traffic laws while driving to your destination. Freedom requires you to respect the rights, values and freedom of others while you are enjoying your own Freedom.

Real freedom is achieved when we are free from within. Real freedom is when we are masters of our own mind and we value others freedom too.

So drive your vehicle (life) carefully; decide your destiny with self-belief and gain wisdom to reach there and have a spirit of adventure to face the situations and obstacles on the way to your destiny; remember to yield or stop to avoid accidents with drivers of bad sanskars on the way.