The Vedanta Kesari 2010 Issue by Sri Ramakrishna Math Chennai

VOL. 97, No. 12

ISSN 0042-2983

A CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL M O N T H L Y O F T H E R A M A K R I S H N A O R D E R

Started at the instance of Swami Vivekananda in 1895 as Brahmavâdin, it assumed the name The Vedanta Kesari in 1914. For free edition on the Web, please visit: www.chennaimath.org

CONTENTS Prayers

December 2010

445

Editorial D Freedom: Inner and Outer

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Articles D Freedom—The Core Theme of the Upanishads—Swami Gautamananda D The Buddhist Path to Freedom—His Holiness The Dalai Lama D Sri Ramakrishna’s Idea of Freedom—Swami Bhaskarananda D Swami Vivekananda and a New Definition of Freedom—Swami Atmarupananda D Freedom from Distractions—Swami Dayatmananda D Spiritual Dimensions of Freedom—Pravrajika Vivekaprana D Freedom and Meditation—Swami Nityasthananda D Freedom—A Hindu View—Swami Abhiramananda D Freedom as the Goal of Four Yogas—Swami Brahmeshananda D Dimensions of Freedom in the Bhagavad Gita—Swami Yuktatmananda D Wings on Endless Air—B.K. Misra D Dimensions of Inner Freedom—Swami Tyagananda D The Story of Scientific Freedom—NVC Swamy D Freedom of Choice—Pramod Kumar D Freedom and Indian Culture—K.Panchapagesan D Freedom and Magnanimity: A Dialogue—Prema Nandakumar D Freedom, the Chord that Unites World-Views—Jay Lakhani D The Holy Mother and Freedom—Prema Raghunath D Layers of Inner Freedom—Swami Satyamayananda

458 464 476 481 491 497 502 508 516 522 526 534 539 544 552 558 563 569 574

Compilations D ‘Freedom, O Freedom!’ is the Song of the Soul—Swami Vivekananda D Freedom or Liberation: In the Words of the Direct Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna D Freedom and Love—Swami Vivekananda D ‘Freedom is the Watchword’—Swami Vivekananda D Freedom—the Indian Context—Swami Vivekananda D Mukti—‘the Worthiest Gain of Man’—Swami Vivekananda

451 469 487 513 549 579

Poem: Song of the Free—Swami Vivekananda

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Annual Index—584

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Cover Story

Facets of Freedom Freedom is often compared to a flying bird. Sri Ramakrishna says, ‘Think of infinite sky and a bird flying there, joyfully spreading its wings. There is the Chidakasha and Atman is the bird. The bird is not imprisoned in a cage; it flies in the Chidakasha. Its joy is limitless.' The flying bird in ‘V' of Vedanta Kesari is representative of that state of freedom and joy. The sun-like orb around ‘Vedanta Kesari', and the blossom below, illustrate how this Knowledge of the Self gives rise to the flowering of freedom, inner and outer. We should, however, never forget that although freedom is our real nature, we can enjoy it only if our lives and personalities are firmly rooted on the solid pillars of dharma or higher values.

The Vedanta Kesari Patrons’ Scheme We invite our readers to join as patrons of the magazine. They can do so by sending Rs.2000/- or more. Names of the patrons will be announced in the journal under the Patrons' Scheme and they will receive the magazine for 20 years. Please send your contribution to The Manager, The Vedanta Kesari by DD/MO drawn in favour of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai with a note that it is for the Patrons' Scheme. DONOR Mr.M.P. Dalbehera, Orissa

PATRONS Rs.

1000

605. Mr. Rahul Ekbote, Pune 606. Ms. Saraswathi, Chennai

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To be continued . . .

VOL. 97, No. 12, DECEMBER 2010 ISSN 0042-2983

ACH SOUL IS POTENTIALLY DIVINE.

T HE

GOAL IS TO MANIFEST THE DIVINITY WITHIN.

FREEDOM gd™ nadeß X˛ÖIß gd©_mÀ_deß gwI_≤& EV{¤⁄mÀg_mgoZ bjUß gwIX˛ÖI`moÖ&& To be under another’s control is sorrowful and to be independent is happiness. These are in brief the features of sorrow and happiness. —Suktimala, 352

_mojÒ` hoVwÖ ‡W_mo {ZJ⁄Vo d°amΩ`_À`›V_{ZÀ`dÒVwfw& VVÖ e_ÌMm{n X_pÒV{Vjm ›`mgÖ ‡g∫$m{IbH$_©Umß ^•e_≤&& Of the steps to liberation, the first is declared to be complete detachment from all things which are non-eternal. Then comes the practice of tranquillity, self-control, and forbearance. And then the entire giving up of all actions which are done from personal, selfish desire. —Vivekachudamani, 69

AOmV BÀ`odß H${¸ÿrÈÖ ‡n⁄Vo& È– `Œmo X{jUß _wIß VoZ _mß nm{h {ZÀ`_≤&& Rudra, you are immortal, and this is why people frightened by death seek refuge with you. Please turn your gracious face towards me and protect me always. —Svetasvatara Upanishad, IV. 21 T h e

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Bondage and liberation are of the mind alone. —Sri Ramakrishna

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Freedom: Inner and Outer Everyone Seeks Freedom In his well-known arati hymn to Sri Ramakrishna, now sung in numerous temples and homes, Swami Vivekananda begins by addressing him as the ‘breaker of bondages’ (khandana bhava bandhana). What an apt description of what we seek all through life— breaking the bondages of all kinds! One of the terms frequently used in Sanskrit literature to describe the state of our earthly reality is bhava bandhana (the knot of relative existence) or bhava sagara (the ocean of relative existence) or simply bhava, relative existence. Indeed, to exist is to be dependent and all dependence is a bondage. The world in which we live is one of interdependence. Our physical existence, for instance, depends on five elements of Nature plus certain vital factors such as food, potable water, air, shelter, hygiene, security (physical, political or financial) and so on. One cannot live without fulfilling these needs. Of course, one can live on bare minimum of these, but they are needed nevertheless. In this sense, life is a dependent reality. It is a simple, commonsensical fact; one does not need to discuss it at length. Though we live a dependent life thus, we also, in midst of all our bondages and joys, seek something which is independent. We seek something free, and fulfilling. Says Swami Vivekananda,

universal dissatisfaction? It is because freedom is every man’s goal. He seeks it ever, his whole life is a struggle after it. The child rebels against law as soon as it is born. Its first utterance is a cry, a protest against the bondage in which it finds itself.1

From the moment we raise our cry at birth, till we die, life is a series of attempts to free ourselves from ‘bondage’. A grown-up tries to free himself from bondages as much as a child tries to free himself from bondages. The concept of bondage may differ but both, and all those in between these two, are trying to come out of bondage. As Swamiji poignantly puts it:

We struggle hard to attain to some goal and then discover we do not want it. This dissatisfaction we are having time after time, and what is there in the mind if there is to be only dissatisfaction? What is the meaning of this T h e

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Everything that we perceive around us is struggling towards freedom, from the atom to the man, from the insentient, lifeless particle of matter to the highest existence on earth, the human soul. The whole universe is in fact the result of this struggle for freedom. In all combinations every particle is trying to go on its own way, to fly from the other particles; but the others are holding it in check. Our earth is trying to fly away from the sun, and the moon from the earth. Everything has a tendency to infinite dispersion. All that we see in the universe has for its basis this one struggle towards freedom; it is under the impulse of this tendency that the saint prays and the robber robs. When the line of action taken is not a proper one, we call it evil; and when the manifestation of it is proper and high, we call it good. But the impulse is the same, the struggle towards freedom. The saint is oppressed with the knowledge of his condition of bondage, and he wants to get rid of it; so he worships God. The thief is oppressed with the D E C E M B E R

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idea that he does not possess certain things, and he tries to get rid of that want, to obtain freedom from it; so he steals. Freedom is the one goal of all nature, sentient or insentient; and consciously or unconsciously, everything is struggling towards that goal. The freedom which the saint seeks is very different from that which the robber seeks; the freedom loved by the saint leads him to the enjoyment of infinite, unspeakable bliss, while that on which the robber has set his heart only forges other bonds for his soul.2

In the above words, the entire gamut of freedom has been covered. And what a sweeping overview of life it is! Facets of Freedom In practical, day-to-day life, freedom assumes many forms and colours. Let us explore some of them. First of all, everyone wants the freedom to exist. This means good health, regular and proper food, sufficient clothes, secure and comfortable place of living, and other amenities needed for a healthy living. Basic although they are and yet how many millions are deprived of these vital needs! Millions live in abject misery and deplorable conditions, year after year, generation after generation. The first freedom, therefore, is the freedom to live a decent, comfortable living. This includes various forms of freedom—political, economic, scientific, cultural and so on. Again, in order to earn this freedom, one needs education, money, and opportunities and fulfil other socio-economic conditions. One should be properly equipped, physically as well as mentally, to be free at this primary level of freedom. This involves making right choices and struggling hard to fulfil what one dreams to ‘have’. While this is an important and vital part of freedom, there is another, and higher, side to freedom. This freedom is the freedom to T h e

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live a morally upright life. Called dharma in Sanskrit, dharma is the sum total of all values and higher modes of living. Without following these higher values such as honesty, truthfulness, absence of jealousy, anger, greed, and so on, no man can live a meaningful and fulfilling life. Not only that. Without the foundation of these values, even the freedom to live a decent and comfortable life cannot continue for long. Dharma is the basis of both material as well moral well-being. Says Vyasa, the celebrated compiler of Mahabharata, I say with my arms upraised [as a symbol of a firm declaration] that dharma alone is the giver of [true] enjoyment and wealth, and yet no one seems to listen to me!

Following dharma means living a righteous life. Wealth, comfort, success and the likes of it cannot satisfy us forever. Why? Here are some answers to this vital question in this age that worships worldly pursuits:3 Wealth, fame and power are exclusive, hence competitive, hence precarious. Unlike mental and spiritual values, they do not multiply when shared; they cannot be distributed without diminishing one’s own portion. . . . From the competitiveness of these goods to their precariousness is a short step. As other people want that too, who knows when success will change hand? . . .

Viewing life from this angle, one realises that ‘freedom to have’ is not everything that we really wish in life. ‘Freedom to be’ is a higher freedom. It is not sufficient to have all the comforts and other blessings of life; one should have the freedom to be, be a free man or woman. A prisoner, however well-fed and well cared for, is a prisoner after all. He is bound and restricted. A bird in a golden cage is a captive bird nevertheless. The Highest Freedom

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Freedom, in its highest sense, therefore, is spiritual freedom. Political and economic or gender freedom cannot satisfy our deepest longing for freedom. Our hankering for freedom is invariably connected with our desire to be happy always. Freedom and happiness go together. Swamiji says,

Vasudeva is All. A great soul of that type is rare to find.

Freedom is a dominant factor in whatever we ultimately seek in life. Says an authority on spiritual matters:5 What is freedom? We hear of four types of freedom: Freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom from restraint of speech, and freedom from restraint of worship. But all these are limited freedoms, however essential they may be. They refer only to man’s social life. All modern democratic states guarantee these freedoms to their citizens. But they do not necessarily guarantee the freedom of the soul. The soul of man is bound by the fetters of his instincts, emotions and beliefs. Even when he has all the freedom he wants in society, unless he feels that he is a free individual within, how can we call him a free man? We need something more. It is only when we realise that we are souls, will real longing for true freedom arise in us. Then alone will real spiritual life begin for us. The first sign of spiritual awakening is the change in our attitude towards ourselves. We then discover that we are neither bodies nor minds but souls—centres of consciousness.

Then there is the desire to be happy. We run after everything to make ourselves happy; we pursue our mad career in the external world of senses. If you ask the young man with whom life is successful, he will declare that it is real; and he really thinks so. Perhaps, when the same man grows old and finds fortune ever eluding him, he will then declare that it is fate. He finds at last that his desires cannot be fulfilled. Wherever he goes, there is an adamantine wall beyond which he cannot pass. Every senseactivity results in a reaction. Everything is evanescent. Enjoyment, misery, luxury, wealth, power, and poverty, even life itself, are all evanescent.4

Added to this is another problem—all happiness is met with, ultimately, death! We seek eternal happiness and therefore eternal life. As death snaps away our happiness, we have to fight a battle with death as well! This takes the quest for freedom to a deeper, higher and transcendental level. According to Hindu tradition, mukti or ultimate liberation is the goal towards which everyone is naturally heading to. We search or hanker after many things in life only to find that nothing permanent can be found in this life. It is after many, many experiences, may be after many births, that a desire for liberation takes birth in our hearts. Says Sri Krishna in the Gita (7.19),

What is the way to know our spiritual nature and realize our inherent free nature? Yoga or the ways to discover our unity with the ultimate Reality. Yoga or the Way to Freedom has been described in four ways: Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Raja Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. These yogas are not watertight compartments but are complimentary to one another. Yogas are pathways to perfection called freedom. Speaking of the meaning of Yoga, Huston Smith, an eminent authority on world religions, says,

~hˇZmß O›_Zm_›Vo kmZdm›_mß ‡n⁄Vo& dmgwXodÖ gd©{_{V g _hmÀ_m gwX˛b©^Ö&& At the end of many births (of striving), the knowing one makes Me his refuge, realising that T h e

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The word yoga derives from the same root as does the English word yoke, and yoke carries a double connotation: to unite (yoke together), and to place under disciplines training (to bring D E C E M B E R

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under the yoga, or ‘take yoke upon you’). Both connotations are present in the Sanskrit word. Defined generally, then, yoga is a method of training designed to lead to integration or union.6

Freedom, O Freedom! In its widest sense, the word freedom contains a profound meaning. What do we want by seeking freedom? First, we want being. Everyone wants to be rather than not be; normally, no one wants to die. . . None of us take happily to the thought of a future in which we shall have no part. Second, we want to know. Whether it be scientists probing the secrets of nature, a typical family watching the nightly news, or neighbours catching up on local gossip, we are insatiably curious... The third thing people seek is joy, a feeling tone that is the opposite of frustration, futility, and boredom. These are what people really want. . . .A distinctive future of human nature is its capacity to think of something that has no limits: the infinite. This capacity affects all human life. . . To state the full truth, then we must say that

what people would really like to have is infinite being, infinite knowledge, and infinite bliss. They might have to settle for less, but this is what they really want. To gather the wants into a single word, what people really want is liberation (moksha)—release from the finitude that restricts us from the limitless being, consciousness, and bliss our hearts desire.7

This Infinite Being-Knowledge-Joy is called sat-chit-ananda. The highest definition of freedom, therefore, is to this inherent, pure, ever-free, ancient-yet-modern truth of our being. All bondages of Karmas and samskaras drop off when one realises the atman. All our actions, responses, plans, struggles, all our worship and spiritual disciplines converge at this eternal hunger of ours—to know our real Self, the Satchidananda. ‘Facets of Freedom’, this year’s spotlight issue, endeavours to explore various aspects of freedom in its widest sense. A whole range of freedom-related issues, mundane and spiritual, have been discussed. Our thanks to all our contributors who have most enthusiastically and kindly contributed to the making of this issue!

References 1. 2. 3. 4.

CW, 1: 335 CW, 1: 109 The World’s Religions, Huston Smith, HarperSanFrancisco, 1991, p.15-16 CW, 2: 71

5. 6. 7.

Meditation and Spiritual Life by Swami Yatiswarananda, Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore, p. 554-555 The World’s Religions, p.27 World Religions, p.20-21)

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‘Freedom, O Freedom!’ is the Song of the Soul SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Freedom: the Basis of Universe The question has been raised as to from whom this universe comes, in whom it rests, and to whom it goes; and the answer has been given that from freedom it comes, in bondage it rests, and goes back into that freedom again.1 The first inkling of life on its higher level is in seeing this struggle within us to break the bond of nature and to be free. ‘Freedom, O Freedom! Freedom, O Freedom!’ is the song of the soul.2 What is it we all seek? Freedom. All the effort and struggle of life is for freedom. It is the march universal of races, of worlds, and of systems.3 Everything that we perceive around us is struggling towards freedom, from the atom to the man, from the insentient, lifeless particle of matter to the highest existence on earth, the human soul. The whole universe is in fact the result of this struggle for freedom. In all combinations every particle is trying to go on its own way, to fly from the other particles; but the others are holding it in check. Our earth is trying to fly away from the sun, and the moon from the earth. Everything has a tendency to infinite dispersion. All that we see in the universe has for its basis this one struggle towards freedom; it is under the impulse of this tendency that the saint prays and the robber robs. When the line of action taken is not a proper one, we call it T h e

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evil; and when the manifestation of it is proper and high, we call it good. But the impulse is the same, the struggle towards freedom. The saint is oppressed with the knowledge of his condition of bondage, and he wants to get rid of it; so he worships God. The thief is oppressed with the idea that he does not possess certain things, and he tries to get rid of that want, to obtain freedom from it; so he steals. Freedom is the one goal of all nature, sentient or insentient; and consciously or unconsciously, everything is struggling towards that goal. The freedom which the saint seeks is very different from that which the robber seeks; the freedom loved by the saint leads him to the enjoyment of infinite, unspeakable bliss, while that on which the robber has set his heart only forges other bonds for his soul.4 All are our fellow passengers, our fellow travellers—all life, plants, animals; not only my brother man, but my brother brute, my brother plant; not only my brother the good, but my brother the evil, my brother the spiritual and my brother the wicked. They are all going to the same goal. All are in the same stream, each is hurrying towards that infinite freedom. We cannot stay the course, none can stay it, none can go back, however he may try; he will be driven forward, and in the end he will attain to freedom.5 Dependence and Independence

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The Vedas say the whole world is a mixture of independence and dependence, of freedom and slavery, but through it all shines the soul independent, immortal, pure, perfect, holy. For if it is independent, it cannot perish, as death is but a change, and depends upon conditions; if independent, it must be perfect, for imperfection is again but a condition, and therefore dependent. And this immortal and perfect soul must be the same in the highest God as well as in the humblest man, the difference between them being only in the degree in which this soul manifests itself.6 Freedom means independence of anything outside, and that means that nothing outside itself could work upon it as a cause. The soul is causeless, and from this follow all the great ideas that we have. You cannot establish the immortality of the soul, unless you grant that it is by its nature free, or in other words, that it cannot be acted upon by anything outside. For death is an effect produced by some outside cause. I drink poison and I die, thus showing that my body can be acted upon by something outside that is called poison. But if it be true that the soul is free, it naturally follows that nothing can affect it, and it can never die. Freedom, immortality, blessedness, all depend upon the soul being beyond the law of causation, beyond this Maya. Of these two which will you take? Either make the first a delusion, or make the second a delusion. Certainly I will make the second a delusion. It is more consonant with all my feelings and aspirations. I am perfectly aware that I am free by nature, and I will not admit that this bondage is true and my freedom a delusion.7 God is the only one who is free. God and freedom are one and the same.8 The embodiment of freedom, the Master of nature, is what we call God. You cannot T h e

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deny Him. No, because you cannot move or live without the idea of freedom. Would you come here if you did not believe you were free? It is quite possible that the biologist can and will give some explanation of this perpetual effort to be free. Take all that for granted, still the idea of freedom is there. It is a fact, as much so as the other fact that you cannot apparently get over, the fact of being under nature. Bondage and liberty, light and shadow, good and evil must be there, but the very fact of the bondage shows also this freedom hidden there. If one is a fact, the other is equally a fact. There must be this idea of freedom. While now we cannot see that this idea of bondage, in uncultivated man, is his struggle for freedom, yet the idea of freedom is there. The bondage of sin and impurity in the uncultivated savage is to his consciousness very small, for his nature is only a little higher than the animal’s. What he struggles against is the bondage of physical nature, the lack of physical gratification, but out of this lower consciousness grows and broadens the higher conception of a mental or moral bondage and a longing for spiritual freedom. Here we see the divine dimly shining through the veil of ignorance. The veil is very dense at first and the light may be almost obscured, but it is there, ever pure and undimmed—the radiant fire of freedom and perfection. Man personifies this as the Ruler of the Universe, the One Free Being. He does not yet know that the universe is all one, that the difference is only in degree, in the concept.9 Freedom—the Goal of Religion The goal of each soul is freedom, mastery—freedom from the slavery of matter and thought, mastery of external and internal nature. Instead of leading towards that, every

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will-current from another, in whatever form it comes, either as direct control of organs, or as forcing to control them while under a morbid condition, only rivets one link more to the already existing heavy chain of bondage of past thoughts, past superstitions. Therefore, beware how you allow yourselves to be acted upon by others. Beware how you unknowingly bring another to ruin.10 We cannot believe in such a monstrous impossibility as the beginning of the human soul. The doctrine of reincarnation asserts the freedom of the soul. Suppose there was an absolute beginning. Then the whole burden of this impurity in man falls upon God. The all-merciful Father responsible for the sins of the world! If sin comes in this way, why should one suffer more than another? Why such partiality, if it comes from an all-merciful God? Why are millions trampled underfoot? Why do people starve who never did anything to cause it? Who is responsible? If they had no hand in it, surely, God would be responsible. Therefore the better explanation is that one is responsible for the miseries one suffers. If I set the wheel in motion, I am responsible for the result. And if I can bring misery, I can also stop it. It necessarily follows that we are free. There is no such thing as fate. There is nothing to compel us. What we have done, that we can undo.11 The whole of nature is worship of God. Wherever there is life, there is this search for freedom and that freedom is the same as God. Necessarily this freedom gives us mastery over all nature and is impossible without knowledge. The more we are knowing, the more we are becoming masters of nature. Mastery alone is making us strong and if there be some being entirely free and master of nature, that being must have a perfect knowledge of nature, must be omnipresent and omniscient. T h e

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Freedom must go hand in hand with these, and that being alone who has acquired these will be beyond nature. Blessedness, eternal peace, arising from perfect freedom, is the highest concept of religion underlying all the ideas of God in Vedanta—absolutely free Existence, not bound by anything, no change, no nature, nothing that can produce a change in Him. This same freedom is in you and in me and is the only real freedom.12 One curious fact present in the midst of all our joys and sorrows, difficulties and struggles, is that we are surely journeying towards freedom. The question was practically this: ‘What is this universe? From what does it arise? Into what does it go?’ And the answer was: ‘In freedom it rises, in freedom it rests, and into freedom it melts away.’ This idea of freedom you cannot relinquish. Your actions, your very lives will be lost without it. Every moment nature is proving us to be slaves and not free. Yet, simultaneously rises the other idea, that still we are free. At every step we are knocked down, as it were, by Maya, and shown that we are bound; and yet at the same moment, together with this blow, together with this feeling that we are bound, comes the other feeling that we are free. Some inner voice tells us that we are free. But if we attempt to realise that freedom, to make it manifest, we find the difficulties almost insuperable. Yet, in spite of that it insists on asserting itself inwardly, ‘I am free, I am free.’ And if you study all the various religions of the world you will find this idea expressed. Not only religion—you must not take this word in its narrow sense—but the whole life of society is the assertion of that one principle of freedom. All movements are the assertion of that one freedom. That voice has been heard by everyone, whether he knows it or not, that

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voice which declares, ‘Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden’. It may not be in the same language or the same form of speech, but in some form or other, that voice calling for freedom has been with us.13 Attaining Freedom To acquire freedom we have to get beyond the limitations of this universe; it cannot be found here. Perfect equilibrium, or what the Christians call the peace that passeth all understanding, cannot be had in this universe, nor in heaven, nor in any place where our mind and thoughts can go, where the senses can feel, or which the imagination can conceive. No such place can give us that freedom, because all such places would be within our universe, and it is limited by space, time, and causation. There may be places that are more ethereal than this earth of ours, where enjoyments may be keener, but even those places must be in the universe and, therefore, in bondage to law; so we have to go beyond, and real religion begins where this little universe ends. These little joys, and sorrows, and knowledge of things end there, and the reality begins. Until we give up the thirst after life, the strong attachment to this our transient conditioned existence, we have no hope of catching even a glimpse of that infinite freedom beyond. It stands to reason then that there is only one way to attain to that freedom which is the goal of all the noblest aspirations of mankind, and that is by giving up this little life, giving up this little universe, giving up this earth, giving up heaven, giving up the body, giving up the mind, giving up everything that is limited and conditioned. If we give up our attachment to this little universe of the senses or of the mind, we shall be free immediately. The only way to come out of bondage is to go T h e

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beyond the limitations of law, to go beyond causation.14 The universe itself can never be the limit of our satisfaction. That is why the miser gathers more and more money, that is why the robber robs, the sinner sins, that is why you are learning philosophy. All have one purpose. There is no other purpose in life, save to reach this freedom. Consciously or unconsciously, we are all striving for perfection. Every being must attain to it.15 What we call the most arrant superstition and the highest philosophy really have a common aim in that they both try to show the way out of the same difficulty, and in most cases this way is through the help of someone who is not himself bound by the laws of nature, in one word, someone who is free. In spite of all the difficulties and differences of opinion about the nature of the one free agent, whether he is a Personal God, or a sentient being like man, whether masculine, feminine, or neuter—and the discussions have been endless—the fundamental idea is the same. In spite of the almost hopeless contradictions of the different systems, we find the golden thread of unity running through them all, and in this philosophy, this golden thread has been traced, revealed little by little to our view, and the first step to this revelation is the common ground that all are advancing towards freedom.16 We see, then, that through freedom the sciences were built; and in them we have two sets of opinions, the one the materialistic and denouncing, and the other the positive and constructive. It is a most curious fact that in every society you find them. Supposing there is an evil in society, you will find immediately one group rise up and denounce it in vindictive fashion, which sometimes degenerates into fanaticism. There are fanatics in every society,

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and women frequently join in these outcries, because of their impulsive nature. Every fanatic who gets up and denounces something can secure a following. It is very easy to break down; a maniac can break anything he likes, but it would be hard for him to build up anything. These fanatics may do some good, according to their light, but much more harm. Because social institutions are not made in a day, and to change them means removing the cause. Suppose there is an evil; denouncing it will not remove it, but you must go to work at the root. First find out the cause, then remove it, and the effect will be removed also. Mere outcry will not produce any effect, unless indeed it produces misfortune.17 Him we had ever been seeking outside, and at last found that He is in the heart of our hearts. You may know the story of the man who mistook his own heartbeat for somebody knocking at the door, and went to the door and opened it, but found nobody there, so he went back. Again he seemed to hear a knocking at the door, but nobody was there. Then he understood that it was his own heartbeat, and he had misinterpreted it as a knocking at the door. Similarly, man after his search finds out that this infinite freedom that he was placing in imagination all the time in the nature outside is the internal subject, the eternal Soul of souls; this Reality, he himself.18 The Vedanta says that Infinity is our true nature; it will never vanish, it will abide for ever. But we are limiting ourselves by our Karma, which like a chain round our necks has dragged us into this limitation. Break that chain and be free. Trample law under your feet. There is no law in human nature, there is no destiny, no fate. How can there be law in infinity? Freedom is its watchword. Freedom is its nature, its birthright. Be free, and then have any number of personalities you like. T h e

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Then we will play like the actor who comes upon the stage and plays the part of a beggar. Contrast him with the actual beggar walking in the streets. The scene is, perhaps, the same in both cases, the words are, perhaps, the same, but yet what difference! The one enjoys his beggary while the other is suffering misery from it. And what makes this difference? the one is free and the other is bound. The actor knows his beggary is not true, but that he has assumed it for play, while the real beggar thinks that it is his too familiar state and that he has to bear it whether he wills it or not. This is the law. So long as we have no knowledge of our real nature, we are beggars, jostled about by every force in nature; and made slaves of by everything in nature; we cry all over the world for help, but help never comes to us; we cry to imaginary beings, and yet it never comes. But still we hope help will come, and thus in weeping, wailing, and hoping, one life is passed, and the same play goes on and on.19 Man has freedom already, but he will have to discover it. He has it, but every moment forgets it. That discovering, consciously or unconsciously, is the whole life of every one. But the difference between the sage and the ignorant man is that one does it consciously and the other unconsciously. Every one is struggling for freedomâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from the atom to the star. The ignorant man is satisfied if he can get freedom within a certain limit â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if he can get rid of the bondage of hunger or of being thirsty. But that sage feels that there is a stronger bondage which has to be thrown off. He would not consider the freedom of the Red Indian as freedom at all.20 Freedom is inseparably connected with immortality. To be free one must be above the laws of nature. Law exists so long as we are ignorant. When knowledge comes, then we

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find that law is nothing but freedom in ourselves. The will can never be free, because it is the slave of cause and effect. But the ‘I’ behind the will is free; and this is the Self. ‘I am free’—that is the basis on which to build and live. And freedom means immortality.21 Freedom of the will—it is as you feel you are free to act. But this freedom is a species of necessity. There is one infinite link before, after, and between the thought and the action, but the latter takes the name of freedom—like a bird flitting through a bright room. We feel the freedom and feel it has no other cause. We cannot go beyond consciousness, therefore we feel we are free. We can trace it no further than consciousness. God alone feels the real freedom. Mahapurushas [saints] feel themselves identified with God; hence they also feel the real freedom.22 The greatest goodness is the highest freedom. Our aim should be to allow the individual to move towards this freedom. More of goodness, less of artificial laws. Such laws are not laws at all. If it were a law, it could not be broken. The fact that these so-called

laws are broken, shows clearly that they are not laws. A law is that which cannot be broken.23 Nobody attains freedom without shaking off the coils of worldly worries. The very fact that somebody lives the worldly life proves that he is tied down to it as the bondslave of some craving or other. Why otherwise will he cling to that life at all? He is the slave either of lust or of gold, of position or of fame, of learning or of scholarship. It is only after freeing oneself from all this thraldom that one can get on along the way of freedom.24 Sharp as the blade of a razor, long and difficult and hard to cross, is the way to freedom. The sages have declared this again and again. Yet do not let these weaknesses and failures bind you. The Upanishads have declared, ‘Arise! Awake! and stop not until the goal is reached.’ We will then certainly cross the path, sharp as it is like the razor, and long and distant and difficult though it be.25 May the sat [Truth] in you be always your infallible guide! May He speedily attain to freedom and help others to attain it!26

References 1. CW, 1: 96 2. CW, 1: 335 3. CW, 8: 238 4. CW, 1: 108-109 5. CW, 1: 422

6. CW, 1: 330 7. CW, 2: 196 8. CW, 8: 236 9. CW, 1: 336-37 10. CW, 1: 172

11. CW, 1: 320 12. CW, 1: 337 13. CW, 2: 125-26 14. CW, 1: 97-98

15. CW, 1: 340 16. CW, 2: 125 17. CW, 2: 116 18. CW, 2: 401

19. CW, 2: 323-24 20. CW, 5: 288 21. CW, 6: 84 22. CW, 6: 117

23. CW, 6: 100 24. CW, 6: 505 25. CW, 1: 342 26. CW, 8: 347

Like a Caged Lion. . . To hear him [Swami Vivekananda] say, 'This indecent clinging to life', drew aside the curtain for us into the region beyond life and death, and planted in our hearts the desire for that glorious freedom. . . . 'Azad, Azad, the Free', he cried, pacing up and down like a caged lion. Yes, like the lion in the cage who found the bars not of iron but of bamboo. 'Let us not be caught this time,' would be his refrain another day. . . We seemed to be in a different world. The end to be attained was Freedom—freedom from the bondage in which Maya has caught us, in which Maya has enmeshed all mankind. Sooner or later the opportunity to escape will come to all. Ours had come. . . — Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples, 2.35-36 T h e

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Freedom—The Core Theme of the Upanishads SWAMI GAUTAMANANDA

Understanding Freedom For a common man, freedom means ‘no bonds or limitations to be happy and no compulsions to do what one does not like’. It also means the liberty to dress, eat, build, earn, legislate, speak, write, move about, marry and worship as one likes. When we wish that everyone should be able to enjoy this liberty in life and choices equally, then the limitations are bound to appear. Because everyone can be ‘free’ only when no one in any way infringes on the liberty of others. Then, who will control the millions from infringing? The court? The police? Or the legislature? Or all of them? If so many external bodies are upon us to control us, where is our freedom then? Then, ‘What is real freedom?’ Swami Ramakrishnananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, answered that we should seek is `freedom from the senses’, not the `freedom of the senses’. Given absolute freedom of the senses to everybody, the ever active animal instincts in them will lead even the sane men and women astray into wicked ways. The result will be confusion, chaos, degeneration and even death of a cultured society. What is the way out, then? Self-discipline (freedom from the senses) is the best way. Selfdiscipline means, to realise one’s and other’s

divine nature as the infinite spiritual self. Brahman is the Ultimate Reality from which all beings emerge, rest in and merge back. Thus, there is the divine unity amidst the diversity of creatures. All of us come from one Godhead (Brahman) and, hence, we are all related to one another as members of a divine family. With this realisation, love, sacrifice, service, mutual help, fearlessness, compassion and so on, naturally arise in us and bind us together in a family bond. Then any amount of freedom given would be used only for loving, sacrificing, serving, helping and encouraging others. The result of this approach is the joy of freedom for everybody and consequent infinite peace and joy in the society as a whole. Which book can teach these ideas of Atman and Brahman as the Ultimate Reality except the Upanishads? Upanishads primarily teach the Divine Soul of man, its all pervasiveness and infinitude, its innate immortality, all-knowingness, all-powerfulness and infinite blissfulness. In short, it is absolute freedom from all limitations of human life like misery, anxiety, fear, dissatisfaction, ignorance, weakness, change and death. Let us now see how this ever free Atman is taught by the Upanishads, the Scriptures of India, in various ways.

A senior trustee of the Ramakrishna Math and a member of the Governing Body of the Ramakrishna Mission, the author is the Head of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. T h e

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The Upanishads Upanishads are the records of the realisations of saints, seers, and thinkers of India, down the several millennia, regarding the Immortal Divine Self of man. It is a tradition continuing still. It is an important part of the world history of the spiritual quest of man. The Upanishads speak about man’s development, progress, and achievements of his highest excellence, namely, divinity. Therefore, Upanishads’ appeal is universal. Man’s supreme excellence, the Upanishads say, consists in transcending his senses and realising his immortal divine nature. The spiritual self of man is of the nature of infinite life, which means freedom from all fear including death, infinite knowledge which means freedom from all ignorance and delusions which cause all misery and finally, infinite bliss which means freedom from all restlessness and unhappiness. Thus the Upanishads, by advocating the realisation of spiritual Self of man, advocate the Absolute Freedom of man from all fear, ignorance and misery and also the enjoyment of infinite life and infinite bliss. For example, Taittiriya Upanishad says:1

~´˜{dXmﬂZmo{V na_≤& VXofm‰`w∫$m& gÀ`ß kmZ_Z›Vß ~´˜& `mo doX {Z{hVß Jwhm`mß na_o Ï`mo_Z≤& gmo@ÌZwVo gdm©Z≤ H$m_mZ≤ gh& ~´˜Um {dn{¸Vo{V& The knower of Brahman attains to the highest. Brahman is truth (therefore, eternal), knowledge and infinite (therefore, bliss). He who knows that enjoys all desirable things simultaneously.

In our time Sri Ramakrishna has shown that this supreme state can be attained by all following the time-tested method of the Upanishads. About Sri Ramakrishna, the French savant Romain Rolland said. He was the consummation of 2000 years spiritual life of 300 million people.2 T h e

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This also proves the continuity of the spiritual tradition till date in India. Message of the Upanishads Man’s divine nature, viz., his birthless, deathless, pure and holy Self is his eternal glory. It is not a theory but a ‘realised fact’. We read this in the invocation verse to Ishavasya Upanishad as follows:3

õ nyU©_XÖ nyU©{_Xß nyUm©V≤ nyU©_wX¿`Vo& nyU©Ò` nyU©_mXm` nyU©_odmd{eÓ`Vo&& That (Brahman) is Infinite. This (creation) is infinite. The Infinite (creation) proceeds from the Infinite (Brahman). Even after Infinite (creation) is taken out from the Infinite (Brahman), Infinite (Brahman) alone remains.

This fact that everything is Brahman has inspired people in the past and is inspiring even now. In spite of the modern scientific and technological developments, this knowledge is relevant to modern man. In the present socio-economic life of man everywhere, human mind seems to have stagnated in the delusion of sense pleasures, wealth and power. If such stagnation is allowed to continue, the result will be sure death of the human society. Upanishads tell us to break this stagnation by giving expression to our immortal divine Self. They show the way to real freedom which lies in creative living and in achieving selffulfilment. In Kathopanishad we read the story of the young boy, Nachiketa, being sent away by his father to Yama, the god of death and a teacher of Brahman. Nachiketa, full of courage and faith, asks Yama if man was immortal. Yama bypasses the disciple’s question in order to test the disciple. Yama holds before him the temptation of wealth, woman and power. But Nachiketa refuses to take the bait! He replies boldly:4

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AOr`©Vm__•VmZm_wnoÀ` Or`©›_À`©Ö ädYÖÒWÖ ‡OmZZ≤& A{^‹`m`Z≤ dU©a{V‡_moXmZ{VXrK} Or{dVo H$mo a_oV&& Having come to the unchanging immortals, what changing mortal who dwells on earth and knows of higher goals of life will delight in a life of worthless music, sport and such joys?

Nachiketa thus gets out of the ‘stagnation’ mentioned above. In due course he emerges as an illumined seer who realises his freedom from all bonds of birth, death and reincarnation. The Upanishad says:5

Z Om`Vo {_´`Vo dm {dn{¸ﬁm`ß Hw$V{¸ﬁ ~^yd H${¸V≤& AOmo {ZÀ`Ö emúVmo@`ß nwamUmo Z h›`Vo h›`_mZo earao&& The Self is neither born nor dies. It does not originate from anything nor does anything originate from it. It is birthless, eternal, undecaying and ancient. It is not killed even if the body is killed.

During our discussions about presentday society, we often talk of modern men and modern times. Moderners are of two categories. First, those that use all available modern amenities. That is all. Second, those that are inquisitive, have a passion for truth and have the necessary courage to pursue it. These are men of reason who are akin to the great Upanishadic seers who taught boldly:6

C{Œm>V OmJ´V ‡mﬂ` dam{ﬁ~moYV& Arise, awake and learn (Spiritual Knowledge) from venerable teachers by approaching them.

spiritual ideal of life can only lift them from their stagnation. That is what the Upanishads do. That is what the Incarnations of God also do. Says Sri Krishna declaring in the Gita:7

`Xm `Xm {h Y_©Ò` Ωbm{Z^©d{V ^maV&& A‰`wÀWmZ_Y_©Ò` VXmÀ_mZß g•OmÂ`h_≤&& Whenever righteousness declines and unrighteousness increases, then I incarnate.

A thousand years after Krishna, Buddha comes to set the ‘Wheel of Dharma (righteousness)’ rolling. In our own times Sri Ramakrishna has come to start a similar reestablishment of spirituality amidst the rampant stagnation all over the world. Upanishads call us to the highest adventure of realisation of the true freedom by realising our own divine spiritual self. Then and then only can we see the One Brahman in all and thus become immortal and free. The Kathopanishad says:8

_Zg°doX_mﬂVÏ`ß Zoh ZmZm@pÒV qH$MZ& _•À`moÖ g _•À`ßw J¿N>{V ` Bh ZmZod nÌ`{V&& This is to be attained through mind. There is no diversity here. He who sees diversity here goes from death to death.

Upanishads proclaim that all, irrespective of race, religion, caste or gender, can attain to this spiritual perfection. The Shvetaswatara Upanishad says:9

To the seers mere knowledge of the external world was only partial. It was inferior to the highest knowledge of the Divine Self of man. It was like dreaming compared to the experience in the awakened state.

e• d›Vw {dÌdo A_•VÒ` nwÃmÖ Am `o Ym_m{Z {XÏ`m{Z VÒWwÖ&&

World Needs Awakening No political, economic or social programme can expand the finite values of people in a stagnant society. Awakening them to a

doXmh_oVß nwÈfß _hm›V_m{XÀ`dU™ V_gÖ naÒVmV≤& V_od {d{XÀdm@{V_•À`w_o{V Zm›`Ö n›Wm {d⁄Vo@`Zm`&&

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Hear ye all, ye children of immortality, even those who are in higher abodes of gods.

The Upanishad further says,10

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Him alone one transcends death. There is no other way.

freedom mental and freedom spiritual are the watch words of the Upanishads.12

Sri Ramakrishna in his inimitable way tells us about the greatness of Self-realisation. He says: A poor woodcutter met a holy man who blessed him just saying ‘Go forward’. The woodcutter went farther than usual into the forest and found sandalwood forest! He became rich by selling that. Again the woodcutter thought, ‘The holy man told me to go forward. Why should I stop at sandalwood?’ He then went further and found silver mine. When he went further, he found gold and diamond mines too in course of time. Similarly, a spiritual aspirant also should go deeper and deeper into his mind to finally find his immortal Self, the greatest of all treasures! The spiritually illumined person sees Brahman in himself and in all beings – men, women, young and old. He lives and moves with all with the greatest love and freedom. The Svetaswatara Upanishad, addressing Brahman, says:11

The seers of the Upanishads were very clear that real freedom from all miseries of humanity lay only in their knowing their spiritual Self, never otherwise. Shvetaswatara Upanishad boldly says:13

Àdß Ûr Àdß nw_mZ{g Àdß Hw$_ma CV dm Hw$_mar& Àdß OrUm} X S>oZ d#m{g Àdß OmVmo ^d{g {dúVmo_wIÖ&& You are the woman. You are the man. You are the boy and you the girl too. You are the old man tottering with a stick. You are born in various forms and are everywhere.

Swami Vivekananda saw the message of the Upanishads as one of strength, fearlessness and freedom. All the three were synonyms to him. He says: Strength is what the Upanishads speak to me from every page. . . Strength, it says, ‘Strength O, man, be not weak. . .’ The Upanishads are great mine of strength. . . They call with trumpet voice upon the weak, the miserable and the downtrodden of all races, creeds and sects to stand on their feet and be free. Freedom physical,

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`Xm M_©dXmH$meß doÔ>{`Ó`p›V _mZdmÖ& VXm Xod_{dkm` X˛ÖIÒ`m›Vmo ^{dÓ`{V&& When men will be able to roll up the sky like leather then alone will there be an end of all sorrow without knowing the Effulgent one (Brahman).

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says:14

gmo@{~ôV≤, VÒ_mXoH$mH$s {~ô{V; g hm`_rjmß MHó$, `›_X›`fimpÒV, H$Ò_mfiw {~ô_r{V, VV EdmÒ` ^`ß dr`m`, H$Ò_m’ÁôÓ`X≤-{¤Vr`m¤° ^`ß ^d{V&& He, the Soul of all manifest world, was afraid. Therefore people (still) are afraid to be alone. Then He thought, ‘If there is nothing else but me, what am I afraid of?’ From that alone his fear was gone. For what was there to fear? It is from a second entity only that fear comes.

Thus the Upanishad teaches that to be absolutely fearless and free, one should know one’s infinite Self which is the self of all beings. Today Universal Man is the theme of all progressive thinkers on society as well as on religion. Upanishads stand in the forefront of all such progressive thoughts today. We will benefit immensely if we take to their study, seek our freedom from all limitations of our body, senses, mind and ego and realise that we are true immortal, infinite, all knowing, all blissful Self. With such spiritual knowledge will come mutual love and service amongst the nations of the world and that is the core theme of the Upanishads.

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References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Taittiriyopanishad, 2.1.1 Life of Sri Ramakrishna, p.13 Ishavasya Upanishad Kathopanishad 1.1.28 Kathopanishad, 1.2.18 Kathopanishad, 1.3.14 Bhagavad Gita, 4.7

8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Kathopanishad, 2.1.11 Shvetaswatara Upanishad , 2.5 Shvetaswatara Upanishad, 3.8 Shvetaswatara Upanishad, 4.3 CW, 3: 237-8 Shvetaswatara Upanishad, 6.20 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1.4.2

The Upanishads told 5,000 years ago that the realisation of God could never be had through the senses. So far, modern agnosticism agrees, but the Vedas go further than the negative side and assert in the plainest terms that man can and does transcend this sense-bound, frozen universe. He can, as it were, find a hole in the ice, through which he can pass and reach the whole ocean of life. Only by so transcending the world of sense, can he reach his true Self and realise what he really is.1 Our Upanishads say that the cause of all misery is ignorance; and that is perfectly true when applied to every state of life, either social or spiritual. It is ignorance that makes us hate each other, it is through ignorance that we do not know and do not love each other. As soon as we come to know each other, love comes, must come, for are we not one? Thus we find solidarity coming in spite of itself. Even in politics and sociology, problems that were only national twenty years ago can no more be solved on national grounds only. They are assuming huge proportions, gigantic shapes. They can only be solved when looked at in the broader light of international grounds. International organisations, international combinations, international laws are the cry of the day. That shows the solidarity. In science, every day they are coming to a similar broad view of matter. You speak of matter, the whole universe as one mass, one ocean of matter, in which you and I, the sun and the moon, and everything else are but the names of different little whirlpools and nothing more. Mentally speaking, it is one universal ocean of thought in which you and I are similar little whirlpools; and as spirit it moveth not, it changeth not. It is the One Unchangeable, Unbroken, Homogeneous Atman. The cry for morality is coming also, and that is to be found in our books. The explanation of morality, the fountain of ethics, that also the world wants; and that it will get here.2 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Swami Vivekananda, 1. CW, 8: 21,

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The Buddhist Path to Freedom HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA

Freedom and Dharma To practice Buddhism is to wage a struggle between the negative and positive forces in your mind. The meditator seeks to undermine the negative and develop and increase the positive. There are no physical markers by which to measure progress in the struggle between the positive and negative forces in consciousness. Changes begin when you first identify and recognise your delusions, such as anger and jealousy. One then needs to know the antidotes to delusion. There is no simple way to remove delusions. They cannot be extracted surgically. They have to be recognised, and then, through the practice of the teachings, they can be gradually reduced and then completely eliminated. The teachings offer the means to free oneself from delusion—a path that eventually leads to freedom from all suffering and to the bliss of enlightenment. The more one comes to understand the Dharma, the weaker will be the grip of pride, hatred, greed, and other negative emotions that cause so much suffering. Applying this understanding in daily life over a period of months and years will gradually transform the mind, because, despite the fact that it often seems otherwise, the mind is subject to change. The word ‘dharma’ in Sanskrit means ‘that which holds’. All existents are dharmas, phenomena, in the sense that they hold or bear

their own entity or character. Also, a religion is a dharma in the sense that it holds persons back or protects them from disasters. Here the term dharma refers to the latter definition. In rough terms, any elevated action of body, speech or mind is regarded as a dharma because through doing such an action one is protected or held back from all sorts of disasters. Practice of such actions is practice of dharma. Buddha’s Example Motivated by compassion for all sentient beings, Buddha Shakyamuni was born more than twenty-five hundred years ago in India. He took birth as a prince. Even as a child he was mature in terms of both his knowledge and his compassion. He saw that by nature we all want happiness and do not want suffering. Suffering is not something that always comes from the outside. It does not involve only problems like famine and drought. If this were the case we could protect ourselves from suffering, for example, by storing food. But sufferings like sickness, aging, and death are problems related to the very nature of our existence, and we cannot overcome them by external conditions. What is more, we have within us this untamed mind, susceptible to all kinds of problems. It is afflicted with negative thoughts like doubt and anger. As long as our minds are beset with this host of negative thoughts, even if we have

H. H. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual head of the Tibetan Buddhism and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. T h e

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soft, comfortable clothes and delicious food to eat, they will not solve our problems. Buddha Shakyamuni observed all these problems, and he reflected on the nature of his own existence. He found that all human beings undergo suffering, and he saw that we experience this unhappiness because of our undisciplined state of mind. He saw that our minds are so wild that often we cannot even sleep at night. Faced with this host of sufferings and problems, he was wise enough to ask whether there is a method to overcome these problems. He decided that living the life of a prince in a palace was not the way to eliminate suffering. If anything, it was a hindrance. So he gave up all the comforts of the palace, including the companionship of his wife and son, and embarked on the homeless life. In the course of his search he consulted many teachers and listened to their instructions. He found that their teachings were of some use, but they did not provide an ultimate solution to the problem of how to eliminate suffering. He undertook six years of strict asceticism. By giving up all the facilities that he had enjoyed as a prince and engaging in strict ascetic practice, he was able to strengthen his meditative understanding. Seated beneath the Bodhi tree, he overcame the obstructive forces and attained enlightenment. Subsequently he began to teach, to turn the wheel of doctrine, based on his own experience and realisation. Buddhaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Teachings When we talk about the Buddha, we are not talking about someone who was a Buddha from the beginning. He began just like us. He was an ordinary sentient being who saw the same sufferings as we do: birth, old age, sickness, and death. He had various thoughts and feelings, happy feelings and feelings of T h e

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pain, just as we do. But as a result of his strong and integrated spiritual practice, he was able to achieve various levels of the spiritual path culminating in enlightenment. Sometimes when I reflect on the life of Buddha Shakyamuni, I have a sense of unease. Although Buddha Shakyamuniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s teaching can be interpreted on various levels, it is evident from historical accounts that Buddha Shakyamuni underwent six years of hard practice. This shows that the mind cannot be transformed merely by sleeping and relaxing and enjoying all of lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comforts. It shows us that only through working hard and undergoing hardship over a long period of time will we be able to attain enlightenment. It is not easy to attain all the spiritual levels and realisations within a short time without making any effort. Even the Buddha, the proponent of the teaching we are following, had to undergo such hardship. How, then, can we expect to attain spiritual heights and become enlightened merely by performing certain so-called practices and having a relaxing time? If we read the stories of the great spiritual teachers of the past, we find that they attained spiritual realisation through a great deal of meditation, solitude, and practice. They did not take any shortcuts. The root of suffering is ignorance, which here means the misconception of self. All the myriad sufferings we encounter arise because of this misconception, this wrong understanding. Therefore, when it is said that the Buddha discarded all wrong views out of compassion, it means that he had the compassion to work for the benefit of all sentient beings. In order to benefit sentient beings he gave various levels of teachings that are free from wrong views and negative thoughts. Therefore, those who follow these teachings, by understanding the right view and putting it into practice, will

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be able to eliminate suffering. We pay homage to Buddha Shakyamuni because he gave such sublime teachings. This precious human life as a free and fortunate human being can be obtained just once. Even though we have had countless lives in the past, we have never yet been able to put such a precious human life to proper use. Today, we are fortunate to have found a life in which our mental and physical faculties are intact, and we have some interest in practising the Dharma. Such a life is unique. Similarly, the Dharma we have access to is unique. It first derived from the Buddha in India, and it was passed down by subsequent great Indian masters. Gradually it came to flourish in Tibet, and that tradition of Buddhist practice is still very much alive. In Tibet, the Land of Snows, we have maintained the complete range of practice of the teachings of the Buddha. Therefore, at this time it is extremely important that we make a concerted effort to use it to fulfil the best purposes of ourselves and all other sentient beings. Four Noble Truths The Buddha arose from meditation 2,500 years ago after attaining enlightenment. The subject of his first teaching was the Four Noble Truths. The First Noble Truth was the truth of suffering, the fact that our happiness is constantly passing away. Everything we have is subject to impermanence. Nothing within what we commonly think of as real is permanent. Ignorance, attachment, and anger are the causes of our relentless suffering. Thus the Second Noble Truth is to understand this cause of suffering. When you eliminate the root of suffering (delusions), you achieve a state of cessation of sufferingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Third Noble Truth, or nirvana. The Fourth Noble Truth is T h e

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that there exists a path leading to the cessation of suffering. In order to achieve that state within your own mind, you must follow a path. To understand well these four truths, it is necessary to recognise that they are rooted in two other truths, namely relative and absolute truth. At the level of relative truth, this and that, I and other, each seems to have an independent existence of its own; but from the viewpoint of absolute truth, every object and every being is found to exist only in dependence on all other existing entities. With this perception comes the understanding of the ultimate mode of existence, namely the complete absence of independent or inherent isolated existence of anything whatsoever. This ultimate nature of phenomena is called emptiness and these two differing concepts of it are known as the conventional and the ultimate modes of phenomena. Understanding these two truths of the true nature of phenomena, one sees that they arise in dependence upon conditions and that they are completely lacking an independent existence of their own. When certain conditions come together, then phenomena arise; if the co-operative conditions do not come together, or if they should cease, then these phenomena do not exist. So this then is the process by which phenomena arise and pass away. In explaining the Four Noble Truths, I will do so not in the context of one individual but rather in the context of the whole of mankind or of this world community, this human society. So now, first of all comes the first truth, the Truth of Suffering. There is a wide variety of suffering, but now the most frightening, the most serious, is that of war. The situation of the world is one in which there is danger not only to the life of each

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individual, but rather to the lives of the population of this entire planet. Next, on searching for the source of the suffering leading to tears, one finds that this source is in the mind, specifically in mental factors and such mental distortions as attachment and anger, as well as an evil related to anger, namely jealousy. Anger, hatred and so on are the actual source of suffering. Certainly there are also external weapons, but these weapons themselves are not the source of the problem, because they need to be employed by human beings; they cannot work by themselves, and, in order for human beings to employ them, there have to be motivations. These motivations are mainly hatred and attachment, especially hatred. This is a vicious state of mind. If we have contentment, happiness or tranquillity, we have inner peace. If we do not have inner or mental peace, how can we have external peace? It will not do to drop atom bombs on people; in seeking the establishment of peace, one has to turn to the mind. To destroy mental defects, external weapons are of no use at all. The only way is to endeavour to control one’s own mind. Coming now to the truth of cessation of suffering, it is clear that the cessation of mental distortions such as anger and jealousy, though they can be ultimately eradicated, is something to look for in the future. What can be done now is to try to foresee the future. Clear understanding of what seems likely to be our

future would surely reduce such mental defects as anger. To reduce anger effectively requires that we avoid the conditions that lead to anger, such as pride and jealousy. We must try to abandon these and, on the other hand, accustom ourselves to states of mind that are incongruous with jealousy and pride. That it is possible to lessen such mental distortions is something that can be verified. Cultivating Compassion The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering has, as its very root, compassion. This involves developing a mind of kindness and kind-heartedness, that is to say, developing motivation towards the service and benefit of others. This is the very essence of the path to cessation of suffering. To cultivate compassion, it is necessary to minimize the effects of such divisions among humanity as race, culture, appearance and varying philosophical traditions. Putting aside these classifications, one becomes very much aware of the fact that human beings are human beings and have this great factor in common, whether we are easterners or westerners, believers or non-believers, all of us are human beings, that is to say beings of the same kind. From this recognition will come a true sense of brotherhood, love for one another, more concern for others, less selfishness. These things are essential. This kind of effort is indeed difficult, but not impossible to cultivate. It is worth all efforts.

These are the memorable words of Buddha: ‘Believe not because an old book is produced as an authority. Believe not because your father said [you should] believe the same. Believe not because other people like you believe it. Test everything, try everything, and then believe it, and if you find it for the good of many, give it to all.’ —Swami Vivekananda, CW, 3.528

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Freedom or Liberation

In the Words of the Direct Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna Swami Brahmananda By steadfastness alone the mind becomes absorbed in God. Unless absorption is achieved, freedom from the temptations of the world is not possible.1 In the Gita, Sri Krishna says that it is possible to attain liberation through work only, but in order to achieve this one must have intense renunciation. All mental, physical and spiritual energies must be concentrated. Then only can you reach God.2

died soul does not have any separate existence … Freedom is not achieving something external; it is Self-knowledge attained by the renunciation of phenomena.6 The greatest freedom lies in implicit obedience. One attains this freedom by obeying the commands of one’s elder without questioning.7 When the mind becomes free from impressions and desires, it cannot, strictly speaking, be called mind any longer—it becomes synonymous with the one Universal Intelligence, the Supreme Energy or Brahman —give it any name you please. What are called space, time and causations in English are desha, kala and nimitta in our language. Brahman is beyond these categories. Freedom means going beyond them.8 But true liberation calls for complete selfdedication.9

Swami Shivananda As a result of good deeds performed in many incarnations and through the grace of God, one has this desire for liberation.3 The Gita lays stress on personal effort. . . ’The self must be raised by the self, so let no one weaken this self. For this self is the friend of oneself and this self is the enemy of oneself.’ One has to liberate oneself from bondage, one should never be despondent.4 The way out is to know Him [God]. He is purity, knowledge and Freedom itself.5 Precisely, one does not go anywhere by attaining freedom— where can one go? It represents a state of consciousness in which there is an end of all limitations. To go beyond the world is to have the knowledge that Brahman is both immanent and transcendent. The knower of Brahman becomes Swami Brahmananda Brahman—in essence the emboT h e

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Can there be any hard and fast rule that one will have liberation only at Uttarkashi [a holy place in India]? Liberation or samadhi can be attained anywhere, if it so pleases Him, if such be His dispensation.10 Is samadhi such an easy thing? When that most excellent and unequalled Parabrahman, the Supreme Reality, is beheld as Self, all the bondages of the heart of the seer, such as inherited ignorance, etc., are rent asunder, all doubts get resolved and the store of accumulated Karma other than that of Prarabdha wears out.11

To be liberated means to be desireless.17 The root cause of all desire is the ego and our identity with the physical body. ‘When the ego dies, all troubles cease.’ Then alone a man attains immortality. Then is he liberated while living.18 In order to attain wisdom of God and liberation for one’s own self, one need only to receive the sacred mantras from an illumined guru and, with complete faith, become absorbed in the practice of japam and meditation.19 I can assure you that you will attain liberation and peace if you but free yourself from lust and greed. There is no doubt about it.20 Do you know of what this net of Maya is comprised? Sense objects, lust, gold, name, fame, ego, vanity, selfishness, and so on. With all these, Maya binds the mind of man. Come out of this net, and the mind will run straight to God. All bondage is in the mind. All freedom is in the mind.21 The Lord does his own work. You be the instrument. If the idea that ‘I am the doer’ gets hold of a person, it will be the cause of bondage; and no permanent good ever comes out of such deeds.22

Swami Premananda When the idea of bondage comes in the mind, then there is bondage; otherwise, who can bind you? You are always free.12 In the Gita Sri Krishna urges us to perform work without attachment, to attain freedom even in this life. This is neither a myth nor the fabrication of a morbid brain. We have actually seen such lives with our own eyes. We also must attain the same freedom, in this very life. We must attain it even if it means total sacrifice. Otherwise, all our talk of devotion and religion will remain confined to speech and unrealised in actual life. Unless we attain freedom, we will not get pure devotion.13 All bondage is in the mind. All freedom is in the mind.14 Reduce the external paraphernalia and serve men as God with all love and utmost sincerity. This will certainly bring you devotion and liberation.15 Attachment is bondage; yet again, attachment opens the door to liberation to one who becomes attached to God or the guru or to Swami Premananda illumined souls.16 T h e

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Don’t think of the work you do as a task at all; try to do it in an unselfish way, not seeking for the results. That will break bondage. The selfsame medicine will give different results, according to the type of ingredients taken with it. Thus work is in one sense a bondage; yet if it can be done in a detached way, in a spirit of dedication to God, that same work will give you devotion and liberation. Confusion will arise and bondage results if you keep your eye on name, fame, or some other worldly objective.23 Nobody seeks any remedy until he knows he is sick. When a man feels that he is diseased, then he calls for a doctor and follows his advice. If you feel that life in the world is a great bondage, and that the world is an abode of misery, there will come distaste for worldly enjoyments and your love for God will increase. You will then be interested in taking the remedy, which is to think of your Chosen Ideal and to repeat his name.24 To love the devotees of the Lord brings no attachment, it creates no bondage.25 Swami Turiyananda Mukti is nothing but giving up seeking advantage.26 Freedom can be realised in two ways, by identifying oneself with Him and by living in eternal self-surrender to Him. There can be no freedom of will away from Him. Nothing succeeds unless He wills it. Reliance on one’s apparent self leads to ruin. To presume to be all-knowing is extremely harmful. Self-reliance or self-confidence means faith in the Higher Self. To persist in remaining what one already is or in holding on to one’s pre-conceived opinions at any cost—such self-importance is bad.27 Do not identify yourself with any Samskara at all, and you shall feel free.28 T h e

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There is no freedom, no respite until you have done your duties. That which you have given up without performing, will be waiting for you—only to appear again. Face the brute! You can’t save yourself by flight.29 In trying to help the world, you help yourself—you realise your Freedom.30 It is in the human body that the gates to Freedom open. So every man should be on his guard to make a good use of his life. Enjoyment is possible in other bodies also, but freedom is not.31 Some there are who are afraid of work and try to avoid it. That makes their bondage and selfishness lasting.32 Animals have no conscience, hence they have no merit or demerit. They have obviously got intelligence, but there it ends. Only men can do fresh work, because they have got a conscience. They only have got the idea of bondage, which other creatures have not. Only when there is the idea of bondage, can there be any real effort for liberation. Don’t you see how a prisoner struggles for release? It is only when there is the idea that the world is a bondage, that a man can strive for liberation. His failure to understand this takes him through the endless cycles of births and deaths.33 You may love all the beings in the world and be not at all under bondage, but the moment you allow your love to be centred on any special object you are bound. If you can get rid of these loads, then only can you attain to peace and liberation.34 Attachment to the body is the last and strongest bondage. The parental affection of monkeys is very great. The mother carries the dead body of her young one even after the flesh has dropped off and the skeleton alone is left. But even they, as all other animals, forget everything about their young ones when their own life is at stake.35

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The common man takes to those activirenunciation to climb to the edifice of liberaties which tend to perpetuate the bond of tion. A man runs after water in a mirage only attachment.36 so long as he mistakes the mirage for real The individual is bound. Like a tethered water.43 cow he is free to a certain extent only, not fulWhen you dive into the Ganges you ly. But he is emancipated if he utilises don’t feel any weight, although there are tons that limited freedom in a proper way. He does of water overhead. But one feels so burdened not do it, but rather abuses it in various when one places a pot of water on one’s head! ways.37 Even the spine may give way. You may love Brahman alone is real, everything else is all the beings in the world and be not at all unreal and the human soul is that Brahman. under bondage, but the moment you allow The lion shut up in a bullrush cage thinks he your love to be centred on any special object, is caught, and escape impossible. He does not you are bound. If you can get rid of these know that one blow from his mighty paw loads, then only can you attain to... liberation.44 would demolish the cage and set him free. When one has attained liberation, one We are bound by the delusion of ignorance. realises the pure love without any ulterior Tear away the delusion and be free.38 motive. It is a love devoid of every thought of Bondage and freedom are both in the the power and glory of the Beloved.45 39 mind. Atman is beyond mind. Possession of all powers is a sine qua non Be a lion, be a lion, break the cage and of the attainment of Mukti.46 When all love for the body goes, liberabe free! Take one big jump and the work is tion will come very soon.47 done.40 Plunge headlong into work. Swamiji once Renounce, renounce, give up the world. told me, ‘Haribhai, I have chalked out a new There is no liberation without renunciation.48 path to God-realization. So long people thought that salvation could be had only Swami Ramakrishnananda through prayer, meditation, and the like. But He is the happiest of men, because he is now my boys will attain the bliss of liberationfree from all anxiety.49 in-life by mere selfless work! So have no doubt. It is his charge. 41 Man always seeks advantage. He has been doing it not only in this life, but also in many previous lives. Mukti is nothing but giving up seeking advantage. Man wants to avoid suffering; he is always sparing himself. Swamiji used to say that man wants only to gossip.42 As bird flies to the sky with its two wings, so we must have Swami Ramakrishnananda Swami Saradananda two wings of discrimination and T h e

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Swami Akhandananda

Swami Vijnanananda

Swami Adbhutananda

for attaining freedom, his only concern being to see to it that when the person concerned gets liberty, he does not misuse it.56 Kill the self and you will be free.57

Be wholly surrendered. The moment you can give up everything and know your own nothingness, at that moment God-vision will come and you will be free.50 The more we try to fix our minds on God, the more quickly shall we forget ourselves and the more quickly shall we reach freedom… The best way to do this is not to think of ourselves in any way, and try to keep our minds on the presence of God.51 Surrender yourself completely to the Lord, then freedom will be yours. A smile will always play on your lips; your face will be shining, and your mind will be calm and peaceful.52 What keeps us from seeing God? Our egotism. The more you can minimize that, the nearer you will approach the goal. If you can throw it away altogether, then freedom is yours.53 Politics is the freedom of the senses, while religion is the freedom from the senses.54 It is in the mind that man is bound and in the mind he becomes free.55

Swami Akhandananda There is no happiness here, no peace. How can there be? This is not our place – this narrowness, selfishness. We want freedom from all these. That is real happiness that is real satisfaction.58 To attain liberation and knowledge, even the gods have to be born in human form. After that, the love and care of a real Guru is essential. Those who have got these have already gained more than half.59 A king asked a Sannyasi, ‘How can the bondage of worldly life be got rid of?’ The Sannyasi took the king to the hall of the palace and told him, ‘Catch hold of the pillar.’ The king did as he was asked. Then the Sannyasi said, ‘Let go the pillar.’ The king acted accordingly and the Sannyasi remarked, ‘Thus will the bondage go.’60

Swami Saradananda All souls are ever free, and that is why all minds ever hanker for freedom. A true leader is he who never hampers that craving

Swami Vijnanananda It is all so difficult, you cannot heave contentment so long as you are subject to worldly desires. Once they disappear, you are free.61

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I say he only is free who has gained mastery over his passions; and one who is a slave to them is bound in chains.62 Swami Adbhutananda A bumble-bee hiding in a fragrant flower offered in the worship touches the feet of the Lord. Similarly, by the grace and association of a holy man, one surpasses even the gods and attains liberation.63 The other day a monk explained it nicely: ‘Man has already attained God; to try further

for realisation is useless. This universe belongs to God and man is living in it; thus he has attained salokya-mukti, liberation by living in the same region as God. God made man in his own image, and thus man has attained sarupya-mukti, liberation by having a form similar to God’s. God is everywhere, so man is always near him; and thus he has attained samipya-mukti, liberation by living close to God. The only thing that he has not yet attained is sayujya-mukti, becoming one with God.64

References 1. All references in this compilation are from What the Disciples Said About It, Edith D. Tipple, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, p.181 2. Ibid, p.282 3. Ibid, p.282 4. Ibid, p.49 5. Ibid, p.181 6. Ibid, p.181 7. Ibid, p.181 8. Ibid, p.181 9. Ibid, p.282 10. Ibid, p.282 11. Ibid, p.49 12. Ibid, p.182 13. Ibid, p.182 14. Ibid, p.182 15. Ibid, p.282 16. Ibid, p.282 17. Ibid, p.282 18. Ibid, p.282 19. Ibid, p.282 20. Ibid, p.282 21. Ibid, p.49 22. Ibid, p.49 23. Ibid, p.49 24. Ibid, p.49 25. Ibid, , p.49 26. Ibid, p.182 27. Ibid, p.182 28. Ibid, p.182 29. Ibid, p.182 30. Ibid, p.182 31. Ibid, p.182 32. Ibid, p.50 33. Ibid, p.50 34. Ibid, p.50 35. Ibid, p.50 36. Ibid, p.50 37. Ibid, p.50 38. Ibid, p.50 39. Ibid, p.50 40. Ibid, p.182 41. Ibid, p.282 42. Ibid, p.282 43. Ibid,p.283 44. Ibid, p.283 45. Ibid, p.283 46. Ibid, p.283 47. Ibid, p.283 48. Ibid, p.283 49. Ibid, p.183 50. Ibid, p.183 51. Ibid, p.183 52. Ibid, p.183 53. Ibid, p.183 54. Ibid, p.183 55. Ibid, p.183 56. Ibid, p.183 57. Ibid, p.183 58. Ibid, p.184 59. Ibid, p.283 60. Ibid, p.51 61. Ibid, p.184 62. Ibid, p.184 63. Ibid, p.283 64. Ibid, p.283

The world is like a thorny bush: you have hardly freed yourself from one set of thorns before you find yourself entangled in another. Once you enter a labyrinth you find it very difficult to get out. Living in the world, a man becomes seared, as it were. . . The mind is like a needle covered with mud, and God is like a magnet. The needle cannot be united with the magnet unless it is free from mud. —Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p.96 and 98

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Sri Ramakrishna’s Idea of Freedom SWAMI BHASKARANANDA

Freedom and Bondage The idea of freedom presupposes a state of bondage. Bondage is a state of limitation. Whenever we have a sense of limitation in regard to our wealth, health, beauty, name, fame, power and position, we have a feeling that we are in bondage. Bondage causes suffering. That is why people in bondage want to be free. Limitations exist only within this world of time and space. Therefore, to be born in this world is to endure one kind of suffering or the other. According to Hinduism, until a soul attains perfection through God-realisation, it has to go through a cycle of repeated births and deaths in this world. This cycle is called samsara. Freedom from samsara is moksha or liberation. Moksha can only be attained through God-realisation. Various schools of Hindu philosophy hold different views about moksha. Some schools hold that people can achieve freedom or liberation from bondage only after their death. Other schools claim that people can attain freedom or liberation even when they are alive. There are also differences of opinion about the nature of moksha and the means to attain it. Different Viewpoints For example, the Dvaita, or the dualistic school of Vedanta philosophy, believes in post-

mortem liberation only. So also does the Vishishtadvaita School of philosophy. Advaita and Sankhya schools hold the view that one can have jivanmukti or liberation even when living. According to the Dvaita School, spiritual practice consisting of rigorous moral and ethical disciplines followed by right knowledge, right action, non-attachment, and devotional meditation on Personal God or Ishvara (Lord Vishnu) enables a spiritual aspirant to attain moksha or mukti after death through Ishvara’s loving grace. According to this school, there are four levels of moksha or mukti: (1) saalokya, (2) saamipya, (3) saarupya and (4) saayujya. In saalokya-mukti the departed soul goes to ishta-loka, the abode of the Personal God (Lord Vishnu), and stays there blissfully enjoying His presence. In saamipya-mukti the departed soul enjoys the bliss of extreme proximity to the Personal God; in saarupyamukti the departed soul acquires the form of the Personal God and enjoys intense bliss; in saayujya-mukti the departed soul becomes blissfully absorbed in the Personal God. According to the Vishishtadvaita School, for a departed soul, moksha or mukti means living blissfully in vaikuntha, which is the realm of the Personal God. The departed soul lives in a spiritual body in the presence of God. He acquires many divine powers such as omni-

The author is the Head of Vedanta Society of Western Washington, Seattle, USA. He is the editor of Global Vedanta, a quarterly published from there and has several books to his credit. T h e

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science but unlike God he cannot create, sustain or dissolve the world. In spite of his exalted state he has to remain subservient to God. According to this school, the means of attaining moksha or mukti is Bhakti Yoga. One can be liberated only through the grace of God. Bhakti Yoga practices are the only means of obtaining divine grace. The Advaita, or the non-dualistic school of Vedanta philosophy, believes that one can have liberation from the cycle of repeated births and deaths even when alive. Such release or liberation is called jivanmukti in Sanskrit. According to this school, a spiritual aspirant has to first go through various moral and ethical practices, worship (upasana) of the Personal God or Ishvara. These observances gradually purify his mind and make it ready for intense meditation on Impersonal God or Nirguna Brahman. Such meditation enables him to have atmajnana or the knowledge of his inner Divine Self. Atmajnana destroys the mantle of ignorance (avidya) that covers the knowledge of the Reality. Freedom will come as soon as his ignorance is annihilated. Then he becomes a jivanmukta (one who has attained jivanmukti). To a jivanmukta the body and the rest of the world appears illusory. The illusory body of the jivanmukta continues to exist as long as his prarabdha karma lasts. When the prarabdha karma is exhausted and the illusory body dies, the jivanmukta attains his disembodied release called videha-mukti [freedom of body]. According to one view, a jivanmukta may totally lose interest in his illusory body immediately after attaining jivanmukti. As a result, his body drops off in a matter of days causing his sadyo-mukti or ‘immediate release.’ Other scholars say that the term jivanmukti, from the standpoint of those who have attained atmajnana, means sadyo-mukti or T h e

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immediate liberation. After attaining atmajnana, these liberated souls can no longer identify with their bodies, which along with the rest of the world have become illusory and unreal. So far as they are concerned, their bodies are not really there. Therefore, from their standpoint they have attained sadyomukti. However, observers who see such souls may call them jivanmuktas. There is another concept about liberation called krama-mukti or avantara-mukti. According to this concept, a spiritual aspirant through meditation on Saguna Brahman or Ishvara goes to Brahmaloka [the abode of Brahma] after death. There the spiritual aspirant attains knowledge of Nirguna Brahman under the guidance of Hiranyagarbha. When the entire universe is dissolved at the end of the duration of creation (kalpa) he or she becomes one with Nirguna Brahman and is not born again. This is krama-mukti or avantara-mukti. Sri Ramakrishna’s View Keeping in mind the above concepts of moksha or freedom, if we want to know Sri Ramakrishna’s view of moksha, we should first have some idea about his extraordinary spiritual stature. Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel-laureate poet of India, while giving his tribute to Sri Ramakrishna wrote: Diverse courses of worship from various springs of fulfilment have mingled in your meditation. The manifold revelation of the joy of the Infinite has given form to a shrine of unity in your life, where, from far and near, arrive salutations to which I join mine own.

Also Romain Rolland, a Nobel-laureate savant from France, remarked that Sri Ramakrishna ‘was the consummation of two thousand years of the spiritual life of three hundred million people (of India).’

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By his own admission, Sri Ramakrishna went through the spiritual disciplines not only of just about all the sects of Hinduism, but also those of Islam and Christianity. Once he said to Mahendranath Gupta,1 I had to practice each religion for a time—Hinduism, Islam, Christianity. Furthermore, I followed the paths of the Shaktas, Vaishnavas, and Vedantists. I realised that there is only one God toward whom all are travelling; but the paths are different. 2

Sri Ramakrishna has indicated his own spiritual stature very skilfully through the following parable: Once a man entered a forest and saw a small creature on a tree. Returning to his village he told another man that he had seen a creature of a bright red colour on a certain tree. The second man replied: ‘When I went to the forest I also saw that animal. But why do you call it red? It’s green.’ Another man who was present contradicted them both and insisted that it was yellow. Presently others arrived and contended that it was grey, violet, blue, and so on and so forth. To settle the dispute they all went to the tree. They saw a man sitting under it. On being asked, he replied: ‘Yes, I live under this tree and I know the animal very well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times blue, violet, grey and so forth. It is a chameleon. And sometimes it has no colour at all.’3

In the above parable the chameleon is God. When God with the help of His magical power or maya takes on different colours or appears to change, we call Him Saguna Brahman or Ishvara. When God is colourless, i.e. changeless and immutable, we call Him Nirguna Brahman. The man who lives under the tree is no other than Sri Ramakrishna. He experienced God in both His Nirguna and Saguna aspects. This is why Sri Ramakrishna T h e

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accepts all the views about God and rejects none. Travelling from Lower to Higher Truth Sri Ramakrishna recognises the fact that we don’t travel from error to truth. Instead, we travel from lower truth to higher truth. At a lower level of a person’s mental state what appears to be the truth will be replaced by a higher truth when the level of his or her mental state improves. Thus, according to Sri Ramakrishna, Advaita or Nirguna Brahman is the highest Truth. This is the reason why he frequently talked about jivanmukti and stated that it is possible for some spiritual aspirants to achieve the state of a jivanmukta. To such jivanmuktas this world is illusory and Nirguna Brahman alone is real. Those who take recourse to Jnana Yoga may attain this state. Such jivanmuktas, no matter where they die, whether in a holy or an unholy place, become liberated. In other words they attain videhamukti. After that they become one with Nirguna Brahman. This world of maya is a world of pairs of opposites, such as joy and sadness, light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance. Sri Ramakrishna once asked both Narendra4 and Baburam5 to go beyond knowledge (jnana) and ignorance (ajnana). In other words, he asked them to experience Nirguna Brahman by transcending Maya. While giving such teachings Sri Ramakrishna supported the views of Advaita Vedanta. Sri Ramakrishna also says,

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He who has attained the knowledge of Brahman is a jivanmukta, liberated while living in the body. He rightly understands that the atman and the body are two separate things. After realising God one does not identify the atman with the body. These two are separate, like the kernel and shell of the coconut when its milk dries up. D E C E M B E R

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The atman moves,6 as it were, within the body. When the milk of worldly-mindedness has dried up, one gets Self-Knowledge. Then one feels that atman and body are two separate things.

Brahman has become everything. Therefore, to the vijnani this world is a ‘mansion of mirth.’ But to the jnani it is a ‘framework of illusion.’…The vijnani enjoys the Bliss of God in a richer way. Some have heard of milk, some have seen it, and some have drunk it. The vijnani has drunk milk, enjoyed it, and has been nourished by it.

Then again, Sri Ramakrishna says, He who firmly believes that God alone is the Doer and he himself a mere instrument is a jivanmukta, a free soul though living in a body. In that state of jivanmukti one loses ‘I’-consciousness and gains the conviction: ‘O Lord, Thou art everything. Thou art the Master. I am Thy child.’

Synthesis of Dvaita and Advaita Sri Ramakrishna also used to say that one attains post-mortem liberation from samsara by God’s grace. He also said that the key to liberation is in the custody of the Divine Incarnations. The Divine Incarnations liberate those who surrender unto them. In this manner Sri Ramakrishna offers a synthesis between Advaita and Dvaita schools of thought. Sri Ramakrishna also speaks about a class of spiritual aspirants called vijnanis. He says, The Vijnani always sees God. That is why he is so indifferent about the world. He sees God even with his eyes open. Sometimes he comes down to the Lila (the phenomenal world) from the Nitya (the Absolute/Noumenon), and sometimes he goes up to the nitya from the lila.

He also says,

According to Sri Ramakrishna, a vijnani is a devotee of God. He says, The devotees—I mean the vijnanis—accept both God with form (i.e., Saguna Brahman or Ishvara) and the formless (Nirguna Brahman), both the Personal God and the Impersonal.

Sri Ramakrishna also has explained why a vijnani is a devotee. He says, Why does a vijnani keep an attitude of love toward God? The answer is that ‘I-consciousness’ persists. It disappears in the state of Samadhi, no doubt, but it comes back (in case of a vijnani). In the case of ordinary people the ‘I’ never disappears.

When we speak of jivanmuktas, the ‘freewhile-living’, we must admit that the vijnanis are super-jivanmuktas. The derivative meaning of the word vijnana means knowing something exhaustively. But Sri Ramakrishna used it in a different sense as described above. Sri Ramakrishna’s idea of a vijnani is his special and unique contribution to Hindu philosophy. And this idea is rooted in his own spiritual experience.

SS References 1. 2.

Also known as ‘M’. See page 129 of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nikhilananda; First Red Letter Edition published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, India. All quotations of Sri Ramakrishna in this article are either from The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna or T h e

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4. 5. 6.

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from Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita (in Bengali). Narendra is the pre-monastic name of Swami Vivekananda. Baburam is the pre-monastic name of Swami Premananda. Atman is like the shrunken kernel that has taken the shape of a ball and rolls inside the shell. D E C E M B E R

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Swami Vivekananda and a New Definition of Freedom SWAMI ATMARUPANANDA

In Anaheim, California, lies Disneyland, a family-oriented theme park established by the great visionary entertainer and film-maker, Walt Disney. There, for half a century, one of the famous attractions has been ‘Great Moments with Mr Lincoln,’ in which an ‘animatronic’ or mechanical Mr Lincoln delivers a moving speech. Actually a composite of passages from different speeches given by Lincoln, it begins with words from an address given in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 18th April 1864: The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.

How true! And Abraham Lincoln did much in his time to clarify the political and civic meaning of the word liberty, or freedom, and to make it accessible to more people. The US Civil War erupted soon after he became the 16th President of the country. There were various issues at stake in the war, but central was the contention over the institution of slavery. There were those who felt that a man could not be free if his government did not allow him to own slaves. Others, including Lincoln, said that holding slaves was not a right, that no right could be based on denial of rights to other men. And this latter view prevailed, though it took the bloodiest war in

American history to do so. The process that Lincoln and others set in motion continues in America, as the concept is stretched wider, as its implications are sought in ever new areas of civic life, as people test the limits of civic liberty. The Need for a New Understanding The need for a new definition of liberty or freedom is still a need in America and in the world, because civic and political ideals are neither self-evident nor self-sustaining. They must find their roots in something deeper: in the depths of human nature, depths that are spiritual, not biological or sociological or psychological. It is arguable, and the present author firmly believes, that all human values are rooted in the spirit, not in evolution, not in biology or sociology or psychology. Certainly these other levels of our being have their modifying influence, but they don’t determine what is a value.1 Among the many extraordinary gifts made by Swami Vivekananda to the world, one is certainly the spiritual foundation he gave to the dawning civilization. Before his time, democracy demanded a leap of faith: faith in the innate worth of every human being, but based on what? We see difference everywhere, difference in physical capacity, difference in intellectual and artistic capacity,

A monk of the Ramakrishna Order, the author lives at the Ramakrishna Monastery in Trabuco Canyon, California. He travels to Mexico and in the United States giving talks and conducting retreats on Vedanta. T h e

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difference in social and economic status, etc. But Swami Vivekananda showed2 the spiritual foundation of democracy: the glory of the divine Self within every being, which doesn’t negate the uniqueness of each individual but is the universal of which each is a unique manifestation. It is the divine Self within each being that is the great equalizer, that gives equal worth, equal dignity to each individual. The world at large has not yet recognized this new life-giving foundation for modern civilization, but the author is convinced that in time it will. An associated idea that Swami Vivekananda stressed greatly was freedom. If there is anything more important to an American than the idea of democracy, it is the idea of freedom. From early childhood American kids can be heard to argue, ‘This is a free country and I can do what I want!’ Of course, that is absurd on the face of it: I can’t kill someone just because I want to, I can’t rob a bank just because I want money! Still, there is this sense that this is a free country and, as long as I am not hurting others, I should be allowed to do what I want. A profoundly perceptive man like Vivekananda certainly saw this. And he spoke of freedom frequently, in part because the concept was so central to his own temperament and philosophy, but also he must have seen how American audiences responded immediately to the very mention of the word. Modern Ideas of Freedom Before coming to the Swami’s teachings on freedom, let us first look at what the word means to the typical Westerner living in a modern liberal democracy. Freedom is largely a social and political concept in the West. It, first of all, means freedom from foreign domination: the right of T h e

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a country to self-determination. America, for instance, has jealously guarded its political independence. Unfortunately, it has often failed to extend the same freedom of selfdetermination to others, but that is another topic. Freedom, however, is not limited to national independence from foreign domination. It also implies freedom of the individual citizen to seek ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ as stated in the most famous political document to have come from the Americas: the Declaration of Independence. The individual citizen is to be accorded a high degree of freedom: freedom of assembly and association, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of movement, freedom of conscience, and the list could go on. Basically, it implies strict limits on the government’s ability to exert undue control over its citizens, and strict limits on the control that one citizen can exert over another. Some believe that it also implies a freedom of opportunity, that is, a levelling of the playing field so that opportunities for education and self-betterment and employment do not remain open just to wealth and power but are extended to all, so that social movement remains flexible. Another type of freedom that has been stressed a great deal, especially since the early twentieth century, is freedom of consumer choice. Choice in general has been important in America and other modern Western democracies: choice of employment, choice of one’s own spouse, choice of a place of worship, choice of association, etc. But consumer choice became much more important in the twentieth century when it was discovered that great wealth could be generated by creating dissatisfaction in citizens and then offering them a plethora of consumer products which would promise to fill that artificially created

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sense of dissatisfaction. Before the twentieth century, people largely bought products because the product addressed a practical need. In the twentieth century the field of marketing was developed which sought to create need in the populace so that they would crave ever more consumer products and services to fill needs they had never felt, needs that were not natural to the human condition. And so we have freedom from domination of one country by another, freedom of the individual from slavery to the state and from slavery to another individual or group, and freedom of consumer choice. All three of these realms of freedom involve freedom of choice. And all three are necessarily very limited. The citizens of every country naturally wish to be free from domination by foreign powers. The right to self-determination is widely recognised, if not widely respected in action. And yet how difficult that is, and how limited it must always be! Each country is vying for influence and position and possession in a world of limited resources. Those countries that succeed in maintaining a high degree of independence still must learn to cooperate with other countries, which means compromise, which means accepting limitations on their freedom of action. Every individual naturally wants personal freedom—freedom of thought, freedom of action, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression. And yet here, too, how many are the limitations that life puts upon us! In the 1960s there was a song popular in the Englishspeaking West that had the following line: ‘It’s my life, and I’ll do and I’ll say what I want!’ How wonderful that sounded to young ears in the 1960s! And yet, life is not like that. We have to learn to respect others, to cooperate, to help, to learn to rein in our selfish impulses. T h e

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Sacrifice is as much a part of life as the impulse for freedom. And when we come to consumer freedom, we find even more trouble: we find that it is not much of a freedom at all, but a burden. Yes, everyone relishes some choice, because our taste is individual: in food, clothing, entertainment, and other spheres. And yet every choice demands a price: we have to consider the choice, determine what we want, make the purchase, and protect what we now possess. Often we find ourselves wondering if we made the right choice. Maybe the other product was better. And many of our choices turn out to be so utterly inconsequential! Hence the existentialist philosophers of the mid twentieth century spoke of the burden of freedom. What kind of freedom is that which is experienced as a burden? We thus return to the statement of Abraham Lincoln: The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.

How true! Swami Vivekananda’s New Definition A new definition has been given by Swami Vivekananda. As he spoke in words of living fire of the need for strength, of the possibility of utter fearlessness, of the divinity of Man, so he spoke often of freedom. What, then, is true freedom? It isn’t the ability to make choices. It is the absence of limitation. And thus freedom is infinity, and nothing less. If there is anything outside of myself, it sets a limit to my being. The Swami says:

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The universe is a dream. Blessed am I that I know this moment that I [have been and] shall D E C E M B E R

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be free all eternity; . . . that I know that I am worshipping only myself; that no nature, no delusion, had any hold on me. . . I am the Infinite.3

The Upanishads are the great mine of strength. Therein lies strength enough to invigorate the whole world â&#x20AC;Ś They will call with trumpet voice upon the weak, the miserable, and the downtrodden of all races, all creeds, and all sects to stand on their feet and be free. Freedom, physical freedom, mental freedom, and spiritual freedom are the watchwords of the Upanishads. Ay, this is the one scripture in the world, of all others, that does not talk of salvation, but of freedom.6

If anything can act upon me, it limits my freedom. And so the Swami says: If I am pinched, I cry. All this is nonsense, since I am the soul. All this chain of misery, imagination, animals, gods, and demons, everything, the whole worldâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all this comes from the identification of ourselves with the body. I am spirit. Why do I jump if you pinch me? . . . . Look at the slavery of it. Are you not ashamed?4

But all our ideas of freedom surround the exercise of the will. What about the free will?

He was fond of comparing India and the West, and one of the points of comparison that fascinated him was the freedom of religion in India and the freedom of society in the West. . . Thus India has always had this magnificent idea of religious freedom, and you must remember that freedom is the first condition of growth. What you do not make free, will never grow . . .

We see at once that there cannot be any such thing as free will; the very words are a contradiction, because will is what we know, and everything that we know is within our universe, and everything within our universe is moulded by the conditions of space, time, and causation . . . and that which obeys the law of causation cannot be free. It is acted upon by other agents, and becomes a cause in its turn. But that which has become converted into the will, which was not the will before, but which, when it fell into this mould of space, time, and causation, became converted into the human will, is free; and when this will gets out of this mould of space, time, and causation, it will be free again. From freedom it comes, and becomes moulded into this bondage, and it gets out and goes back to freedom again.5

And thus, we have the sense that we are free, that our actions are free, because freedom is our very nature. It is that true, infinite freedom which, present as the light illuminating every thought and action, seems to belong to the thought and action. It does not. It is utterly independent. And yet the Swamji does not stop there. He sees the great importance of relative freedom, as well. And so he says: T h e

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We, in India, allowed liberty in spiritual matters, and we have a tremendous spiritual power in religious thought even today. You grant the same liberty in social matters, and so have a splendid social organisation. We have not given any freedom to the expansion of social matters, and ours is a cramped society. You have never given any freedom in religious matters but with fire and sword have enforced your beliefs, and the result is that religion is a stunted, degenerated growth in the European mind. In India, we have to take off the shackles from society; in Europe, the chains must be taken from the feet of spiritual progress. Then will come a wonderful growth and development of man.7

Anything that bound the soul of Man was anathema to the Swami. And so, though he could praise duty as a great help in uplifting man the brute to a higher state, he also saw it ultimately as slavery unbefitting human nature:

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This idea of duty is the midday summer sun which scorches the innermost soul of mankind. Look at those poor slaves to duty! Duty leaves D E C E M B E R

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them no time to say prayers, no time to bathe. Duty is ever on them. They go out and work. Duty is on them! They come home and think of the work for the next day. Duty is on them! It is living a slave’s life, at last dropping down in the street and dying in harness, like a horse.8

About even the sacred Vedas he wrote to his good friend Mary Hale: Sister, you do not know the Sannyasin. ‘He stands on the heads of the Vedas!’ say the Vedas, because he is free from churches and sects and religions and prophets and books and all of that ilk!9

One of Vivekananda’s great contributions to the whole topic of human freedom is, however, that he did not stop there with a statement of absolute, spiritual freedom which can eventually be realised. How many can come anywhere close to that realisation in any generation? He tied that to our relative experience, and showed that we are not just machines even now. As he says in ‘The Goal’: We are always seeking for someone who breaks the law. The rushing engine speeds along the railway track; the little worm crawls out of its way. We at once say, ‘The engine is dead matter, a machine; and the worm is alive,’ because the worm attempted to break the law. The engine, with all its power and might, can never break the law. It is made to go in any direction man wants, and it cannot do otherwise; but the worm, small . . . though it was, attempted to break the law and . . . assert its freedom; and there was the sign of the future God in it.10

Conclusion Thus we see that freedom is our true nature, not something to be gained, not something intrinsically to be protected, something only to be realized. It can’t be taken away, only forgotten or ignored. And far from being a burden, it is bliss itself. As it is said in Sanskrit:

gd™ nadeß X˛ÖI_≤, gd©_mÀ_deß gwI_≤& All dependence is misery, independence is joy.

And that freedom is absolute, infinity itself. Our will is not free, because it is within time, space, and causation, and that which is within causation is bound by the causal chain. And yet the will is a manifestation of the Self, which is free, and it is that real freedom which illumines the will, giving it the blush of freedom’s light. We can never completely forget that which we are: it shines through in spite of ourselves. And that sense of freedom which illumines every thought and action is true, just misidentified.

He sees in the struggle for freedom the light of our absolute freedom shining through. They are part of the same reality, the one absolute, unqualified, and infinite, the other a struggle to manifest it, an insistence on it, an impulsion toward it. Hence even relative freedom is not to be decried, because ‘freedom is the first condition of growth,’ and that must be ‘physical freedom, mental freedom, and spiritual freedom’! Sleep not! He calls to us. We are not machines! Neither have we found true freedom yet. So ‘Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached!’11

References 1. The reasoning behind this assertion will have to await another occasion, due to limitations of space 2. c.f. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 8: 125-26 3. CW, 1: 501 4. CW, 1: 463 5. CW, 1: 95-96 6. CW, 3: 238 7. CW, 2:115 8. CW, 1:103 9. CW, 5: 73 10. CW, 2: 400 11. CW, 3: 430 T h e

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Freedom and Love SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Freedom and highest love must go together, then neither can become a bondage.1 The whole gist of this teaching is that you should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do slave’s work. Do you not see how everybody works? Nobody can be altogether at rest; ninety-nine per cent of mankind work like slaves, and the result is misery; it is all selfish work. Work through freedom! Work through love! The word ‘love’ is very difficult to understand; love never comes until there is freedom. There is no true love possible in the slave. If you buy a slave and tie him down in chains and make him work for you, he will work like a drudge, but there will be no love in him. So when we ourselves work for the things of the world as slaves, there can be no love in us, and our work is not true work. This is true of work done for relatives and friends, and is true of work done for our own selves. Selfish work is slave’s work; and here is a test. Every act of love brings happiness; there is no act of love which does not bring peace and blessedness as its reaction.2 To everyone of us there must come a time when the whole universe will be found to have been a mere dream, when we shall find that the soul is infinitely better than its surroundings. In this struggle through what we call our environments, there will come a time when we shall find that these environments were almost zero in comparison with the power of the soul. It is only a question of time, and time is nothing in the Infinite. It is a T h e

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drop in the ocean. We can afford to wait and be calm. Consciously or unconsciously, therefore, the whole universe is going towards that goal. The moon is struggling to get out of the sphere of attraction of other bodies, and will come out of it, in the long run. But those who consciously strive to get free hasten the time. One benefit from this theory we practically see is that the idea of a real universal love is only possible from this point of view. Creation means the struggle to get back to freedom, the centre of our being, whence we have been thrown off, as it were. The very fact that we are here, shows that we are going towards the centre, and the manifestation of this attraction towards the centre is what we call love. The question is asked: From what does this universe come, is what does it remain, to what does it go back? And the answer is: From Love it comes, in love it remains, back it goes unto love. Thus we are in a position to understand that, whether one likes it or not, there is no going back for anyone. Everyone has to get to the centre, however he may struggle to go back. Yet if we struggle consciously, knowingly, it will smooth the passage, it will lessen the jar, and quicken the time. Another conclusion we naturally arrive at from this is that all knowledge and all power are within and not without. What we call nature is a reflecting glass—that is all the use of nature—and all knowledge is this reflection of the within on this glass of nature. What we call powers, secrets of nature, and force, are all within.3

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The Vedanta recognises no sin, it only recognises error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta, is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that. Every time you think in that way, you, as it were, rivet one more link in the chain that binds you down, you add one more layer of hypnotism on to your own soul. Therefore, whosoever thinks he is weak is wrong, whosoever thinks he is impure is wrong, and is throwing a bad thought into the world. This we must always bear in mind that in the Vedanta there is no attempt at reconciling the present life—the hypnotised life, this false life which we have assumed— with the ideal; but this false life must go, and the real life which is always existing must manifest itself, must shine out. No man becomes purer and purer, it is a matter of greater manifestation. The veil drops away, and the native purity of the soul begins to manifest itself. Everything is ours already—infinite purity, freedom, love, and power.4 The scriptures of different religions point out different means to attain the ideals of universal love, freedom, manliness, and selfless benevolence. Every religious sect is generally at variance as to its idea of what is virtue and what is vice, and fights with others over the means of attaining virtue and eschewing vice, instead of aiming at realising the end. Every means is helpful more or less, and the Gita (XVIII. 48) says, ‘Every undertaking is attended with defects as fire with smoke’; so the means will no doubt appear more or less defective. But as we are to attain the highest virtue through the means laid down in our respective scriptures, we should try our best to follow them. Moreover, they should be tempered with reason and discriT h e

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mination. Thus, as we progress, the riddle of virtue and vice will be solved by itself.5 Duty is seldom sweet. It is only when love greases its wheels that it runs smoothly; it is a continuous friction otherwise. How else could parents do their duties to their children, husbands to their wives, and vice versa? Do we not meet with cases of friction every day in our lives? Duty is sweet only through love, and love shines in freedom alone. Yet is it freedom to be a slave to the senses, to anger, to jealousies and a hundred other petty things that must occur every day in human life? In all these little roughnesses that we meet with in life, the highest expression of freedom is to forbear.6 What is death? What are terrors? Do you not see the Lord’s face in them? Fly from evil and terror and misery, and they will follow you. Face them, and they will flee. The whole world worships ease and pleasure, and very few dare to worship that which is painful. To rise above both is the idea of freedom. Unless man passes through this gate he cannot be free. We all have to face these. We strive to worship the Lord, but the body rises between, nature rises between Him and us and blinds our vision. We must learn how to worship and love Him in the thunderbolt, in shame, in sorrow, in sin. All the world has ever been preaching the God of virtue. I preach a God of virtue and a God of sin in one. Take Him if you dare—that is the one way to salvation; then alone will come to us the Truth Ultimate which comes from the idea of oneness. Then will be lost the idea that one is greater than another. The nearer we approach the law of freedom, the more we shall come under the Lord, and troubles will vanish. Then we shall not differentiate the door of hell from the gate of heaven, nor differentiate between men and say, ‘I am greater than any being in the

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universe.’ Until we see nothing in the world but the Lord Himself, all these evils will beset us and we shall make all these distinctions; because it is only in the Lord, in the Spirit, that we are all one; and until we see God everywhere, this unity will not exist for us.7 Freedom and Bhakti ‘Who cares for salvation? Who cares to be saved? Who cares to be perfect even? Who cares for freedom?’—says the lover. ‘I do not want wealth, nor even health; I do not want beauty, I do not want intellect: let me be born again and again, amid all the evils that are in the world; I will not complain, but let me love Thee, and that for love’s sake.’8 The next is called Vimoka, freedom from desires. He who wants to love God must get rid of extreme desires; desire nothing except God. This world is good so far as it helps one to go to the higher world. The objects of the senses are good so far as they help us to attain higher objects. We always forget that this world is a means to an end, and not an end itself.9

Bhakti-Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a search beginning, continuing and ending in love. One single moment of the madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom. ‘Bhakti’, says Narada in his explanation of the Bhakti-aphorisms [Bhakti Sutras], ‘is intense love to God’; ‘When a man gets it, he loves all, hates none; he becomes satisfied for ever.’10 That love of God grows and assumes a form which is called Para-Bhakti or supreme devotion. Forms vanish, rituals fly away, books are superseded; images, temples, churches, religions and sects, countries and nationalities —all these little limitations and bondages fall off by their own nature from him who knows this love of God. Nothing remains to bind him or fetter his freedom. A ship, all of a sudden, comes near a magnetic rock, and its iron bolts and bars are all attracted and drawn out, and the planks get loosened and freely float on the water. Divine grace thus loosens the binding bolts and bars of the soul, and it becomes free. So in this renunciation auxiliary to devotion, there is no harshness, no dryness, no struggle, nor repression nor suppression.11

DD References 1. CW, 7: 86 7. CW, 1: 339

2. CW, 1: 57-58 8. CW, 2: 52

3. CW, 1: 421-22 9. CW, 4: 7-8

4. CW, 2: 295 10. CW, 3: 31

5. CW, 5: 420 11. CW, 3: 72-73

This state of liberation from samsara is called mukti. The liberated man (mukta purusha) realizes the essence of his being as none other than God, and, therefore, becomes divine in all his bearings. Eternal peace reigns in his heart. He has no want, no misery, no fear. Love and compassion for all move him to help them out of samsara. —Hinduism at a Glance, Ramakrishna Mission, Calcutta Students Home, p.42

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6. CW, 1: 67

Freedom from Distractions SWAMI DAYATMANANDA

A Real Challenge One of the most difficult things in life is mind-control. Anyone who has tried to keep the mind still for a minute knows this. Our happiness and sorrow, success and failure, indeed, liberation and bondage, everything depends on the state of our mind. These days millions of people suffer from numerous phobias. All phobias, however silly they may appear to be, are the outcome of our own thoughts. Swami Vivekananda compares the mind to a restless monkey which is stung by the scorpion of jealousy, drunk with the wine of desire, and possessed by the demon of pride. Who can describe its restlessness! How hard it is to control such a mind!1 We are what we think. All that we are is the result of what we have thought. What we would become depends on our present thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If the same man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him like a shadow. Indeed, bondage and liberation are in the mind alone. Phobias and mental distractions cannot be overcome until the mind is made pure and brought under control. And the control of the mind is a vast subject! While there are many yoga-scriptures (Yoga Shastras) dealing with this subject, let us focus on what sage Patanjali says with regard to mind-control. In his Yoga Sutras, sage Patanjali says that when the mind

is pure, the soul rests in its real nature, i.e., the atman. At other times, when it is full of impure thoughts, it remains identified with every thought that arises in the mind, i.e. with non-self. To be non-self is to be finite, unhappy and fearful. Controlling the Mind Mind-control is important and desirable not only by spiritual aspirants but even by those who seek greater achievements in any field of life. There is a saying: ‘A man’s greatness is in proportion to his meditation’.2 We are formed and moulded by our thoughts. A mind well-controlled gives success and happiness. A well-controlled mind alone can take us to God. Whether we deal with our mundane issues or spiritual issues, every one of us has to struggle with the problem of mind-control. Without some control over our mind life becomes a hell, a tragedy. A well-controlled mind leads us to God. Hence, the importance of mind-control. Naturally the question arises: Why is the mind so restless? There are, at least, three answers to this question: 1. The mind is a product of Prakriti, the Primal Nature, consisting of three qualities— sattva (purity), rajas (activity), and tamas (inertia). When the mind is dominated by rajas it becomes restless, and when it is dominated

Swami Dayatmananda is the Head of Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, Buckinghamshire, UK. T h e

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by tamas, it becomes dull. This is the very nature and stuff of the mind.3 2. Again, the mind becomes restless because of past habits and desires acquired, both, in this and in innumerable past lives. Generally we do not check our thoughts, and allow the mind to do whatever it likes to do. Now it has become a habit for it to wander at will, hence the difficulty of controlling it. These days, because of the drastic change in life-style, most people tend to become workaholics and restless. Without something to ‘do’, people easily become bored and restless. We live in a digital age, an age of gadgets. Controlled and right usage of gadgets, undoubtedly, is of some help in managing our lives, but usually the use of gadgets makes us dependent and slavish. The latest findings on this subject indicate that modern technology brings on addiction, inability to live in the present moment, lack of focus or attention, inability to respond to the present situation appropriately, stress, fractured thinking, and non-stop interactivity. Gadgets therefore make us— a. depend on them and make us work more than they work for us. b. They eat up our time, energy, money and other resources. c. More destructive is the fact that they make us feel this world is more real, thus making us forget God. d. In some people too much use of gadgets blurs the distinction between reality and make-believe. 3. Vedanta says that the mind is restless because it wants to become infinite, and will not rest until it realises the infinite. Vedanta tells us that each soul is potentially divine; our nature is Nitya-Shuddha-Buddha-Mukta Svabhava; we are eternal, pure, perfect and free. Even in its present state of ignorance the mind T h e

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has not forgotten this fact. So it is restless because it wants to claim its Svarajya, or divine nature. Swami Ashokananda (1893-1969), an eminent monk of the Ramakrishna Order, put it beautifully: God is hounding us; we cannot really, totally forget God; we cannot totally forget our own real Self. You know the Vedantic theory is that our present state is due to the forgetfulness of our spiritual nature.

Swami Brahmananda, the mind-born son of Sri Ramakrishna, says: I will tell you a secret. You may not fully understand its meaning now, but in time its truth will dawn upon you. And this truth is that every man’s mind will lead him progressively towards God. Some are led along thorny paths and some are led along smooth paths, but in the end all reach the same goal.

Implications of Mind Control So, what does mind-control mean, then? a. There is a common misunderstanding that mind-control means the freedom to do what one likes. This notion is wrong. Obeying every vagary of the mind is not true freedom but slavery. b. Mind-control is not to make the mind blank. It is not possible to make the mind blank. Blankness, surely, is a state of tamas! c. Mind-control is to train the mind to remove negative and harmful thoughts and fill it with positive and beneficial thoughts. d. Mind-control is to make the mind more concentrated and one-pointed. However, as Swami Yatiswarananda, another eminent monk of the Ramakrishna Order, used to say, ‘concentration without some amount of purity is dangerous.’ A concentrated mind is a power house of energy and can cause damage to oneself and others if not used properly.4

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e. Mind-control is to make the mind pure and spiritual. Benefits of Mind-Control Being utilitarians, one question that we naturally ask is: ‘What do I get out of mindcontrol?’ Even judged from our ordinary standard of utility, mind-control has its worth. We learn how to control the mind, how to concentrate its powers on any subject and how to meditate. We learn how to hold the mind in check and to place it under the control of the will. A controlled mind will save us from the dangers of life and will free us from all bondage. Mind control brings success in whatever line we work. Where there is no control and concentration of mind, no success can be expected. A controlled mind alone can meditate. Meditation is the key that opens up the door to all knowledge. Man, in his essence, in his true, real Being, is already perfect and allknowing; but enveloped in ignorance; the light of wisdom is obscured. A purified mind through meditation tears off the veil of ignorance covering the mind, and then man enters into his own real Being, which is allKnowledge and Bliss. Here are some more benefits of mindcontrol: An uncontrolled mind is a hell. It makes people insane or, even worse, turns them into demons. Statistics declare that, at the present time, in developed nations one person in three is abnormal. One needs some amount of control of mind just to remain normal and functional. All men seek peace and happiness and try to avoid suffering. An uncontrolled mind is a source of misery and suffering. A T h e

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controlled mind alone can give us peace and happiness. As the Gita puts it: For the one who is not tranquil, there is no knowledge. For the one who is not tranquil, there is no contemplation and for the one who is not contemplative, there is no peace. For the one who has no peace, how can there be happiness?5

A controlled mind helps us in coping with the vicissitudes of life. A controlled mind helps us unfold and manifest our potentialities. A man of self-control alone can be moral and ethical. A man of self-control alone can really serve and help the world. Psychologists tell us the secret of happiness is to forget unhappy memories, remember good, positive, and happy experiences. Mindcontrol helps us in all this. A focussed mind gives us greater understanding of life. Our powers of reason also develop. The mind has a creative tendency and great and creative ideas come from a focussed mind. Everyone craves for greater fulfilment. A focussed mind gives a sense of greater fulfilment by enabling one to do one’s job well and efficiently—be it studying, doing research, cooking, or meditation. Peace, happiness and progress in any field is possible only if the mind is pure and under control. More importantly a purified and controlled mind alone can give us Self-knowledge, and lead us to God. There is nothing a well-controlled mind cannot give us. As the Katha Upanishad puts it:

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Methods of Mind-control Here we can only describe the methods of mind-control very briefly. Before we go into the well known methods of mind-control, we must be clear about one fact: no one can control our mind for us. We have to do it all by ourselves. There is a saying: ‘A man may receive the grace of God, the grace of the Guru and of holy men; but if he does not have the grace of his own mind he will go to rack and ruin.’ The grace of one’s own mind means to have the mind under one’s control. After initiation into spiritual life, the Guru says, ‘I have given you the mantra; now ‘mon tor’ [in Bengali] i.e., ‘now the mind is yours!’ Sri Krishna says in the Gita:

3. The importance of self-awareness cannot be emphasised enough. The popular Buddhistic meditation called Vipassana is highly recommended. Most of us are blissfully unaware of ourselves. Without self-awareness progress is impossible. The more aware we are of ourselves the more we can detect our weaknesses and try to remedy them. Practice of awareness is also a big check on our restlessness. We must practice self-awareness in general and more intensely at set times. It is a helpful practice. Swami Vivekananda says: The first lesson, then, is to sit for some time and let the mind run on. Let the monkey mind jump as much as he can; you simply wait and watch. Give it the rein; many hideous thoughts may come into it; you will be astonished that it was possible for you to think such thoughts. But you will find that each day the mind’s vagaries are becoming less and less violent, that each day it is becoming calmer. In the first few months you will find that the mind will have a great many thoughts, later you will find that they have somewhat decreased, and in a few more months they will be fewer and fewer, until at last the mind will be under perfect control; but we must patiently practice every day.’8

The self must be raised by the self, so let no one weaken this self. For this self is the friend of oneself and this self is the enemy of oneself. One has to liberate oneself from bondage, one should never be despondent.7

Before we attempt mind-control, we must have a strong will to do so. No good comes out of weak and vacillating minds. Methods of Controlling the Mind 1. First of all, there must be a strong desire to control the mind. Without this intense desire, with half-hearted attempts one cannot expect great results. 2. One must have smaller and definite goals in day-to-day life. ‘An idle brain is verily a devil’s workshop’. The schedule for the day must be arranged properly, a definite time must be set aside for meditation, studies, exercise—for everything. Swami Yatiswarananda used to say that the mind should never be allowed to come down lower than the intellectual level. In this regard a daily dose of the study of holy scriptures with reverence, attention and devotion is highly beneficial. T h e

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4. Cultivation of abhyasa (practice) and vairagya (dispassion). Undoubtedly the mind is turbulent and most difficult to control. Asked about the difficulty in controlling the mind Sri Ramakrishna says: How is that? There is such a thing as abhyasayoga, yoga through practice. Keep up the practice and you will find that your mind will follow in whatever direction you lead it. The mind is like a white cloth just returned from the laundry. It will be red if you dip it in red dye and blue if you dip in blue. It will have whatever colour you dip it in.9

5. Japa and prayer can help us immensely. Says Swami Vivekananda,

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By prayer one’s subtle powers are easily roused, and if consciously done all desires may be fulfilled by it.10

loped, and with this development a new vision opens up and the aspirant realises many spiritual truths.

Holy Mother used to emphasise Japa or repetition of God’s Name very much. Through Japa God’s grace descends on the struggling heart of the devotee and lifts it up. In Christian devotional literature, Japa of Jesus mantra is greatly recommended. 6. Sri Ramakrishna recommends satsanga, the cultivation of holy company. 11 Many devotees experienced immense peace in the very presence of Ramana Maharshi. The company of true devotees destroys the dark clouds of doubts and also uplifts the mind. Speaking of the way to discipline the mind, Swami Brahmananda explains,

7. Practice of Pranayama. A simple basic pranayama is also recommended. Through rhythmic breathing the restless mind becomes calm, at least, temporarily. 8. The ultimate weapon is surrender at the feet of God. There is no surer or better way than the path of self-surrender. Sri Ramakrishna says:

Man’s mind is forever restless. It remains distracted for many reasons. Association with the holy will bring it under control. Behind this mind of ours there is a subtle, spiritual mind, existing in seed-form. Through the practice of contemplation, prayer, and japam, this mind is deveNote:

Bondage and liberation are both of Her [the Divine Mother’s] making. By Her Maya worldly people become entangled in ‘woman and gold’, and again, through Her grace they attain their liberation. She is called Saviour, and the remover of the bondage that binds one to the world.12

True freedom is freedom to control the mind. The nature, importance, benefits, and some of the well-known methods of mindcontrol discussed above are just an introduction. But one should start somewhere. Let us start our journey now!

‘The Mind and Its Control’ by Swami Budhananda is highly recommended for further reading.

References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

c.f. CW, 1: 174 c.f. Gospel, p.108 c.f. Bhagavad Gita, 18.40 c.f. Meditation and Spiritual Life, p.114-115 c.f. Bhagavad Gita, 2. 66 Katha Upanishad, I.iii.9

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

c.f. Bhagavad Gita, 6. 5 CW, 1: 174-175 Gospel, p.539 CW, 5: 325 c.f. Gospel, p.96 Gospel, p.136

Remember that daya, compassion, and maya, attachment, are two different things. Attachment means the feeling of ‘my-ness’ toward one’s relatives. It is the love one feels for one’s parents, one’s brother, one’s sister, one’s wife and children. Compassion is the love one feels for all beings of the world. It is an attitude of equality. The mind is everything. A man has his wife on one side and his daughter on the other. He shows his affection to them in different ways. But his mind is one and the same. —Sri Ramakrishna

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Spiritual Dimensions of Freedom PRAVRAJIKA VIVEKAPRANA

When the ancient Hindu thinkers gave us the four ashramas or stages of life— brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa, it was made clear that freedom, or moksha is the ultimate goal. After passing through life in this world and after having lived through the experiences of the first two stages of the student and family life, the individual is expected to head towards the forest (vanaprastha) and prepare for the last stage of renunciation (sannyasa). This implies renunciation with the focus of moving towards that ultimate spiritual freedom, moksha. It was also emphasized that life on earth had to be lived in the light of the quest of that freedom. It was given clearly as the goal but whether everyone took it seriously or not depended on the social and historical environment. The concept, however, was never lost. Even today, it is not lost but it has been pushed into the background. People do not want to pay attention to the concept because of the belief that the path of spirituality asks us to renounce the experiences and joys that we always seek. The truth is that life moves towards freedom through experience. Spiritual Dimension of Freedom Swami Vivekananda points out that every being, every creature, seeks freedom. This is the basic search. Not that we are conscious of it, but that is the ultimate impulse,

if we can analyse human impulses. The basic motivation to move forward in life comes from this search for freedom. To be ‘spiritual’ is to be fully conscious, in depth; not just to be aware of the physical and mental dimensions. The Atman, which we are, is ever free. We are free to begin with but the identity with the body-mind complex is our bondage. The spiritual dimension of freedom, therefore, is to be able to live our daily lives in the light of the awareness and understanding that there is an ultimate freedom. In today’s day and age, the concept of vanaprastha, of renouncing the world and heading to the forest, or of letting go of the responsibilities and commitments of daily life is virtually impossible. But we need to be aware that the ultimate goal or search is freedom even as we pass through all kinds of experiences; that we are seeking ultimate freedom through the life that we are living here and now. In day-to-day life, we seek to fulfil our desires because we want to be free from the hankering of those desires. The only problem is that as we succeed in fulfilling one desire another raises its head! We thus get lost on the way and instead of finding joy we find sorrow and suffering. Then we are confused wondering why there should be so much sorrow and struggle, if we are basically free. Special people who have understood life in

Pravrajika Vivekaprana is a senior nun of Sri Ramakrishna Sarada Mission. She is presently head of the Vedanta Retreat Centre of the Mission at Pangot, in district Nainital in Uttarakhand. T h e

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depth indicate the spiritual dimension in this context. They have understood that this impulse towards freedom is spiritual by nature. Bound by Laws We feel bound by physical, mental, and psychological laws and limitations. We recognise various limitations and obstacles, which hold us back and make us feel caged. Trying to overcome them is part of the struggle for freedom in our day-to-day lives. Physically, mentally, and psychologically we can never be free. The Laws of Cause and Effect govern us. There is an impulse and the result is a reaction. There is causation all the way. The mind itself realises that to remain identified with this body-mind complex we are necessarily bound within physical and mental laws. Therefore, we try to break all laws in the quest of spiritual freedom. In the beginning we find limited freedom by breaking limited laws. For example, seeking freedom from disease, or finding economic and intellectual freedom, and so on. But as long as we remain separated and limited as this individual body-mind complex, the ultimate freedom cannot be experienced. The struggle for spirituality begins with the struggle to understand that we must be something beyond the body and mind if we are to feel free. Then the mind becomes conscious that our search is for the spiritual level, for spiritual freedom, which is beyond the mental, physical, and psychological levels of understanding or experience, and is therefore beyond the body and mind. The Law of Separation The ultimate law is that of separation; the belief that we are separate personalities. The personality itself is the basic bondage. We T h e

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like to be identified with the body and mind because that gives the experience of the ‘other’. The ‘other’ seems enjoyable till we realise that the otherness causes the problems that we face. Therefore, we need to keep travelling in this journey of life till we can understand that we never were separate units and we need to let go of this superimposed separation. The universe is just one unit. The Universal Energy behind, or within, this universe is one continuous flow. To let go of separation is to realise that spiritual freedom means to let go of the personality. As long as we are identified with this body-mind complex we will not attain to this freedom. It may seem like a paradox or a contradiction. But we can get a glimpse of this ultimate freedom and the Truth and thus be motivated to travel in that direction. Experiences show us that what we seek is not ‘here’. If we understand intellectually, at least, then we will seek a method that will give us some glimpse of what it means to go beyond the body and mind. This is given in our systems of Yoga and meditation, which help us to get some glimpses. Different Points of View From the Advaita point of view, we are the intrinsically and naturally ever-free Atman. We have superimposed this bondage, hypnotism, or addiction on to ourselves. Our separation and superimposition hold us back; the bondage is not real. We have to remove the superimposition and once we realise this we are automatically free. Our individual separation that holds us back is not real. We need to de-hypnotize ourselves. Once we have worked through this we can get a glimpse of our spiritual freedom. We need to take full responsibility, therefore, of our desire for separation on the one hand and the search for freedom on the other.

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From the dualist point of view, we are not free; this life is as per God’s Will; we are bound by the Law of Karma, the Law of Causation; and with the Grace of God, with our efforts of prayer and our relationship with God, the door opens for us to cross over to some kind of freedom. That is where the spiritual dimension of freedom is experienced— by living a proper moral life, which is as per the Will of God. Our freedom lies in the very faith in God, just as the child is free so long as the Mother is keeping a watch on it. Surrender to God is the spiritual dimension of freedom, but then we cannot question or complain. The Grace of God is our Freedom. The knowledge that the Will of God is Supreme, and the acceptance of this Will, is our freedom. Our prayers and efforts are our struggle for freedom within this frame. Accepting the Law of Reincarnation itself makes it possible to progress towards the ultimate freedom. Because the effort of living a meaningful, moral, and spiritual life becomes the path of our progress to freedom, the struggle seems meaningful. If we are ready to take God’s Will as the Ultimate Truth, that in itself is the state of spiritual freedom. The non-believing human beings try to break the physical and mental laws to the best of their capacity and they seek freedom through such efforts. The more they discover and understand the concept of energy the more they try to make life increasingly comfortable by the conversion of energy. They remain caught in the effort to overcome laws through gadgets. This pursuit of pleasure and comfort is their quest for, and sense of, freedom from ‘want’; but ultimately they remain caught in the whirlpool.

mental, and spiritual, then we assume different levels of freedom. These are limited states of freedom. If we pay attention to only one such dimension then the limited freedom also becomes bondage with the passing of time. We must accept that our energy is limited. So if our understanding becomes keener, then the mental and aesthetic levels seem to give more freedom as compared to the physical level. In the same way we can evolve to deeper and higher dimensions. The physical and mental levels then have utilitarian purposes but the search for freedom is only at the spiritual dimension. We would not use the body as our identification; instead we would use it as an instrument and a laboratory. This is possible only when we are in control of the mind with discrimination, awareness, and discipline. If we can get to that stage then we will not stagnate. As given in every psychology, the movement to the next level needs a special boost of energy. These ‘boosters’ are methods of concentration, so that the attention is more focused, like a laser beam. These movements are possible only if we have the desire to overcome limitations and there is sincere motivation. Or at least we have the faith because someone has demonstrated freedom or God realisation as a goal. To think of the body and mind as instruments is the real practice. The turbulences will occur, but we will not identify with them. For example, if the body is afflicted with a killer disease then also we will accept that although the body has to go, it cannot change our state of freedom. If we do not have this awareness or energy within, then we need to appeal for strength to the Universal Energy or God.

The Body-Mind Instrument If we take for granted that there is a division of dimensions, such as physical,

The Ultimate Understanding We are Pure Consciousness, but through our own superimpositions and mental crea-

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tions we generate impurity and inconsistency. The travails of the body and mind are not bondages for those who are at the level of Pure Consciousness. But out of Pure Consciousness we create a semblance of solidity and whatever else that makes our experience real to us. As a simple example: we hear or see something unpleasant, be it in the form of words or images, and we take this in; it swirls within and generates a kind of darkness that envelops everything in the mind. We take inputs, with our interpretations and preconceived notions we enamel them, then what we see or hear becomes the solid atmosphere within. After this ‘processing’, we project it outside. Our effort to understand this world is done only through our own medium and our own projection. Our medium is always at various levels of translucency or opaqueness. We need a practice that convinces the mind that there is a spiritual depth. The special methods to pay attention to these concepts are absolutely essential. Physically we can do it

through rituals or experimentation; mentally by repeating the ideas; or intellectually through rational thinking. The scientist today stops short of asking ‘Who Am I’? He is stopping at ‘What is this?’ pointing to the body. This search would show that the body is made up of cells and chemicals, and therefore it is an instrument. Yet we have a way of deluding ourselves by forgetting the implication of this discovery. The implication will arise only in the reflective mind. Till we can perceive the implications, and understand the abstract and the subtle, the invisible, we can neither become detached nor move on. The implication is renunciation. With renunciation comes spiritual freedom, as the ancient Indian thinkers pointed out. If we are already free then our spiritual dimension is Pure Consciousness. In Pure Consciousness one can only be free. Pure Consciousness is free, it is a unit; It Is, it shines and it is Satchitananda (Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute).

Our goal is the loftiest. We have said big words to ourselves—absolute realisation and all that. Let us Worshipping measure up to the words. Let us worship the spirit in the Spirit spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit, the middle spirit, the culmination spirit. There will be no world anywhere. Let it go and whirl into space—who cares? Stand thou in the spirit! That is the goal. We know we cannot reach it yet. Never mind. Do not despair, and do not drag the ideal down. The important thing is: how much less you think of the body, of yourself as matter—as dead, dull, insentient matter; how much more you think of yourself as shining immortal being. The more you think of yourself as shining immortal spirit, the more eager you will be to be absolutely free of matter, body, and senses. This is the intense desire to be free. —Swami Vivekananda, CW, 8: 120 T h e

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Freedom and Meditation SWAMI NITYASTHANANDA

Freedom and Bondage ‘Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains’ is the poignant remark of the famous philosopher Rousseau. Either man is bound by external forces or internal forces or, in most cases, by both. No doubt, all want freedom. The spiritual seeker, wanting freedom, controls his senses and the mind; the worldly people, on the other hand, wanting freedom, allow a free play for his senses and the mind. Desirous of the same freedom, one lives most licentious life, refusing to subject oneself to any discipline and moral regulation. It is the same freedom that drives man to indulge in all sorts of despicable activities, to try to grab power following corrupt practices unscrupulously, and it is the same freedom that induces one to become indolent. And again, it is the voice of freedom that spurs him to go beyond the phenomenal world, renouncing everything. There is a saying that it is better to be free at hell than to be a slave in the heaven. Rather, slavery itself is the hell. Happiness without freedom is no happiness at all, for freedom itself is happiness. The caged birds, in spite of being fed and taken care of nicely, fly away gleefully the moment they find that the door of the cage is slightly open. Nobody wants to be in the jail, though being provided with all comforts and pleasures. There is a story of a man who was released after many

years’ imprisonment, saw in a shop many birds being kept in cage for sale. He purchased all the birds and released them from captivity, to the utter chagrin of the shopkeeper. When asked the reason for his strange behaviour, he simply told that he knew the value of freedom after remaining in the jail for number of years. Freedom—the Goal of Evolution Evolution is but a gradual attainment of freedom from the powers of nature, and domination over nature. Primitive man was under the mercy of nature, subsisting on raw meat, roots and fruits. Subsequently he learnt agriculture and started growing his own food, and learnt building his own shelter. This enabled him to devote his time for higher pursuits, freeing him from the pursuit of mere basic physical needs. So, freedom is at the root of the march of civilisation and culture and astounding advancement in science and technology. Says a thinker, In fact, throughout the whole evolutionary movement Nature seems to be struggling to free itself from the mechanistic chains, trying like a growing child to acquire a will of its own. Evolution. . . . has been described as a long struggle for freedom.1

But this should not result in the destruction of nature; it should rather lead to worship of nature. The child adores its mother after becoming independent of mother, both physi-

The author is the former editor of Viveka Prabha, the Kannada monthly of the Ramakrishna Order. He has many books in Kannada to his credit. T h e

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cally and psychologically. The age old philosophical rivalry between determinism and indeterminism is still persisting, perhaps in different forms. There is a group of philosophers and scientists, following Descartes, strictly adhering to the theory of determinism, according to which everything in nature follows mechanical law, including human behaviour. They say, The feeling of freedom is an illusion, arising from the fact that we are unconscious of the causes which determine our conduct. Statistics also show that human acts are quite uniform and to an outside observer have all the earmarks of determined quantities.2

Philosophers like Henry Bergson and William James, on the other hand, make out a strong case in defence of indeterminism and free will. According to them human conducts are influenced by so many factors but not determined, and there is some amount of spontaneity which accounts for progressive evolution of culture and civilization. However, the course of evolution also must have been already determined in nature. As Swami Vivekananda says, free-will is misnomer, as a product of nature, will cannot be free; it must also follow the mechanical law. The so-called acts of free-will are determined by so many factors which are discernible by dispassionate self-introduction. Differences in Society Sociologically speaking, earlier times the society was divided into different groups based on religious sects, caste, profession, etc., and almost everyone was within the bounds of these groups. There were religious groups like Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shaktas and so on. Professionally speaking there were carpenters, blacksmiths, tailors, etc., and caste-wise also the society was divided with well-defined T h e

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boundaries. Each individual had to abide by certain rules and regulations of the groups, and he had only some amount of freedom within the parameters of the group, and he also enjoyed certain security within the group. He had no individuality and individual freedom beyond the group. However, as civilisation advanced, these group-boundaries got fractured and the resultant cleavage paved the way for individual freedom. Now no individual can strictly be considered belonging to any group, except perhaps in government records. Man has come out of all traditional fetters. But with this freedom, he has not yet developed his own individuality. He is independent, but not yet become an individual in a real sense. Earlier he had his roots as belonging to a particular group, now he has become rootless. Earlier he had some security and emotional bond within the group, but now he is insecure both physically and psychologically. Earlier he used to find some meaning in life as belonging to a particular group, but now he is suffering from meaninglessness and loneliness. He is like a branch cut off from the tree; it has neither support of the tree, nor rooted firmly in the ground. Manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s predicament is somewhat like this: he neither enjoys the support of the group, nor is firmly established in his own individuality. This lack of strong sense of individuality makes a person submit himself, to external forces ever-ready to consume human beings. At present the all-consuming globalisation is striping the man of all national, cultural, racial, religious and linguistic identities, making him rootless. Now he is neither individual nor universalâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;he is simply getting drifted. Now one can stay in one country and work for some other country. Nancy Falbre assumes a new concept of nation called CorporNation:

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Anyone who is a citizen of this new country automatically receives a highly paid job (minimum salary $50,000 per year). The following restriction applies to citizenship, Individuals must have advanced educational credentials, be physically and emotionally healthy, have no children, and be under the age of fifty. They need not physically migrate, but can work from their home country over the internet. However, they will instantly lose CorporNation citizenship and their job, should they require retraining, become ill, acquire dependents or reach the age of fifty.3

Three Elements of True Freedom This constant drifting and rambling, without any definite self-identity is no freedom. Real freedom involves three important factors: responsibility, discipline and respecting the freedom of others. One must be in a position to accept the responsibility of whatever that happens to him, not blaming othersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;society or government, nor even God or fate. If one is not prepared to accept individual responsibility and neither has the courage to be oneself, one tries naturally to relinquish his freedom and submits himself to some external forces, ever ready to subjugate us. Swami Vivekananda says: So, if the whole responsibility is thrown upon our own shoulders, we shall be as our highest and best; when we have nobody to grope towards, no devil to lay our blame upon, no personal God to carry our burdens, when we are alone responsible, then we shall rise to our highest and best. I am responsible for my fate, I am the bringer of good unto myself, I am the bringer of evil.4

Another important aspect of freedom is self-discipline. Freedom is in no way connected with unruly and capricious behaviour that T h e

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indicates slavery within. In many cases, inner slavery is compensated with external mastery. External domination, ruthless bossism and hunger for power are indications of inner vacuum and lack of freedom within, being a plaything of his own samskaras or latent tendencies. We must understand this statement of facts without trying to compromise or justify our behaviour and conduct under the canopy of duty or services. We must subject ourselves to various kinds of discipline voluntarily, and should not wantonly try to break the law pertaining to any institution, family or society under the pretext of freedom. We must accept various rules and regulations for our own good, without considering them as external imposition. And after growing beyond them, we must hold on to them for the sake of social wellbeing, without the sense of bondage. Initially we must follow them for our own good; later on, we must follow them for social good. Freedom does not lie in violating the law, but in growing beyond the law, without breaking it. In brief, being a master within, not being ruled by senses, desires, emotions and samskaras, is real freedom. As Epictetus, the Greek philosopher, puts it, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;None can be called free unless he is a master of himself.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; The third important aspect of freedom is respecting the freedom of others. Why do we disregard the freedom of others? Why do we try to curtail the freedom of others? This is precisely because we do not really enjoy our own freedom, being under the supremacy of our own personality structure, being a slave in our own house. Even a country, as we all know, tries to invade the neighbouring country, when being unable to contain its own internal dissentions. Same is the case in the individual level also. So first of all we must aspire for internal harmony which is possible

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through the manifestation of divinity within. As Swami Vivekananda says, Manifest the divinity within you, and everything will be harmoniously arranged around it.5

Freedom and Meditation Meditation is one of the means of gaining mastery over ourselves by manifesting our divinity. As it is understood, meditation means controlling mental modifications of various kinds such as conceptual and emotional, and focusing it on one particular object (ekatattvaabhaasah). Conceptual thoughts are those which are related to different objects, persons and events. The very nature of the mind is to conceptualise, always dwelling upon something or the other. There are other kinds of thoughts which are related to different kinds of emotions such as love, compassion, anger or fear. However, these two kinds of thoughts cannot completely be separated. No conceptual thought is completely free from some kind of emotion either positive or negative, and emotional thoughts are always related to some objects, persons or events. Mere thoughts are impotent without the tinge of emotions. During meditation we try to remain in the subjective pole of consciousness which makes the objective thoughts shorn of emotional colours, rendering them impotent. It then becomes easy for us to control them. The long and regular practice of meditation with patience and perseverance, along with practice of Karmayoga, makes the mind pure, thereby allowing the light of the Atman shine through it. This light of Atman, in course of time, also purifies the unconscious mind, which is the repository of samskaras, so that the exertion of influence of old samskaras on conscious thinking and action would considerably be reduced. T h e

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Meditation is a conscious process—there will be conscious self-direction in reducing the activities of the mind. In fact, as some one said, meditation means not doing anything. It is an action to reach actionlessness—to remain quiet not doing anything both physically and mentally. It is not a state of inertia, rather it is a dynamic state where our real potentiality is realised, being free from the tyranny of psychophysical entities which are the product of inanimate Prakriti or Nature. During meditation we remain with ourselves without selfforgetfulness, and with full awareness, without being swamped by thought waves. In most villages in India people keep some kinds of cuisines for drying in the sun, and appoint a boy to prevent any birds picking them up. The moment the birds sense that the boy is inattentive, they will have their bonanza. Similarly when we become inattentive, our mind gets crowded by thought, and we will not know where we are. Swami Vivekananda says: This meditative state is the highest state of existence. So long as there is desire, no real happiness can come. It is only the contemplative, witness-like study of objects that brings to us real enjoyment and happiness. . .6 Meditation is the one thing. Meditate! The greatest thing is meditation. It is the nearest approach to spiritual life—the mind meditating. It is the one moment in our daily life that we are not at all material— the soul thinking of itself, free from all matter —this marvellous touch of the soul.7

As One Progresses in Meditation Firstly, as one progresses in meditation, the quantum of thoughts would slowly get reduced. The number of thoughts that were coming in a given minute, in the beginning stage, will be reduced. This happens when one progresses in spiritual life.

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Secondly, the thought will not go far away from the object of meditation, even if they go we will have control over them—a thread of awareness will be holding them. Thirdly, the mind will stay on the object of meditation for longer period. Fourthly, the degree and frequency of self-awareness will be increased, and this will enable us to have greater control over desires and emotions. Lastly, we derive greater peace and joy in spiritual practice, and this will induce us to do more sadhana, not allowing us to abstain from sadhana with some lame excuses. Swami Adbhutananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, enumerates certain characteristics of a man advanced in meditation thus, The aspirant, who is established in meditation, will be able to keep his mind under his control. Then he will not be deceived by the vacillation

of the mind. When the mind strays away from the object of meditation, he will be able to discern it. The aspirant will carefully notice how the mind changes, how it plays during twenty-four hours of the day. At this stage, the mind gets caught even before it tries to do some mischief. Even the slight quivering of unfavourable thoughts will alert him. Love, aversion, etc., will not show their face outside. The idea of injury, sin, etc., will be completely erased from the mind and body. Then the very structure of his personality system will change. Even physical activities will change. Then just by seeing aspirant’s eyes or listening to him talk, one can understand that he is a man of contemplation. The eyesight, the movement, and even the process of breathing of meditator are completely different. Then the aspirant’s breathing becomes steady, and his mind becomes serene and peaceful.

This is the true freedom that one gets by the practice of meditation.

SS References 1. 2. 3.

Introduction to Philosophy, G.T.W. Patrik, 1935, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, P. 309-310 ibid, p. 305 The Invisible Heart, The New Press, N.Y, p. 185

4. 5. 6. 7.

Complete Works, 2:201-2 CW, 4: 351 CW, 1: 186 CW, 5: 253

The entangled souls repeat those very actions that make them suffer so much. They are like the camel, which eats thorny bushes till the blood streams from its mouth, but still will not give them up. Such a man may have lost his son and be stricken with grief, but still he will have children year after year. He may ruin himself by his daughter’s marriage, but still he will go on having daughters every year. And he says: ‘What can I do? It’s just my luck!’ When he goes to a holy place he doesn’t have any time to think of God. He almost kills himself carrying bundles for his wife. Entering the temple, he is very eager to give his child the holy water to drink or make him roll on the floor; but he has no time for his own devotions. These bound creatures slave for their masters to earn food for themselves and their families; and they earn money by lying, cheating, flattery. They laugh at those who think of God and meditate on Him, and call them lunatics. —The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p.631

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Freedom—A Hindu View SWAMI ABHIRAMANANDA

Craving to Enjoy Freedom There is an inherent tendency in every living creature to live in freedom. A parrot, though sheltered in a golden cage and served with the best of food, would long to fly freely out into the infinite open space. This tendency becomes even stronger in the case of human beings. People, especially in their younger days, want to be free from the regiments of the society they live in. But they seldom stop to reflect that discipline is the corner-stone of freedom. The sun, the moon, the stars, the planets and the hundreds of celestial bodies in a billion galaxies rotate and revolve at tremendous speeds. However, there is an order and discipline in their uninterrupted movements. A little change in the speeds of one of them may lead to a catastrophe of cosmic proportions. And this order has been in vogue ever since the universe was created. Similar has been the case with the blow of wind, the flow of river, the blossoming of a flower, the change of seasons, etc. Without perfect discipline of these Nature’s forces, the universe can never go on. A similar phenomenon is noticeable in an individual’s body also. The blood pressure, the heart beat, the content of sugar, salt, minerals, proteins, vitamins, acids, etc., in the body of a person will all have to be strictly within a stipulated range; otherwise he may face the prospect of a serious illness or even death.

When such is the law of nature, is it wrong to expect that social beings as we are, we should adhere to certain norms, regulations and well-established conventions of the society? Without discipline, we are sure to go astray and land into deep trouble, just as the vagaries of Nature may lead to a huge natural disaster or just as a non-regulated human body may end up with disease and death. By following a rigorous, disciplined and well-regulated life, it is easier to attain true freedom—the Knowledge of our Real Self. Two Types of Freedom There are two types of freedom. The first is the outcome of a crude and unrefined way of life. It is like that of a buffalo glibly chewing some garbage in the middle of a busy highway, unmindful of the traffic jam it has created and the endless sounds of horns all around it. The buffalo is, no doubt, experiencing a weird sort of freedom but only at the cost of inconveniencing innumerable travellers. There is a second type of freedom. It is similar to that of say, an adept in music. The effortless, carefree and joyous way in which he plays his instrument before a vast, knowledgeable audience is also a type of freedom. But this type of freedom is the result of years of one-pointed, disciplined and arduous practice with his instrument, sacrificing many of the joys of life. It is this type of freedom

Swami Abhiramananda is the Manager of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. His thoughtfully written articles appear in The Vedanta Kesari occasionally. T h e

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that is enjoined in the Hindu scriptures as a means to liberation. Swami Ramakrishnananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, calls these two types as ‘freedom of the senses’ and ‘freedom from the senses.’1 While the freedom of the senses is a license to indulge in a permissive life and leads to ruin, freedom from the senses paves the way for supreme bliss and ultimate emancipation. The Hindu Concept of Freedom Sister Devamata, an American nun addressed the devotees during the temple opening ceremony of the Ramakrishna Math’s Bangalore centre in Basavanagudi, on 20 January 1909. There she said about the Hindu concept of freedom thus, Some of you might wish that instead of this temple, a workshop or an industrial school could have been built. But, my friends, I have had more experience perhaps in the world about the practicality of such things than you, and I have found that the good works in the world are divided into two ways like this. Suppose one works in a prison-house, concerned to make prisoners comfortable, to give them soft beds, wholesome food and proper recreation; while another says, what does it matter what people say, or what the prisoners eat; these people are in prison, come let us break it open and take the prisoners out. This course alone will give them happiness. The fact is, we never even dream that we are in prison, and that is why so many industrial schools, asylums for the aged and widows are established. But it was the glory of the sons of India that they said, they would rather sleep on the ground and go semi-naked on the streets and face starvation than think of obtaining spiritual freedom by any other means but renunciation. That is the reason why, although India is so low, she yet stands on the spiritual platform, and although she is weak, T h e

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she has yet a spiritual power that is supremely worthy of Her.’2

The Hindu Way of Freedom—Varnashrama Dharma Hindu religion had conceived the idea of varnashrama dharma even in the ancient days, long before the dawn of other civilisations. Varna means caste and ashrama means the different stations of a person’s life. Broadly, there are four castes and four ashramas. The four ashramas are brahmacharya, garhasthya, vanaprastha and sannyasa. The four castes are brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra. The Four Ashramas In the brahmacharya ashrama, a student is expected to lead a life of self control and be dedicated to scriptural studies. With a highly disciplined character, he enters into the householder’s life or the grihastha Ashrama. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad compares man and woman to the two halves of a split pea, thereby meaning that they are equal and inseparable.3 One of the appellations for the word ‘wife’ in Hinduism is ardhangi (which means ‘having half a body’). It implies that she and her husband are two halves constituting a perfect social system of an ideal marriage. The wife is also called sahadharmini, which means ‘a partner in spiritual life’. Both the husband and wife are expected to help one another in their mutual spiritual growth, the ultimate goal of grihastha ashrama being, not the enjoyment of desires, but that of pursuing the pilgrimage towards God. The vanaprasthi and sannyasi devote their whole lives to the realization of God, which is synonymous with absolute freedom of the soul. Thus the varnashrama system has been designed with the ultimate freedom of the individual as its goal in view.

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The Four Castes The brahmana is the ideal god-man who has realized Brahman or God (Brahma vijanati brahmanah). The kshatriya is an ideal man who protects ethics in the society. The brahmana goes even beyond ethics and is always established in Brahman-consciousness. The rest of the castes are in varying stages of spiritual evolution. In Hinduism, the four castes are described as four important parts of the body of the Cosmic Person.4 They are His head, arms, thighs and feet. This metaphor highlights the inter-dependence of the four castes for the common welfare of the whole society and humanity in general. It also warns that the exploitation of any one caste by the others would undermine the strength of the entire system. The rules regarding the four castes sum up the sagacity, the experience and the experiments of long centuries of Hindu social order. The goal of every Hindu is, ultimately, to become a brahmin, a man of God. The Brahmin is the custodian of the culture of the race and occupies a high place in society by virtue of his spirituality. The hierarchy in the caste system is determined by the degree of voluntary renunciation, poverty, self-control, degree of intellectual and spiritual attainments and hence a person’s nearness to absolute freedom. Judged by this yardstick, the Brahmin is the nearest to God and so lives with maximum freedom. The most important point to be noted here is that, in the original Hindu conception, the castes were not decided on the basis of birth but on the basis of one’s inherent nature and qualities.5 This discussion is based on that original concept. The caste system as it is in vogue today is a corrupt form of that ideal state. T h e

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Freedom—the Life-breath of the Upanishads Of all the world religions, none speak about the glory of the attainment of spiritual freedom as the goal of human life in such lofty style as Hinduism. While most of the religions speak of a heaven and heavenly life with gods after death, only certain evolved schools of Hinduism declare in unambiguous terms that absolute merging of the individual with the supreme soul leads to perfect freedom and is the paramount purpose of human birth. The Upanishads go to the extent of saying that life becomes meaningful only when this freedom is realized here, on this earth when we are alive, otherwise our lives will be a great tragedy.6 In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the word ‘freedom’ and its synonyms such as immortality and liberation are repeated more than 70 times. In the Chandogya Upanishad, the same words are repeated about 125 times. No doubt Swami Vivekananda declared freedom as the watch-word of the Upanishads. Swami Vivekananda on Freedom When Bala Gangadhara Tilak, the wellknown leader of India’s Freedom Movement, asked Swami Vivekananda as to why he was not fighting for India’s freedom, Swamiji promptly replied, ‘I can get you freedom, but are you (i.e., Indians) worthy of it?’ What we have today is only freedom from foreign rule. But Swamiji wanted every one of us to attain spiritual freedom. He says: One may get political freedom, even social freedom. But as long as one is a slave to desires and anger, one cannot feel the pure joy of true freedom within, which is spiritual. He was convinced that attaining this spiritual freedom is the ultimate purpose of all religions. To quote his words:

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work or worship or psychic control or philosophy, by one or more or all of these and be free. That is the whole of religion.7

Sri Ramakrishna on Freedom Sri Ramakrishna detested any type of bondage. As a temple priest of Dakshineswar, he refused to sign the salary register for receiving a monthly pay of Rupees seven. He would not bolt the door of his room from inside. He could not tuck the mosquito curtain under his bed. He was not even aware of what dress he was wearing or how he was wearing it. He lived in such a high state of freedom that these trifling details of day-to-day life failed to make any mark in his mind. Once, Devendranath Tagore invited Sri Ramakrishna to an annual meeting of the Brahma Samaj but added that as elite people were going to attend the function, Sri Ramakrishna should button his coat properly. To this Sri Ramakrishna replied that he could not guarantee any such thing; he would simply take the Divine Mother’s Name and leave the rest to Her. Generally Sri Ramakrishna used to take lunch between 1.00 and 2.00 p.m. In later days, he developed stomach trouble and so tried to eat before noon. When Jadu Mallick heard about this difficulty, he engaged a cook for him. Further, he gave one rupee for a month’s expenses. After this incident, whenever Mallick wanted to converse with Sri Ramakrishna, he had to run to Mallick. That very much embarrassed Sri Ramakrishna. He considered that to be a bondage though it was necessary to maintain his health. True Freedom vs. Organisation Unlike most of the other world religions, Hinduism is unorganised in the sense that it has no central authority like the Pope. T h e

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Commenting on this aspect, Sister Nivedita says: Nothing could have been more typical of the unorganisedness of Hinduism itself than this going forth of its representative [Swami Vivekananda] unannounced, and without any formal credentials, to enter the strongly guarded doors of the world’s wealth and power. 8

While an organisation definitely has certain advantages, the unorganised sector also has its own strength. Freedom is more in an unorganised sector. That is why, when a western disciple requested Swami Turiyananda to make rules for their retreat camp, he replied: Why do you want rules? Is not everything going on nicely without formal rules? Don’t you see how punctual everyone is—how regular we all are? No one is ever absent for class or meditation. Mother has made Her own rules. Let us be satisfied with that. Why should we make rules of our own? Let there be freedom but no license. That is the Mother’s way of ruling. We have no organization but see how organized we are. This kind of organisation is lasting, but all other kinds of organization break up in time. This kind of organization makes one free. All other kinds are binding. This is the highest organization. It is based on spiritual laws.9

Conclusion After studying the series of experiments from the days of varnashrama dharma till his day, Swami Vivekananda understood that true freedom is possible only for a realised individual; that organisations and rules would constrict and average down the members of an institution. The organisational structure itself will diminish their spirit. But at the same time, he was also convinced that no lasting good could be done to the society without an organisation. The only way to sustain the spirit

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of an organisation without losing sight of an individual’s liberation is through purity of life of its members. So he founded the Ramakrishna Math and Mission with the twin ideal of atmano mokshartam jagaddhitaya ca— for one’s own liberation and the welfare of the world. While an individual’s freedom is the goal of every Hindu’s life, it can be achieved through organised service to the society,

looking upon every one as the manifestation of the one Supreme Divinity. Thus the freedom of the soul as the goal of human life has remained unchanged throughout the long history of Hinduism. Only the modus operandi leading to the goal has taken different forms according to the need of the times, the latest contribution being that of the greatest saints of the nineteenth century, i.e., Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda.

References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

What the Disciples Said about It, Edited by Edith D. Tipple, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata p-138 A Spiritual Centre Blossoms, Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore p-48 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, I.iv.3 Purusha Suktam, 13 Srimad Bhagavad Gita IV.3 Kena Upanishad II.5

7. 8.

Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol I, Advaita Ashrama, p-124 The Life of Swami Vivekananda by Eastern and Western Disciples, Advaita Ashrama, Vol I, p402). How to Live with God in the Company of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Chetanananda, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, p-427

Whenever we exert to extend our power, knowledge and happiness, whenever we try to escape from death, we really want to bring out the Divinity within us. And we are doing this all the time. We refuse to remain within the bounds of Nature. Nature gives us only interrupted glimpses of joy, knowledge, power and life. But in our Soul we have all these in all unbounded measure. For our Soul is essentially one with God. And this is why the little morsels of joy, knowledge, power and life we have to wrest from Nature (Prakriti) by our hard struggles never satisfy us. And our search for these things ends only when we come to fully realize and manifest the divinity of our Soul. Reaching the infinite ocean of Existence, Knowledge and Bliss (Satchidananda-sagara), we have no longer to hanker after the little drops doled out by Nature. Thus, consciously or unconsciously, every creature on earth is led forward by the instinctive urge for realizing the Eternal and Infinite One within it. In other words, everyone is hurrying to attain mukti (liberation) from this samsara. —Swami Nirvedananda, Hinduism at a Glance, Ramakrishna Mission, Calcutta Students’ Home, p.42-43

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‘Freedom is the Watchword’ SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Freedom is the watchword. Be free! A free body, a free mind, and a free soul! That is what I have felt all my life; I would rather be doing evil freely than good under bondage.1 We, we, and none else, are responsible for what we suffer. We are the effects, and we are the causes. We are free therefore. If I am unhappy, it has been of my own making, and that very thing shows that I can be happy if I will. If I am impure, that is also of my own making, and that very thing shows that I can be pure if I will. The human will stands beyond all circumstance. Before it—the strong, gigantic, infinite will and freedom in man— all the powers, even of nature,

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must bow down, succumb, and become its servants. This is the result of the law of Karma.2 Freedom is only possible when no external power can exert any influence, produce any change. Freedom is only possible to the being who is beyond all conditions, all laws, all bondages of cause and effect. In other words, the unchangeable alone can be free and, therefore, immortal. This Being, this Atman, this real Self of man, the free, the unchangeable is beyond all conditions, and as such, it has neither birth nor death.3 We are here for freedom, for knowledge. We want to know in order to make ourselves free. That is our life: one universal cry for freedom. What is the reason the . . . plant grows from the seed, overturning the ground and raising itself up to the skies? What is the offering for the earth from the sun? What is your life? The same struggle for freedom. Nature is trying all around to suppress us, and the soul wants to express itself. The struggle with nature is going on. Many things will be crushed and broken in this struggle for freedom. That is your real misery. Large masses of dust and dirt must be raised on the battlefield. Nature says, ‘I will conquer’. The soul says, ‘I must be the conqueror’. Nature says, ‘Wait! I will give you a little enjoyment to keep you quiet’. The soul enjoys a little, becomes deluded a moment, but the next moment it [cries for freedom again]. Have you marked the eternal cry going on through the ages in every breast? We are deceived by poverty. We become wealthy and are deceived

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with wealth. We are ignorant. We read and learn and are deceived with knowledge. No man is ever satisfied. That is the cause of misery, but it is also the cause of all blessing. That is the sure sign. How can you be satisfied with this world? . . . If tomorrow this world becomes heaven, we will say, ‘Take this away. Give us something else.’ The infinite human soul can never be satisfied but by the Infinite itself. . . . Infinite desire can only be satisfied by infinite knowledge—nothing short of that. Worlds will come and go. What of that? The soul lives and for ever expands. Worlds must come into the soul. Worlds must disappear in the soul like drops in the ocean. And this world to become the goal of the soul! If we have common sense, we cannot be satisfied, though this has been the theme of the poets in all the ages, always telling us to be satisfied. And nobody has been satisfied yet! Millions of prophets have told us, ‘Be satisfied with your lot’; poets sing. We have told ourselves to be quiet and satisfied, yet we are not. It is the design of the Eternal that there is nothing in this world to satisfy my soul, nothing in the heavens above, and nothing beneath. Before the desire of my soul, the stars and the worlds, upper and lower, the whole universe, is but a hateful disease, nothing but that. That is the meaning. Everything is an evil unless that is the meaning. Every desire is evil unless that is the meaning, unless you understand its true importance, its goal. All nature is crying through all the atoms for one thing—its perfect freedom.4 There cannot be any growth without liberty. Our ancestors freed religious thought, and we have a wonderful religion. But they put a heavy chain on the feet of society, and our society is, in a word, horrid, diabolical. In References: T h e

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the West, society always had freedom, and look at them. On the other hand, look at their religion.5 Materialism says, the voice of freedom is a delusion. Idealism says, the voice that tells of bondage is delusion. Vedanta says, you are free and not free at the same time—never free on the earthly plane, but ever free on the spiritual.6 There was once a stag, proud and free, and he talked in a lordly fashion to his child, Look at me, see my powerful horns! With one thrust I can kill a man; it is a fine thing to be a stag! Just then the sound of the huntsman’s bugle was heard in the distance, and the stag precipitately fled, followed by his wondering child. When they had reached a place of safety, he inquired, Why do you fly before man, O my father, when you are so strong and brave? The stag answered, My child, I know I am strong and powerful, but when I hear that sound, something seizes me and makes me fly whether I will or no. So with us. We hear the bugle sound of the laws laid down in the books, habits and old superstitions lay hold of us; and before we know it, we are fast bound and forget our real nature which is freedom.7 What we want is freedom, not life, nor pleasure, nor good. Creation is eternal, without beginning, without end, the ever-moving ripple in an infinite lake. There are yet unreached depths and others where stillness has been regained, but the ripple is ever progressing, the struggle to regain the balance is eternal. Life and death are but different names for the same fact, they are the two sides of one coin. Both are Maya, the inexplicable state of striving at one point to live and a moment later to die. Beyond all this is the true nature, the Atman.8

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Freedom as the Goal of Four Yogas SWAMI BRAHMESHANANDA

men are the same as their little body. When we see a man doing good work, helping others, it means that he cannot be confined within the limited circle of ‘me and mine’. There is no limit to this getting out of selfishness. All the great systems of ethics preach absolute unselfishness as the goal.3

Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship or psychic control, or philosophy—by one, or more, or all of these—and be free.1

Thus has Swami Vivekananda declared freedom as the goal of all the four paths: work i.e. Karma Yoga; worship i.e. Bhakti Yoga; psychic control i.e. Raja Yoga and philosophy i.e. Jnana Yoga. Swami Vivekananda further says:

Swami Vivekananda, further says that freedom in Karma Yoga is attained by the positive path of assertion: ‘this, this’. He declared,

You must remember that freedom of the soul is the goal of all Yogas, and each one equally leads to the same result. By work alone men may get to where Buddha got largely by meditation or Christ by prayer. Buddha was a working Jnani, Christ was a Bhakta, but the same goal was reached by both of them.2

Swami Vivekananda has in his famous definition of religion equated manifestation of divinity with freedom. However, as we study the four Yogas independently, we find interesting variations and differences of interpretations of this ultimate freedom. Freedom as the Goal of Karma Yoga In Karma Yoga, this freedom mainly means going beyond the idea of me and mine. Says Swamiji, There is to be found in every religion the manifestation of this struggle towards freedom. It is the groundwork of all morality, of unselfishness, which means getting rid of the idea that

Until we give up the thirst after life, the strong attachment to this our transient conditioned existence, we have no hope of catching even a glimpse of that infinite freedom beyond. It stands to reason then that there is only one way to attain to that freedom which is the goal of all the noblest aspirations of mankind, and that is by giving up this little life, giving up this little universe, giving up this earth, giving up heaven, giving up the body, giving up the mind, giving up everything that is limited and conditioned. If we give up our attachment to this little universe of the senses or of the mind, we shall be free immediately. The only way to come out of bondage is to go beyond the limitations of law, to go beyond causation. But it is a most difficult thing to give up the clinging to this universe; few ever attain to that. There are two ways to do that as mentioned in our books. One is called the ‘Neti, Neti’ (not this, not this), the other is called ‘iti’ (this); the former is the negative, and the latter is the positive way. The negative way is the most

A former editor of THE VEDANTA KESARI, the author is the Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Chandigarh. T h e

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difficult.... The vast majority of mankind choose the positive way, the way through the world, making use of all the bondages themselves to break those very bondages. This is also a kind of giving up; only it is done slowly and gradually, by knowing things, enjoying things and thus obtaining experience, and knowing the nature of things until the mind lets them all go at last and becomes unattached. The former way of obtaining non-attachment is by reasoning, and the latter way is through work and experience. The first is the path of Jnana-Yoga and is characterized by the refusal to do any work; the second is that of Karma-Yoga, in which there is no cessation from work.4

This path of ‘iti, iti’ has a number of components according to the Bhagavad Gita, such as evenness of mind, freedom from bondage of karma and so on, and it is attained by doing action without the idea of agentship; doing action without a desire for fruits of action and by doing it in a spirit of yajna i.e. spirit of sacrifice. The Gita says, The wise, possessed of this evenness of mind, abandoning the fruits of their actions, freed for ever from the fetters of birth, go to that state which is beyond all evil.5 Renouncing all actions to me with mind centred on the Self, getting rid of hope and selfishness, fight—free from (mental) fever. Those men who constantly practice this teaching of mine full of shraddha and without cavilling they too are freed from work.6 The fourfold caste was created by Me, by the differentiation of Guna and Karma. Though I am the author thereof, know Me to be the nondoer, and changeless. Actions do not taint Me, nor have I any thirst for the result of action. He who knows Me thus is not fettered by action.7 Content with what comes to him without effort, unaffected by the pairs of opposites, free from envy, even-minded in success and failure, though T h e

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acting, he is not bound. Devoid of attachment, liberated, with mind centred in knowledge, performing work for Yajna alone, his whole Karma dissolves away.8 With work renounced by Yoga and doubts rent asunder by knowledge, O Dhananjaya, actions do not bind him who is poised in the Self.9

Freedom as the Goal of Raja Yoga The goal of Raja Yoga, according to Patanjali, is control of thought waves, whereby Purusha, the Conscious Witness, gets established in its real nature10. According to the commentator Vyasa, yoga means samadhi, which is of two types: samprajnata and asamprajnata. According to Swami Vivekananda, the highest stage in Raja Yoga is this latter samadhi, which gives ultimate freedom: There is another Samadhi which is attained by the constant practice of cessation of all mental activity, in which the Chitta retains only the unmanifested impressions. This is the perfect superconscious asamprajnata samadhi, the state which gives us freedom.11

Another goal of Astanga Yoga, Pantanjali says, is freedom from suffering yet to come (heyam dukham anagatam)12. This suffering is caused by the junction or the union of the seer and the seen i.e. the Purusha and the Nature, which is again of three types: illumination, action and inertia13. This junction between the two is caused by ignorance and in its absence, there is no junction and that is the independence of the seer. This is the true freedom of the seer and in Yoga Sutras, it is called Kaivalyam [literally ‘aloneness’, or being unmixed with imperfection]. The ignorance is destroyed by the unbroken practice of discrimination14. Commenting upon this, Swami Vivekananda says,

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Purusha will begin to shine in its real nature— omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.15

This knowledge is of seven-fold highest ground (tatsya saptadha prantabhumihi pragya)16. Y The first grade is that we know what is to be known. Y The second grade is the absence of all pains. Y The third is the attainment of full knowledge. Y The fourth is the attainment of the end of all duties. Y Next is what is called freedom of the chitta. Y The sixth is that the chitta itself will realize that it melts away into its causes. Y And lastly, we find that we are established in ourselves. When the soul realises that it depends upon nothing in the universe from God to the lowest atom, it is called Kaivalyam, or Perfection. It is attained when this mixture of purity and impurity called sattva (intellect) has been made as pure as the Purusha itself. Then the sattva reflects only the unqualified essence of purity which is the Purusha17. Freedom as the Goal of Bhakti Yoga Swamiji describes the Yoga of Devotion thus, Bhakti-Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a search beginning, continuing, and ending in Love. One single moment of the madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom.18

The love of God, bhakti, which begins as preliminary discipline, vaidhi bhakti [the Bhakti of vidhi or rules, i.e. dos and don’ts], grows and culminates in para-bhakti, or supreme devotion. Forms vanish, rituals fly away, books are superseded; images, temples, churches, religions and sects, countries and nationaliT h e

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ties—all these little limitations and bondages fall off by their own nature from him who knows this love of God. Nothing remains to bind him or fetter his freedom. A ship, all of a sudden, comes near a magnetic rock, and its iron bolts and bars are all attracted and drawn out, and the planks get loosened and freely float on the water. Divine grace thus loosens the binding bolts and bars of the soul, and it becomes free.19 The characteristics of this para-bhakti have been described by Narada thus: In its intrinsic nature Divine Love is nothing less than the immortal bliss of freedom (Mukti) itself. Gaining that man realizes his perfection and divinity and becomes thoroughly contented. Attaining that man has no more desire for anything, is free from grief and hatred; he does not rejoice over anything; he does not exert himself in furtherance of self interest. Realizing that man becomes intoxicated and fascinated, as it were, because he is completely immersed in the enjoyment of bliss of Atman.20

This freedom, however, must not be confused with the freedom which is the goal of Jnana Yoga where bhakti is considered the greatest means. In Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti is not a means. It is an end in itself. Although freedom, Mukti, knocks at the door of a bhakta, he does not accept it. He is happy remaining immersed in the thoughts of his beloved Lord. Bharata, Lord Rama’s brother, had asked only the boon of pure love: Neither riches, nor religion, nor passion or desire, nor even freedom do I seek. I seek no other boon except love at Rama’s feet birth after birth.21

Even though a bhakta does not care for mukti, according to Tulsidas, it comes to him.22 Not only this, even the Lord may not mind bestowing the boon of mukti or freedom, but He hesitates in imparting bhakti, because He Himself gets bound by the love of the devotee.

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In the Vaishnava Bhakti literature, four types of mukti or freedom have been described: Samipya (proximity to the Lord); Sarupya (identity of appearance); Salokya (being in the same sphere or loka as Narayana) and Sayujya (intimate union with or absorption into the Divine.) Sri Vaishnavas interpret this Sayujya as becoming intimately absorbed in Narayana’s feet while retaining the relationship of amsha and amshi (part and whole relationship). According to the Vaishnavas, the highest form of Bhakti is Prapatti or Sharanagati i.e. total surrender to the Lord. The totally surrendered devotee becomes like a kitten which is entirely dependent upon the mother cat. It has no will or desire of its own—not even for freedom! Freedom as the Goal of Jnana Yoga Among the four yogas, perhaps the clearest concept of freedom is found in Jnana Yoga. The blessed soul whose ignorance has been destroyed by the realisation of Brahman in the nirvalkalpa samadhi becomes liberated at once from the body if there is no strong momentum of past actions (prarabdha karma) left. But if, there is, it can only be worked out. Such a man is called a jivanmukta or one liberated while living. Though associated with the body, he is ever untouched by ignorance or its effects. His ultimate liberation (videha or kaivalya mukti) comes with the destruction of the body. A jivanmukta is one who by the knowledge of the Absolute Brahman, his own Self, has dispelled the ignorance regarding It and has realized It, and who owing to the destruction of ignorance and its effects such as accumulated past actions, doubts and errors is free from all bondage and is established in Brahman. Such a liberated man, while he is not in samadhi, sees actions not opposed to knowT h e

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ledge taking place under the momentum of past impressions—actions that have already begun to bear fruit, yet he does not consider them as real, for he has already known their nothingness, as a man who is conscious that a magical performance is being given, even though he sees it, does not consider it as real. In the case of such a liberated soul, only good desires persist, as do his habits of eating, moving, etc., which existed before the dawn of knowledge. Or he may become indifferent to all good or evil. After realization, humility and other attributes which are steps to the attainment of knowledge, as also such virtues as non-injury etc. persist like so many ornaments. In short, such a man’s soul remains as the illuminator of the mental states and the Consciousness reflected in them. After the exhaustion of the prarbdha work, his vital force is absorbed in the Supreme Brahman, and ignorance with its effects and their impressions is also destroyed. Then he is identified with the Absolute Brahman, the embodiment of Bliss, in which there is not even the appearance of duality.23 Conclusion While freedom is indeed the goal of all the four yogas, as we have seen, the concept of freedom differs corresponding to the difference in the path as laid down in them. In Karma Yoga this takes the form of evenness of mind under all situations, freedom from ‘me and mine’, and freedom from actions and their fruits. In Raja Yoga it is called Kaivalya, i.e. total isolation of the individual soul, Purusha from the fetters of Prakriti or nature. Bhakta does not care for freedom, mukti and, instead seeks only unending love for God, his Beloved. He even surrenders his desire for mukti. In Jnana Yoga, attainment of his real

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nature in nirvikalpa samadhi is the goal. The freedom there takes the form of Jivanmukti, i.e. freedom while living and videha mukti, i.e. final freedom on the dissolution of the physical body.

All the four yogas, thus we find, aim at attaining freedom, though they seem to employ different methods and call the goal differently. Freedom is indeed what the yogas ultimately lead to. Â&#x2020;

References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

CW, 1: 257 CW, 1: 55 CW, 1: 109 CW,1: 97-98 Gita, II.51 Gita, III. 30, 31 Gita, IV.13, 14 Gita, IV.22,23 Gita, IV.41 Patanjal Yoga Sutras, I. 2-3 CW, 1: 212 Yoga Sutra, II.16

13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

Yoga Sutra, II.17, 18 Yoga Sutra, II.24, 25-26 CW, 1: 258 Yoga Sutra, II.27 III.56 CW, 3: 31 CW, 3: 72 Narada Bhakti Sutras, 3,4,5,6 Ramacharitamansa, II.204 Ramacharitmanasa, VII. 119, 2 Vedanta-Sara, 223

The sages in India studied various possibilities hidden in human beings. Infinite possibilities are hidden in every one of us. We have to unfold these possibilities, both at the physical and spiritual planes. At the physical plane we have to do it by controlling external nature and, thereby, build a healthy, economically strong and politically stable society. At the spiritual plane we should do it by becoming the masters of our selves, masters of the internal nature and, thereby, become fulfilled and bring peace to all. Presently man is a slave of his internal nature, which is predominantly crude and animal in type. This must be changed. We have to become free by refining our energy resources and directing these to higher spiritual levels. This is the message of the Upanishads passed on to us by an unbroken succession of great sages. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Swami Ranganathananda, The Message of Vivekachudamani, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;p.13

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Dimensions of Freedom in the Bhagavad Gita SWAMI YUKTATMANANDA

The Bhagavad Gita has been described as Brahma-vidya, the science of the Absolute, and as yoga-shastra, a scripture that teaches the art of union with God. The Gita presents before us God-realisation, or freedom, as the ideal, and teaches us how to live a God-centred life, grow in devotion to God, and transform all our activities into worship of God. The True Seeker According to the Gita there are four types of people who worship God: those who seek relief from physical and mental afflictions, those who yearn for worldly prosperity and enjoyment, those who seek knowledge, and those who have known God.1 Sri Krishna considers all of them to be noble, but regards the knower of God as his very Self.2 Those who seek knowledge are spiritual aspirants. They strive for that knowledge by knowing which nothing remains to be known,3 gaining which there is nothing greater to gain, and by abiding in which one is not moved by the heaviest of sorrows.4 After experiencing our share of pleasure and pain, we understand that pleasure unmixed with pain is not possible in the world. Important questions then begin to haunt us: what is the purpose of human life, is there a higher dimension to our personality, is there a God, what is our relationship to Him, and how can we get closer

to Him? When we seek answers to these existential questions, we begin to take our life seriously. Yet these questions have satisfactory answers only when we accept God-realisation as the goal of life and realign our thoughts and actions to that goal. Then we will no longer consider our every experience in the world to be an end in itself, but a stimulus to help us grow in devotion and proximity to God. As we practise spiritual disciplines regularly, we become more aware of the mind and its unreasonableness. Accustomed to randomness, the mind does not want any order imposed on it, not to speak of discipline through spiritual practices. We begin to understand that heroic efforts are needed to remain steadfast in our spiritual practices. It is not surprising that many give up the struggle and become their old selves again. If we persist in the struggle, we clearly perceive two kinds of freedom: 1. Freedom for the mind: To be restless, to go after sense enjoyments, to be continually in flux, alternately calm, anxious, fearful, and so onâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that is the line of least resistance for the mind, and that is how it functions. But freedom for the mind is really slavery for the seeker, since the mind does not let him practise spiritual disciplines. It is eager to pursue its outward journey to sense pleasures.

Â&#x2026; Swami Yuktatmananda is the Head of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centre, New York. T h e

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2. Freedom from the mind: This is true freedom for the spiritual seeker, the freedom to live a life dedicated to higher values, to be able to focus the mind on a higher ideal to the exclusion of everything else. Life becomes meaningful to the extent we strive for this freedom. The Gita provides some valuable guidance for spiritual seekers who sincerely struggle for freedom from the mind. Importance of Self-reliance and Self-effort The Gita makes it clear that self-effort is indispensable in spiritual life: ‘Let a man lift himself by his own self. Let him not demean himself.’5 The Gita wants us to face all situations boldly and do our duty under all circumstances. As one born in a royal lineage, Arjuna was to fight the inevitable war against his evil cousins. Instead, he advanced arguments that were only his weakness disguised as compassion for his relatives and elders. Sri Krishna admonished him to give up unmanliness, meanness and weakness of heart.6 The Gita wants us to have tremendous faith in the hidden powers of our higher Self and manifest them in action. Swami Vivekananda puts it forcefully: It is a tremendous error to feel helpless. Do not seek help from anyone. We are our own help. If we cannot help ourselves, there is none to help us.7

How to Live in the World The world is known for imponderables and inexplicable situations. We can easily be swept off our feet if we take everything in the world too seriously and forget God in the process. The challenge lies in cultivating devotion to God in the midst of all that we experience in life. But this is something we realise only when the right time comes. The Gita teaches that only by taking refuge in God can we cross over His divine T h e

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maya [cosmic illusion and ignorance].8 The world is impermanent and an abode of misery.9 Says Sri Krishna: ‘Having come to this transitory, joyless world, worship Me.’10 The world is an abode of misery because pleasure always alternates with pain. Worldly happiness arises from contact of the sense organs with sense objects which is like nectar in the beginning but like poison at the end.11 It is like poison at the end because it robs us of the power of discrimination and contributes to spiritual death.12 The world is characterised by polarities like heat and cold, happiness and misery, praise and blame, and success and failure. The Gita wants us to endure these inevitable dualities; they come and go; they are impermanent.13 If the world is an abode of misery, how do we free ourselves from it? By practising yoga, says Sri Krishna, defining yoga as the severance of contact with misery, or pain.14 The more we turn to God, the more immune we become to pain. Sri Ramakrishna lived a life of total absorption in God. He continued to teach people how to live a God-centred life even as he was apparently in excruciating pain due to throat cancer. He would say: ‘Let the body be preoccupied with illness, but O mind, dwell forever in God’s bliss!’ By the world is meant not only what we perceive outside, but also our mind and body. Everything other than the Atman, our divine core, is included in the world. The more attached we are to our body and mind, the more attached we are to the world and, therefore, the greater are our chances of succumbing to misery. God Is Impartial When misery overtakes us we look for causes outside ourselves. We try to blame

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other people or circumstances, or we may even blame God. But the Gita points out that God is impartial: ‘I am the same toward all beings; to Me there is none hateful or dear. But those who worship Me with devotion—they are in Me, and I too am in them.’15 Acharya Shankara explains that we get warmth from fire provided we move closer to it. The more we think of God and the closer we move to Him, the less we complain about our difficulties, and the more meaningful our life becomes. Freedom from Slavery to the Mind The Gita shows us the way to be free from desires, anxiety, restlessness, and attachment. Our own mind is our friend and also our enemy. A controlled mind acts as our friend and an uncontrolled mind acts as our enemy, acts against our interests.16 That is why Sri Krishna teaches control of the senses as the primary discipline.17 And control of the senses also includes control of the mind since the mind is the chief among the senses.18 To understand the process of mind control, the Gita describes the hierarchy of the human personality. The sense organs are superior [to the body]. Superior to the sense organs is the mind [manas]. Superior to the mind is the buddhi [the seat of discrimination and will-power]. Superior to the buddhi is the Self [the Atman]. Knowing that Self, control the self by the Self and destroy the enemy in the form of desire, which is hard to overcome.19

But to become free from desire most of us need to follow the graded path from desire to desirelessness. To ensure that we are on the road to desirelessness, we need to see that our desires conform to dharma, or morality, for the Lord Himself is in the form of such desires.20 It is necessary to remember, however, that the goal of life is not the fulfilment T h e

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of desires, but freedom through God-realisation. Freedom from Work-related Bondage The Gita teaches that work has to be done as worship of God if we are to become free from the bondage resulting from work.21 It is the uncertainty of the outcome that causes people to waste their energy in anxiety about the results. Here is how the Gita wants us to do work: ‘To work alone you are entitled, never to its fruit. Neither let your motive be the fruit of action, nor let your attachment be to non-action.’22 If we do not worry about the results of action, we become free from anxiety and conserve our precious mental energy. Unknown factors could influence the outcome of work even after we have done our part to the best of our ability.23 So instead of letting the mind run riot worrying about the outcome, it is much better to rein it in with an alert buddhi, focus it on the work before us, and dedicate the fruit of the work to God. The Gita also warns us against following the way of non-action, or idleness, just because we find it challenging to do work without attachment. Giving up work is not easy, warns the Gita: ‘Bound by your own karma, which is born of your very nature, what through delusion you seek not to do, you shall do even against your will.’24 So since there is no escape from work, it is best to learn how to work without letting it bind us more and more to the world. God is not responsible for the sense of agency in us. He does not determine what actions we perform or what results arise from them. It is Nature that does all this.25 By Nature is meant our inner nature, our mindset, or the impressions we have gathered by our past actions and thoughts. It is these impressions (samskaras) that determine our

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actions and the attitude with which we perform them: whether we get bound by work or perform work as worship and become free. Our attachment to the world, our love of God, our ignorance, our knowledge, our preferences, our eagerness, or absence of it, for spiritual practices—all these are determined by these impressions. The sum total of these impressions is what is our character, says Swami Vivekananda.26 The spiritual seeker needs to know how to become free from both good and evil effects of work. We can be as much under the sway of good impressions as under the sway of bad impressions. By good thoughts and good actions we rise above our bad impressions. If freedom is our goal, it is equally important to free ourselves from the hold of good impressions. The secret lies in working in such a way as not to gather any fresh impressions, good or bad. Sri Krishna shows how this is possible:

and whatever you practise in the form of austerities—do it as an offering to Me. Thus shall you be free from the bondage of actions, which bear good or evil results. With your mind firmly set on the yoga of renunciation, you shall become free and come to Me.27

The Key to Freedom God is the divine substratum on which our mental and physical actions are played out. God Himself is not affected by what we do with our body and mind, but He is always ready for us to turn to Him and worship Him with devotion. In the following two verses of the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna sums up the spiritual practices that lead us to freedom: He who does My work and looks upon Me as the Supreme Goal, who is devoted to Me, who is without attachment and without hatred for any creature—he comes to Me.28 Fix your heart on Me, give your love to Me, bow down before Me; so shall you come to Me. This is my pledge to you, for you are dear to Me.29

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give away,

References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Bhagavad Gita, 7.16. Ibid., 7.18. Ibid., 7.2. Ibid., 6.22. Ibid., 6.5. Ibid., 2.3. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1989), 1.478. Bhagavad Gita, 7.14. Ibid., 8.15.

10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

Ibid., 9.33. Ibid., 18.38. Ibid., 2.63. Ibid., 2.14. Ibid., 6.23. Ibid., 9.29. Ibid., 6.6. Ibid., 3.41. Ibid., 10.22. Ibid., 3.42-3.

20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.

Ibid., 7.11. Ibid., 3.9. Ibid., 2.47. Ibid., 18.14. Ibid., 18.60. Ibid., 5.14. c.f. Complete Works, 2.255. Bhagavad Gita, 9.27-8. Ibid., 11.55. Ibid., 18.65.

Free! We who cannot, for a moment, govern our own minds, nay, cannot hold our minds on a subject, focus it on a point to the exclusion of everything else, for a moment! Yet we call ourselves free. Think of it! . . . The mind uncontrolled and unguided will drag us down, down, for ever—rend us, kill us; and the mind controlled and guided will see us, free us. —Swami Vivekananda, CW, 6: 30 T h e

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Wings on Endless Air B.K. MISRA

Man is, as it were, a bird trying to reach great heights. ‘Every soul is a young eagle,’ says Swami Vivekananda [CW, 1: 17], ‘soaring higher and higher, gathering more and more strength, till it reaches the Glorious Sun.’ Through all his struggles, failures and successes, experiments and experiences, man is travelling from lower truth to higher truth, and not from error to truth. Life is, truly speaking, a journey towards Freedom. This idea of journey from lower to higher planes is the theme of the story given below. The Sanskrit term ‘Twam’, as the young bird in the story is called, means ‘you’. The term has an obvious reference to the Upanishadic statement Tat Twam Asi—‘You are That’. The term ‘That’ means the Ultimate Truth, and ‘You’ or Twam, refers to the individual soul. In other words, you or the individual soul (Jiva) is one with the Ultimate Truth (Brahman). The following story draws parallels with the well-known novel, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach. The author is an English teacher working in Andhra Pradesh. He has to his credit a book of English poems, and is a great admirer of the Eternal Truth as enshrined in the lives of great sages and saints as also in Indian cultural traditions. The Birth When Twam broke open the walls of his cosy nest and jumped out into open air, his mother sighed in great relief, and thanked the almighty God of Air profusely. She would have been a proud mother of three children but for the evil eye of the grey hawk who destroyed two of them before they came out of their shells. This one survived, now finally out ‘in the light’. She named him Twam; it was a dream name—for long she has been preserving this name for her son. She institutively knew that the T h e

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one who could survive the eyes of a hawk, is destined for things beyond the hawk. Twam demonstrated great talents quite early in life. But that made her mother a little worried too. She was afraid, like every mother, if people started talking about the talents of Twam, others might become jealous of him, and do him harm. Her son did not have very strong legs and wings, but very powerful eyes. Could that be a sign of greatness? She did not know. All the famous birds she had heard about had strong legs and powerful wings. Now her son does not share the same qualities with the big and the famous. She did not want her son to become big and famous. Twam would grow up to a fine and well-loved bird, get married, build a

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small nest away from the evil eyes of the grey hawk, and when a couple of chicks, a boy and a girl, break open their shells, she would play with them. Then she could go back to the land of ancestors peacefully. Imbued with fear and reverence, she offered special prayers at the foot of a huge tree where once the God of birds, King Eagle, lived. The Growing Up But why does Twam sit on the top branch of the tree for a long time, and watch the world around? What does he see there? And, after all, he is still very young. He should not go up to such heights. Suppose he slips from the branch, and falls down! O! God, that should not happen. Twam was the only treasure she had in the world. Since the day Twam’s father left her alone to take care of three unborn chicks, she knew fate was going to be very hard on her. She cannot afford to lose her only child. So she would not allow Twam to fly higher than the middle branch of the tree they were living in. ‘Maa, have you always lived in this tree?’ one day he asked her. ‘No my son, birds do not live in one tree all their lives. So before I and your father built this nest for you to come, I was living in another tree with my parents.’ ‘And your parents also lived in another tree before they met?’ ‘Must be. That is the rule among birds’, she replied. Twam thought for some time, and asked, T h e

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‘Maa, if we go back like that, parents’ parents’ parents’ . . . , then we might come to the tree where the first parents lived, isn’t so ?’ This was rather too much for her. She did not even understand the question. She was a little scared. Why was Twam asking such impractical questions? There was a big pond near their tree. They all drank water from it. Sometimes Twam would go there to drink water, and sit there for a long time. He would just sit in a lonely corner of the pond. Once his mother caught him sitting there alone, came to him, and said, ‘Twam, my son, what are you doing here? I have been looking for you for an hour!’ ‘Maa, I have been sitting here and watching this pond. Isn’t it beautiful, this endless quiet water? Maa, where is the end of the pond? Can I fly over it to the other bank?’ She, the mother in her, was really afraid this time. ‘No my son, don’t try it. This pond is very big. God created it for us to drink from. That is enough for you.’ ‘If God created it for birds to drink from, then why did he make it so big? A smaller pond would be enough, wouldn’t it be Maa?’ Then he thought for some time, and said, ‘I think God has many interesting things on the other side of the pond. One day I am going to find out.’ Later, when a scared mother told some trustworthy elder birds about all these ideas of her son, they also did not feel comfortable, but had no advice for her either. Another day Twam told his mother, ‘Maa, that huge tree you see near the hill, who lives in it ? I see some birds like us in it. Do you know them?’

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She could not identify even the big tree, far less some birds in it. Two days later he asked again, ‘Maa, once you brought some red berries. They are very sweet. Why don’t you bring some more?’ ‘My son, they are not available anywhere near. . . ‘ but before she fished Twam replied, ‘What Maa, there are many such berry trees on the sunset side of that hill, how do you say not available? I will just now go and get them.’ And Twam flew away. An hour later he arrived with a big bunch of red berries in his young beak, and a big smile. Maa did not know how to react. ‘Son, how did you see the berries from such a distance?’ she questioned, ‘the other day also you were asking about some birds in some huge tree I could not see.’ ‘But Maa, I can see, how you can’t? . . . . I understand. I can see because I want to go there. You can’t because you do not want to go there, isn’t that Maa?’ ‘But son, we are happy here, why do you want to go anywhere else?’ ‘I don’t know. I think I shall be happier when I go everywhere, and see everything. . .’ Twam answered thoughtfully. The Awakening Twam’s mother could take it no more. She immediately went to the oldest bird of the tribe, shed many bird-tears before her, and asked her how to cure her son of this strange behaviour. She was sure someone’s evil eye had fallen on her dear Twam. The old bird looked at her with a chuckle, and said, ‘Twam’s Maa, you are a fool. Your son needs a companion now. Get a companion for him, and he will be alright.’ Twam’s mother cursed her foolishness, and immediately agreed with the old bird. She T h e

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thanked her and went out looking for a suitable ‘companion’ for her Twam. She realised that her Twam is no more a baby; he is a grown up. One day Twam was sitting on the top branch and watching the birds flying around. His mother came and sat near him. Nowadays she does not find fault with her son for flying up. Twam is now a man. When by God’s grace he marries, he has to find another tree and build his own nest. Then he has to protect his own family. Though she was lost in the sweetness of her dreams, she felt a little lonely too. She did not want to be separated from her dear son. At that time Twam looked at his mother, smiled and asked, ‘Maa, you said hawks are our enemies, didn’t you?’ ‘Yes son, they are. They catch and eat smaller birds.’ ‘But we can fly away from them, can’t we?’ ‘No. They fly much faster than us. And they see much farther than us. So they catch us.’ ‘They can see farther than me? You said I can see very far.’ ‘But son, you can not fly faster than a hawk.’ ‘Even if I practise? I am sure one day I can fly faster than a hawk.’

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‘Son, what is happening to you? Why do you fancy such dangerous ideas?’ she finally asked him, alarmed. ‘And Maa, you said something about King Eagle. Why did you say King Eagle?’ ‘Because Eagle is our king.’ ‘How did he become a king?’ ‘He can fly at a great height, and fly faster than any other bird.’ ‘If I can fly like him, then I shall be a king? Then you shall be a king’s mother! Ah, my mother is a king’s mother! It should be great, won’t it be Maa?’ Twam’s mother burst into tears. She was sure her son was going mad. She knew she cannot any more delay in carrying out the old bird’s advice. Next day she met an old childhood friend, Preet. They hugged each other, and wept over the past days. When they enquired about each other’s family; they made a delicious discovery. One of them has a son, Twam, and the other a daughter, Maya. Twam’s mother jumped at it, and immediately invited Preet for a lunch at her nest next day with her daughter. Both friends hugged each other again, and promised to engage their kids after lunch itself. When Twam’s mother opened her eyes next morning, her son was not in the nest. What happened to her son? She shrieked in alarm. She jumped out of the nest, and cried out, ‘Twam…Twam..’ After a little flying around she discovered him sitting on his favourite perch, the top branch. She dropped on the nearest branch, and said in half choked voice, ‘Son, why did you leave without telling me? I was half dead!’ ‘Maa, I am leaving’, he said in a calm and clear voice. ‘Leaving? Where?’ mother was not sure she heard him properly. T h e

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‘I told you, Maa, I will make you a king’s mother’, he looked at her and said very sweetly, ‘now I must leave to become a king. I must see what is beyond the hill, beyond the pond, and beyond everything, the whole world. And, practise flying higher and faster than King Eagle. Then only I can come back to you as a king. Please wait for me, I will surely come back, and tell you what is beyond everything.’ ‘My son, my son, …. Do not talk like that. I have invited a friend to come today with her daughter at lunch for your engagement, and you are talking like mad! My son, my friend, Preet has a very pretty daughter. You both will make a little nest for yourselves, fly around the tree, drink from the pond, and in time give me two chicks to play with. I have been living in this dream. Don’t talk of leaving, my son.’ ‘Maa, since my birth something beyond the hills is calling me, something beyond the pond is calling me, the endless sky is calling me. Your parents had a good life, you had a good life, but none of you saw what God created for birds. The hills, the trees, the sky— didn’t God create all that for us, birds? How can I live in such a small nest, flying around a single tree? Maa, please let me go. I want to see more, know more than all birds have seen and known. Won’t that make you proud, Maa? I am going, but I will come back to tell you your son is a king, and he has seen all that need to be seen…’

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Before the mother could speak a word, Twam took to wings, and in a moment vanished into the endless sky. She looked on in despair…. she felt someone had wrenched her heart and flung it away. . . she fell down the tree unconscious. When Preet arrived with Maya at the tree a little before lunch, she found the world demolished. Her friend was under the tree half dead, and there was no sign of Twam. Preet and Maya brought her back to consciousness with great difficulty, and heard her heart-rending story. Preet secretly thanked her good fortune that God had saved her daughter from a very sad marriage. But they took Twam’s mother with them into their nest. When Maya got engaged to the son of a very respectable bird of a distant tree, and left to build their own nest, Preet and her friend lived in Preet’s nest. The Journey Twam left the tree and rose into the sky. His heart was overflowing with unspeakable joy. He felt he was released from long bondage into limitless freedom. He flew up and up, straight to the mountaintop. Sitting on the topmost branch of the highest tree, Twam told himself, ‘I have to do two things, fly high, and fly fast. Then I can see more.’ He sat there on the hilltop, and looked around. The world below and the sky above stretched and stretched across the horizon. But that did not defeat him. There was no doubt in his mind that he was born to discover all that, and discover he will. But how? Twam sat on the treetop, closed his eyes, and repeated to himself, ‘I have to see more…. I have to know more...’ But he saw only darkness. In frustration he opened his eyes, looked around, and closed his eyes. Darkness again. The more frustrated he was the more was his determination to succeed. T h e

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After two days of incessant effort, he relaxed. He took a good meal of red berries, looked into the sky for a long time. The blue, cloudless, quiet sky fascinated him. He fell in love with it. He forgot to close his eyes and try to see in mind whatever he wanted to see. But the whole idea had been vague. He did not know what exactly to see in mind. He laughed at himself. How did he not realise this simple fact! He just looked on the beautiful sky without trying to see anything in particular. Its endlessness, and its depth gradually filled his mind. After a long time he realised that his eyes had been closed, yet he did not see any darkness! His mind was filled with the blue endless depth of the limitless sky, eyes open or closed! A new strength, a new ecstasy was running in his veins. He felt light, and rose into the sky. At this time the grey hawk noticed him, and came after him. Twam felt no fear, no tension. He just flew away from him. To his great surprise, he noticed the hawk could not catch up with him, and fell far behind! ‘Ah, I have done it’, Twam shrieked in triumphant joy, ‘I have defeated the grey hawk!’ Then he sat on another tree, a few kilometres away, completely relaxed. Even after flying a few kilometres at great speed he did not feel tired at all. A great longing gripped his heart and his wings. He must see more, fly more, and go to more unknown places. Meeting the King Eagle A week later Twam was flying over a sea. The pond he wanted to cross in his childhood looked so small in comparison. He went up and up, at faster and faster speed until he was just flying with closed eyes. To see where he was going he had no need for eyes. He could see in his mind all directions

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perfectly. And he need not use his wings too much. He felt he was already there. And there was no distance he could not see. It was such an elevated experience; he lost himself in it. He forgot he was a bird, trying to measure distances. He felt all distance was within him, and he was immersed in a great light. The same light he had within too. The within and without were all same. He was in an allpervasive sea of light. In that endless experience, he lost height, and fell into the sea. When he opened his eyes, he found himself sitting on a cliff in the sea, and King Eagle was watching over him. He started to see King Eagle beside him, and bowed deeply to him. The king smiled at him and said in a very gentle voice, ‘My son, you need not bow to me anymore. I should bow to you, for you have now attained a state much higher than me.’ ‘But Sir, I don’t understand all this. Where am I, and how you came to be with me?’ ‘My son, I am very proud of you. You have come to a state which only our great ancestors had attained. I was flying past when I saw you dropping into the sea like a streak of lightening. I came down, saved you from drowning, put you here on the cliff, and waited until you regained your natural state.’ ‘But revered sir, how did all this happen?’ Twam did not understand the wise words of King Eagle, though he felt an unusual delight in his heart. Added to the delight, he T h e

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had a strange experience. He felt he had nothing more to see, nowhere else to go. The endless sea was within him, as much as without; the endless sky was without him, as much as within. He was aware only of a steady peace enveloping him. The King whispered to him, my son, you have to fulfill your promise to your mother. You told her you would come back to her as a king to make her a king’s mother. Now you are more than a king. So, come let us go to her.’ When King Eagle and Twam alighted on the strongest branch of the tree where Preet, and Twam’s mother were living, she was on her deathbed. But she was continuously repeating her son’s name, ‘Twam… Twam… Twam...’ Twam rushed to her, and cried out, ‘Maa, Maa, see I have come back. Open your eyes and bless me. I am your son Twam…’, and King Eagle added, ‘who has come back to you mother, greater than a king.’ When the other birds saw King Eagle in the tree, they were stunned, and came to the tree to pay him their reverence. But all of them sat at a respectful distance, and heard the conversation. King Eagle was saying, ‘Mother, open your eyes, and be proud that you have a son like him. Now he is greater than even me. He is equal to our greatest ancestors.’ Twam’s mother opened her eyes, noticed her long lost son Twam near her. But she could not look at him comfortably. He looked so bright, so divine, yet her loving son. The mother sat up. The mother and the son hugged and cried. After some time, she looked at him, and said, ‘My son why do you look so bright? You have changed much.’

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Then she noticed King Eagle beside her. She was startled. King Eagle here! She was scared. But the King smiled and said, ‘Mother, your

son promised he would come back as a king. Now he is more than a king. So I have brought him to you. You are now a king’s mother. But now your son’s name has been changed—of course, without your consent.’ Twam’s mother could not understand what was happening, and was only whispering, ‘Twam is…’ ‘Your son will be known from today as Tat, not Twam, for that is truly the name of a king.’ When the realisation that her son has come back as more than a king, and she was

truly a king’s mother dawned on her, tears rolled down her cheeks. Her little sick bird heart could not stand it. She sank into the lap of her king-son and breathed her last. A beautiful smile on her lips indicated she had reached the abode of the great ancestors. Her last rites were performed in the presence of King Eagle and her son Tat, in a way fit for a king’s mother. Then Tat and King Eagle flew away into the

infinite blue expanse, which was no more unknown to Tat.

j The whole of the Vedanta Philosophy is in this story: Two birds of golden plumage sat on the same tree. The one above, serene, majestic, immersed in his own glory; the one below restless and eating the fruits of the tree, now sweet, now bitter. Once he ate an exceptionally bitter fruit, then he paused and looked up at the majestic bird above; but he soon forgot about the other bird and went on eating the fruits of the tree as before. Again he ate a bitter fruit, and this time he hopped up a few boughs nearer to the bird at the top. This happened many times until at last the lower bird came to the place of the upper bird and lost himself. He found all at once that there had never been two birds, but that he was all the time that upper bird, serene, majestic, and immersed in his own glory. —Swami Vivekananda, CW, 7:80

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Dimensions of Inner Freedom SWAMI TYAGANANDA

In a June 1895 letter, Swami Vivekananda wrote from Thousand Island Park in upstate New York to Mary Hale in Chicago: The more the shades around deepen and the more the ends approach, the more one understands the true meaning of life, that it is a dream; and we begin to understand the failure of everyone to grasp it, for they only attempted to get meaning out of meaninglessness … Desire, ignorance, and inequality—this is the trinity of bondage. Denial of the will to live, knowledge, and samesightedness is the trinity of liberation. Freedom is the goal of the universe.1

This profound passage from Swamiji’s letter provides a good starting point to reflect on the dimensions of inner freedom. ‘The shades around deepen’ through age but there is no guarantee that, on its own, merely getting old will produce a deeper understanding of life. To understand ‘the true meaning of life,’ what is needed is maturity. Only a mature person sees life for what it truly is. Without maturity, neither the ‘trinity of bondage’ nor the ‘trinity of liberation’ will make sense. Spiritual Maturity There are three kinds of maturity: physical, psychological, spiritual. The first two—physical and psychological maturity— generally occur with age, though not necessarily at the same speed and certainly the extent of maturity varies from person to

person. But spiritual maturity is not a function of age or even of experience. It is possible to grow old physically and yet remain a baby spiritually. It is possible to have all sorts of experiences and yet never learn enough from them to grow spiritually. On the other hand, it is quite possible to see amazing spiritual maturity in someone who is young and ‘inexperienced’ in the eyes of the world. What are the factors necessary for spiritual maturity? At least four factors come to mind readily. The first factor is the ability to observe things without reacting immediately. It is easy to react, but difficult to withhold judgment and reaction. When we react to what is happening outside, we get involved in it. A detached witness sees things differently than someone who is involved in a situation. Sri Ramakrishna gave the example of people playing chess and others observing them. The observers can often see things that the players themselves cannot.2 But this ability can be acquired only when there is a substantial reduction of the ego, which is the second factor essential for spiritual maturity. When the ego is strong, it wants to get involved in everything. With involvement comes the loss of capacity to be a neutral witness and the inability to put one’s experiences in the right context. The third requirement, then, is the ability to place one’s observations and experiences in

The author is the Minister-in-charge of Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston, USA, and former editor of The Vedanta Kesari. T h e

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a larger picture, and see how they relate to one’s own life. The ability to step back from the details does not come easily but without it one cannot view a situation on a broader compass. Micro-management is good but without a macro-view, it can lead to unintended and often deleterious results. Finally, for spiritual maturity we need the ability to learn from our experiences. Swami Vivekananda used to say: ‘To learn is religion.’3 It is not enough to have experiences in life, we need the ability to learn the lessons that every experience brings. This can be a lifelong process. Sri Ramakrishna’s words come to mind: ‘As long as I live, so long do I learn.’ At least four factors, thus, are crucial for the development of spiritual maturity: observation without reacting, reduction of the ego, contextualizing one’s experiences, and learning from them. It is only a spiritually mature mind that can understand the significance of the trinity of bondage and the trinity of freedom. The Trinity of Bondage The trinity of bondage is a chain: ignorance, desire and inequality are three of its links—each leading to the next—in a circular chain that continues endlessly unless and until it is snapped. Vedanta’s vision of reality is of one, infinite, perfect Being, beyond time (kala), space (desa) and causality (nimitta). Something inexplicable apparently seems to have happened to this nondual reality. Since no one knows how, why and when it happened, the first link in the chain is ignorance (avidya). The infinite Being was somehow overcome by some kind of sleep, forgot his own infinitude, and in a dream saw himself as a finite being. The original state of fulfilment lost, the dreamer began to desire (kama) things which were believed to bring fulfilment. Desire T h e

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coupled with will (icha) produced intention (sankalpa) which led to action (karma). The world of action is also the world of inequality: inequality in the kinds of work and the kinds of results, and inequality among the people who reaped those results in different ways. Not for nothing did Swami Vivekananda say that inequality ‘is the source of all bondage.’4 Trapped and bound in the vortex of karma, the inexorable chain of cause and effect, the dreamer was dragged from one day to the next, one year to the next, one life to the next. Death was no respite, as the power of unrequited karma led to another birth and more karma which, in turn, led to yet another birth. Every life is a new dream. Quite possibly, every day may be a new dream. The wheel of karma is relentless in its movement. At face value, karma produced both joy and sorrow. Good karma produced happy results and bad karma produced painful results. While this might seem to be a fair deal, it actually is not. It is atrocious. There is no way to keep the joy and avoid the sorrow—to have only one and not the other. Worse, the dream seems endless: the dreamer continues to experience mortality, imperfection and ignorance. The trinity of bondage—ignorance, desire, inequality—remain firmly in place. The basic ingredients of human experience—namely, disease, aging and death at the physical level and stress, anxiety and alienation at the psychological level—are anything but fun. Even the fleeting and sporadic ‘happiness’ experienced in life is severely compromised by the painful memories of the past and the anxiety-ridden uncertainty of the future, which, in practical terms, means that life is basically suffering. This stark truth formed the centrepiece of Buddha’s message. Sri Krishna referred to the world as ‘joyless’ and as an ‘abode of suffering.’5

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The good news is that it’s not real. All of this happens in a dream. The bad news is that the dream is continuing; worse, most don’t even know that they are dreaming. We are in the dream even as we read this. Unless the dreamer wakes up, the dream is still real for him. Until then, the dream is the reality. It becomes a painful reality for those who have become sensitive to the defective nature of human existence. It is the truth of our present life, our present experience. Thankfully, it is a ‘lower’ truth which can be overcome by a ‘higher’ truth. As Swamiji pointed out, we are not travelling ‘from error to truth, but from truth to truth, … from lower truth to higher truth.’6 The higher truth comes to us through the trinity of freedom. The Trinity of Freedom The trinity of bondage has to be replaced by the trinity of freedom. We have seen that it is ignorance which initiated the chain reaction that culminated in the painful, vicious circle of birth and death and all the mess that occurs in-between. The only way to overcome ignorance is knowledge. Predictably, knowledge is the first entity in the trinity of freedom. What knowledge are we talking about? It is helpful to begin with the ‘lower truth’ and work our way upward toward the ‘higher truth.’ The lower truth is who we are at present: mortal, vulnerable beings, ignorant not only of our distant past but even of our immediate future. We need both knowledge of who we are at present and also the insight to realize that it is not who we really are. Our current knowledge of the self, our present ‘I’ represented by the ego, is at best a ‘lower self’ or, as Sri Ramakrishna liked to call it, an ‘unripe-I.’7 If we let go of the insight that our presently experienced self is the ‘lower’ self, it T h e

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is possible to awaken the ‘higher self,’ or to get to know who we really are, through guidance from a qualified teacher (guru) and a determined all-out effort to do whatever it takes to get that saving knowledge. The knowledge that ‘saves’ us is the knowledge that wakes us up from the dream-induced false identity of a mortal, imperfect human being. We wake up and discover our true identity of the free, immortal and divine Being. The more the ‘unripe-I’ is shed, the more the ‘ripe-I’ begins to take its place. When knowledge reaches its culmination, the ‘I’ drops off and the ripeness alone remains, manifesting the two other entities in the trinity of freedom: denial of the will to live, and samesightedness. The will to live is a direct, if usually instinctive, response to the fear of death. Ignorance makes us cling to life with the hope of keeping death as far away as possible. One of the first fruits of knowledge is the realisation that life is inseparable from death. We cannot understand life without understanding death, and vice versa. Life without death is impossible. The phrase ‘eternal life’ becomes meaningful only if and when ‘life’ is assigned a meaning different from life as an antipode of death. Denial of the will to live implies denial of the possibility of death, since both life and death belong to the body. The body is part of the ‘unripe I’ which has vanished. With the clarity of vision bestowed by the ripeness of knowledge, we are able to rise beyond both life and death. What lies beyond them is Being or Existence itself. It is this that religious texts refer to as ‘eternal life.’ Another fruit of knowledge is the perception of sameness. We are same only at the spiritual level. Physically and psychologically we are different, because ‘name’ and ‘form’ divide—or at least seem to divide—the wholeness. As water, the ocean is one, even conti-

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free person sees through all names and forms, and encounters the undivided spirit everywhere. Samesightedness is the natural result.8 Conclusion In his talks on Jnana Yoga, Swamiji raises these questions: ‘What is this universe? From what does it arise? Into what does it go?’ And this is his answer: ‘In freedom it arises, in freedom it rests, and into freedom it melts away.’9 His words on the trinity of bondage and the trinity of freedom are useful springboards for our own personal reflections on the subject.

nuous, yet we divide it with names such as the Pacific or the Atlantic. The wholeness of the ocean is affected also when we recognize the forms of its waves. Yet it is easy to see that these divisions based on name and form are superficial. They may serve some useful purpose but basically such divisions are more illusory than real. It may be possible, even if superficially, to create divisions in the material world. At the level of spirit, though, divisions are impossible, because—as pure consciousness—spirit is immutable. It is also one and infinite. It is knowledge that endows the person with clarity of vision which is not hampered by names and forms. A spiritually

References 1. 2. 3.

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 1976), 8.344. c.f. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1980), 439, 863. Swami Atulananda, With the Swamis in America and India (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 1988), 290.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

The Complete Works, 4.329. Bhagavad Gita, 9.33 and 8.15. The Complete Works, 4.147. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 269. Bhagavad Gita, 5.19. The Complete Works, 2.125.

Even in political field this concept of freedom is of greatest value. But it is not enough that we are politically free. Our multitudes are today in utter bondage of social evils. Until we strive to free ourselves from this social bondage, political freedom will remain infructuous. We have to carry the freedom from political to social sphere, and from social to the spiritual. And Vedanta deals with freedom at the spiritual level. Freedom is essentially a spiritual value, which gets manifested in the social and political fields. It has to be consciously upheld in our day-to-day life, in our every dealing and action. But what is freedom? Pelting stones on public buses and trains for flimsy reasons? If we have taken this alone to be freedom, we are mistaken. This is the tragedy of free India. Paradoxically, it can be said that unfree India had more truly free people than free India. Today we have to carry our political freedom to higher levels, which connotes higher degree of self-discipline. Vedanta points out at the true focus of freedom, which is gained only by the practice of self-discipline. —Swami Ranganathananda, The Message of Vivekachudamani, p.37-38

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The Story of Scientific Freedom NVC SWAMY

Two Warring Approaches Science is the search for Truth in the external material world, and spirituality is similar search in the internal world of the mind. In this sense, they are complementary to each other, and not antagonistic. Both of them have a common enemy, dogma. Science and spirituality attempt to tell us what Truth is really like, whereas dogma tells us what it would like Truth to be. Science and spirituality discover, explain and clarify Truth. But, dogma tries to dictate what Truth should be. Science and spirituality spur human beings on in their journey to Truth, whereas dogma tries to stifle and suppress all such attempts. In this sense, Truth and dogma are antagonistic to each other. The war between these two approaches to Truth has been going on since the dawn of history, and is likely to continue so long as humanity lasts. The history of science is nothing but a record of this struggle waged by free-thinkers against dogma and obscurantism. It was an uphill task for science to establish itself firmly as a respectable discipline, and demanded of its adherents many sacrifices. The upshot of all this is the right for freedom of expression that scientists enjoy today. But, it is always wise not to forget the lessons the past can teach us, so that we do not repeat the same mistakes. Hence, a brief

record of this struggle of science against its opposing forces is attempted here. Science and Dogma Science, as we know it today, is a product of the West. It had its origins in Greece about 2600 years ago. The Greeks respected scholarship and produced many great thinkers, whose names are household words even today. They lived in a country that was endowed with great natural beauty. They led a life of leisure, thanks to the abundance of resources, and thanks to the slaves brought from Africa. Life was easy for them, and gave them ample opportunity to indulge in speculations about Nature. Unfortunately, this kind of life does not encourage hard work or labour, and certainly not dirtying one’s hands. The consequence was that they became great philosophers, speculating about Nature, but considered it below their dignity to subject their hypotheses to experimental verifications. At that time, science, the study of natural phenomena, was not different from philosophy, so much so that till the time of Newton, science used to be called ‘Natural Philosophy’. One of the most towering figures in philosophy at that time was Aristotle. He was so dominant a figure that his ideas ruled the intellectual world of Europe for almost 2000 years! Aristotle is revered even today as the

Dr. N.V.C. Swamy, former Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, is currently the Dean of Academic Courses at the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, a Deemed University in Bangalore. T h e

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founder of Western Logic, which has been utilised in developing logical circuits for computers. There is hardly any field of human thought to which he has not contributed. But not all his contributions are of an equal calibre. Some of his statements appear today to be ridiculous. For example, he said that women have a lesser number of teeth than men! If you plant a seed in soil kept in a pot, the seed sprouts into a plant by converting the soil into the plant material! He could have easily counted the number of teeth of an average man and woman, and reassured himself that his hypothesis was wrong. He could also have planted a seed in a pot full of soil and ascertained that the weight of the pot increases with the quantity of soil remaining the same. But, that was against the Greek temper of infra dig. His most famous statement was the Geocentric Hypothesis, which later became, in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church, a dogma and Holy Gospel. According to this, the earth is the centre of the solar system, and the sun and other planets go round it. Even though there were other Greek philosophers who disputed this, such was the stature of Aristotle that all their voices were stifled. This was the first victory of dogma over science! The only Greek thinker, whose work in science is respected and is valid even today, is Archimedes. He was truly a scientist in the modern mould, because he was bold enough to soil his hands and do experiments. He is considered the first experimentalist in the history of western science. But historical circumstances prevented the thinking community from following in his path for almost 1800 years! With the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ, the movement he had set in motion was literally hijacked by Paul. Swami Vivekananda once said that Christianity had become T h e

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Paulianity! The new religion needed not only a theology but also a philosophy of its own. In the absence of any such thing, the early Christian Fathers simply adopted Greek philosophy as their own, accepting all its tenets in Toto. Aristotle’s Geocentric Hypothesis became an integral part of Christian dogma. Denial of this hypothesis was declared anathema, punishable by death, mostly by being burnt at stake. A dark curtain of ignorance and superstition descended upon Europe, ushering in the Dark Ages. Free-thinking and inquiry were smothered. Persecution of such thinkers began in right earnest with the establishment of the infamous Spanish Inquisition. Science, for all practical purposes, vanished from Europe, and took shelter in the Middle East. The Role of Renaissance After a long period of horror, lasting almost a millennium, saner voices began to be heard in Europe, risking persecution and death. Giordano Bruno was burnt at stake for questioning the dogma. Copernicus came up with his heliocentric hypothesis, publishing it in a book. Before the Roman Catholic Church could wake up to this event, and start persecuting Copernicus, he wisely shed his mortal coils, but left behind a legacy. The work of Copernicus was continued by another great figure, Galileo Galilei of Italy. Galileo lived right in the centre of Roman Catholic territory and knew that he could be persecuted any time. Nevertheless, he wrote his book A Dialogue between Two Worlds, containing an imaginary dialogue between the proponents of the geocentric and heliocentric hypotheses. Galileo could not help take a dig at the Church, and named the proponent of the geocentric hypothesis as ‘Simplicio’, meaning ‘simpleton or fool’. This enraged the Church and led to the famous incident of the

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judgment of Galileo. He was spared the stake, but was banished to exile, to live in solitude. Free-thinking and science could finally rescue themselves from the clutches of the Church through a strange development. This was the advent of Martin Luther, who rebelled against all the tenets of the Church, and started a protest movement, which later became Protestantism. The Kings of the North of Europe quickly adopted this new faith, to escape from paying taxes to the Catholic Church, and their countries became a safe haven for all scientists and thinkers. A further fillip was given to freedom of thought by a famous French savant who said, ‘I do not agree with what you say. But, I will defend with my own life your right to disagree with me’. Thus started the Era of Renaissance and Science grew by leaps and bounds, in this clean atmosphere of freedom of thought and speech. Is it any wonder that scientists, even today, are very jealous of their freedom? Era of Technology This state of affairs lasted for about two and a half centuries, till the Industrial Revolution came into full bloom. Science found itself to be the handmaiden of technology, but still did not lose sight of its main purpose— the exploration of Truth in the physical world. The scientific community got split into two groups—theoreticians and technologists. The freedom enjoyed by the scientists was not in any way affected. But, things started changing as technology entered the field of Military Science. Meanwhile, Europe saw the rise of two dictatorships in the beginning of the twentieth century, one in Russia by Stalin under Communism, and the other in Germany by Hitler under Nazism. At the same time appeared two revolutionary concepts in science, the Quantum Hypothesis of Max T h e

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Planck and the Theories of Relativity of Einstein, both in Germany. This period of the first half of the last century is still considered the Golden Period of Science. Paradoxically, this was also the period when scientists in Europe were persecuted. This is a sordid story of human history, and shows how fragile freedom can be. Both Stalin and Hitler were reputed to be haters of Jews. Hitler was more open about his hatred, but Stalin was more subtle. Unfortunately for science, most of the prominent personalities exploring fundamental truths of Nature at that time belonged to the Jewish community, who were responsible for the growth of the two theories, the Quantum Theory and the Relativity Theory. Hitler promptly dubbed these theories as ‘Jewish Science’, and prohibited their study in educational institutions and research establishments. Most of these scientists were sent to concentration camps. Some of them, like Einstein, were fortunate to escape to safer places, like England and the United States. Hitler ordered all the remaining scientists to concentrate their attention on the design and development of rockets and the atomic bomb. Some scientists, using this opportunity, became sycophants of Hitler and even started persecuting their own fellow scientists. Post-war Scenario This state of affairs ended with Hitler’s death and the surrender of Japan. Most remaining scientists of Germany and Japan were then arrested and deported to the United States on the one side and the Soviet Union on the other. This did not improve the lot of these scientists in any way. Very soon, the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union started, and the scientists were sucked into this madness, with the State dictating the fields

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of research. Anyone desirous of a tenured position in a University had to tow this line in order to get funding. The scientists compromised with this situation. But, their natural love for freedom found an expression in basic research, which was their first love. There was a parallel growth of knowledge in the Military Sciences and the Pure Sciences. With the ending of the Cold War in the late 1980’s, symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall, there was a sea change in the priorities. Military Sciences did continue to develop, but equal attention was now given to basic research, especially to space explorations. The focus of attention shifted to explore the neighbourhood of planet earth, followed by deep penetration into outer space. The objective was not so much military-oriented. It was to know more about our planet, the solar system and the universe. The end of the Cold War ushered in another activity that had been noticed earlier, but sadly ignored in the cacophony of the Cold War, Environmental Pollution, its impact on humans, animals, plants and the oceans. Climate Change became a reality. It needed an international cooperative effort to tackle this immediate danger. It became evident how little we know about our own planet! This spurred on basic research at all levels, ushering in once again the era of the exploration of Truth, in a free atmosphere of Freedom. Science always prospers in a free environment. Political turmoil acts as a brake on its growth, but can never destroy it. Pure Science, as an enterprise is here to stay. This brief history of scientific freedom indicates clearly how zealous scientists are of this treasure. One has to just attend the sessions of any scientific congress to witness how free and

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frank the discussions are. These are occasions when new ideas are floated, subject to incisive logical discussions, and either accepted or rejected, without causing any rancour. One great quality of science is that it is no respecter of age, gender, nationality or personalities. One stands or falls by his or her own merits. There are instances when even well established noted Nobel Prize winning scientists have had to bow down to lesser known younger people. Einstein could never digest the consequences of the Uncertainty Hypothesis of young Heisenberg, in spite of proof piling up. But, towards the end of his life, he confessed, ‘Maybe, I am like an ostrich burying its head in the sand, wishing this hypothesis to go away.’ This author has been fortunate in his life to rub shoulders with some of the giants of his subject, even from student days. But he has always been treated as a fellow worker and colleague, never as a subordinate. Surely, this must have been the atmosphere prevailing during the Vedic Age. Otherwise, how could the sages have produced such an immortal literature like the Upanishads! Conclusion Science in India, on the other hand, has never had a conflict with religion. This tradition, which had been lost for almost two millennia, has now been restored, thanks to the exposure to western thought. India has always respected learning. The very large numbers of young Indians, who go abroad every year in pursuit of knowledge, are a testimony to this fact. It should be our fervent prayer that this respect for knowledge, its growth and propagation will be preserved in future also.

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Freedom of Choice PRAMOD KUMAR

To Choose or not to Choose! Youngsters in India, as in other countries, often rebel against rules and regulations in the name of ‘freedom of choice’ or ‘freedom of expression’. ‘Colleges should not impose a dress code on students,’ some say, claiming that they are now grown-up and capable of making their own choices. ‘Cell phones should be allowed in the campus,’ others say citing the need for latest technology. ‘Friendly ragging is not a crime,’ a few others argue, claiming that ragging is only a means to befriend and acquaint themselves with the juniors. ‘Parents should not impose career choices on us,’ is yet another oft-heard complaint. ‘Marriages need not be arranged in today’s world and we should have a right to choose our life partner’, etc. The list of their complaints is long and they all have one bottom line—‘It’s my life and I will do as I wish.’ It will be interesting to study this conflict of generations and culture from a Vedantic perspective. What do our Shastras say on this issue? Do they recommend freedom of choice for individuals or are the Shastras morally rigid? The Principle of Interconnectedness Says the Isha Upanishad, The entire universe is indwelt, enveloped, covered by the Supreme Being, whatever this

world be, moving or non-moving, living or otherwise.

The principle of interconnectedness is the key to understanding the nature of freedom granted to every individual. This concept must be taught to our children from a young age so that they perceive the interconnectedness of all beings and grow up into mature human beings who understand that freedom comes with great responsibility. We are all interconnected. Therefore, what we think and what we do necessarily impacts everyone around us. To declare that ‘this is my life and I have the freedom to do what I wish,’ is a cantankerous attitude and not conducive to our collective well-being. It is not a free for all as it has been made out to be in the public discourse and media frenzy for liberty. A cursory glance at the crises humanity is witnessing today like global warming, terrorism, harsh economic disparities, and so on are all a result of this fundamental error born of ignorance. Individuals and nations want to survive and grow at the expense of others, with gross disregard to this principle, not realising that the world is round and what we do to others is eventually going to come back to us. Every choice we make should, therefore, be evaluated with the principle of inter-

The author is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Cultural Education Programme at Amrita University in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. He is a Trustee of the International Forum for India’s Heritage and Resource Person for the Human Excellence Project of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Coimbatore Kendra. He is also a students’ counsellor for the Samvedna Helpline, a project of the corporate social responsibility wing of Tata Teleservices. T h e

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connectedness and only that freedom of choice which does not violate this principle can be considered to be beneficial. Any choice which violates others’ freedom is to be considered harmful to oneself. Freedom Comes with Responsibility The freedom we enjoy today as individuals, societies and nations is a fruit of the hard labour and sacrifice of our ancestors. Freedom must be earned by performing one’s duty, through seva and tyaga as Swami Vivekananda would have put it. Even the international human rights discourse has begun to veer around to India’s time-tested emphasis on duties rather than rights. Do we have the freedom to choose our duties? Duties are assigned to individuals according to their role and station in life. A duty well performed gives us the privilege of enjoying a right which can then be considered well-earned. A soldier who leads his nation to victory in battle earns the honour and privileges which his countrymen proudly bestow on him. Will a killer who snatches away the inherent right to life of another human being deserve such honour, even though both the soldier and the killer have committed the same act of killing, so to say? Dharma—the Foundation of Freedom The above illustration shows that the multi-dimensional concept of Dharma is the foundation of the other three purusharthas: artha [wealth], kama [pleasures] and moksha [liberation]. Unless a man’s pursuit of wealth and pleasure are rooted in dharma, he cannot attain freedom or moksha from the transmigration of birth and death. Prof. Kapil Kapoor says, ‘Dharma is the one-word unwritten constitution of India.’ Even an illiterate person in India has an T h e

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ingrained understanding of dharma whereas even the most educated elite in this country may not have ever read the Constitution of India. We must equip our youth to understand the inherent dharma of every situation so that they can make the right choices in life with clarity and conviction. The Ramayana and Mahabharata are, therefore, considered as the two pillars of Indian Culture since they expound and elaborate on the intricacies of Dharma. The Mahabharata narrates the beautiful story of Dharma Vyadha and the housewife who attain moksha by diligent performance of their everyday duties. What an irony that a section of our youth consider it to be unfashionable to study the Ramayana and the Mahabharata today and there are politicians who question the very existence of Lord Rama and Krishna! No wonder that our country is at the crossroads today and plagued by a multitude of social cancers like corruption, naxalism and terrorism. Shreyas and Preyas The Kathopanishad is another rich source of inspiration and guidance for the youth on the tricky question of making a right choice. Swami Vivekananda advocated that all Indians should memorize the Kathopanishad and the story of Nachiketas, the young boy who faced even the God of Death with courage and shraddha. The Kathopanishad elucidates beautifully the principle of Shreyas [beneficial] versus Preyas [pleasant]. Shreyas stands for what is right and beneficial for our own good and for others whereas Preyas stands for what is pleasurable. It is a well-known paradox of life that what is beneficial (shreyas) is often not pleasurable to the body and the mind and vice versa. For

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example, in the case of students, we can say that a disciplined lifestyle, good eating habits, physical exercise, diligent study, good company and respect for elders is what is right and beneficial for them (shreyas). All distractions and cravings for entertainment, addictions, indulgence, and infatuation can be termed as Preyas. Students often fall for what is pleasurable at the cost of what is beneficial because preyas gives short-term happiness but takes on a path of degeneration and weakens us in the long run, leading to misery. Shreyas may look boring and uninteresting to the young minds in the beginning but ultimately contribute to our success in materialistic pursuits and progress in spiritual pursuits. Sri Krishna also says in the Bhagavad Gita that ‘sattva guna’ is often characterised by a bitter beginning and a sweet end whereas ‘tamo guna’ is all that appears to be sweet but leads to sorrow. Drug addiction would be the best example to illustrate this. Drug abuse, which sounds so tempting and pleasurable to some youth, ultimately leads to a complete physical collapse and nervous breakdown. This is perhaps the most critical value conflict that our youth experience today in every walk of life. Our youth must learn to imbibe this wisdom of choosing Preyas over Shreyas every time. This requires mental discipline and training which must begin at an early age before the mind gets addicted to pleasure-seeking. Scriptures are the Manuals of Life In order to have the clarity and confidence to make the right choices in all situations, an individual must have knowledge of the scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, Yoga Sutras and the Dharma Shastras. Our seers have condensed the T h e

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wisdom of Vedanta and their life experiences in these scriptures and hence they can guide us through many a crises which we are bound to encounter in life. One can also get the essence of these by reading Swami Vivekananda’s works such as Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Lectures from Colombo to Almora. While the Shrutis like the Upanishads deal with the eternal higher truths of life and endow us with wisdom to understand the mystery of life, the dharma shastras give us clarity in conducting day-to-day affairs. There is a deplorable trend today to give less importance to the dharma shastras by calling them outdated, etc. This would be a serious error. A sincere study of dharma shastras like the much maligned Manu Smriti would reveal that while a minute portion of these shastras may not be applicable to today’s lifestyle, yet a majority of the rules and regulations suggested by them are still valid and applicable to us. Life Counselling for the Youth Our youth have great potential and a promising future. But they need a friendly guide who can give them the right guidance at the right time. Unfortunately, most of the counsellors are trained and rooted only in western psychology and have a poor understanding of the Indian milieu. This becomes glaring when one reads the behavioural counselling columns in newspapers and magazines. The advice given by these counsellors is short-sighted and at complete variance with the rules and regulations laid down by our scriptures. Such counsellors often encourage students on the degenerating path of Preyas with least regard for consequences. Nor do they take responsibility for what happens to the youth who follow their

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blinkered advice. We need a new breed of counsellors who are also trained in yoga, meditation and Vedanta who can give holistic ideas to the youth instead of misguiding them. Educational institutions, in particular, should exercise caution while employing counsellors and ensure that they are given a suitable orientation to understand the value systems of their schools or colleges. Vivekananda’s Dream of a Young India

Swami Vivekananda had great faith in our youth and often dreamt of a glorious Mother India reinstated in her pristine glory by her patriotic children. Swami Ranganathananda too advocated the concept of enlightened citizenship, of citizens who would live not just for themselves but for the larger good of society. May we lead our youth from attachment to Preyas to faith in Shreyas by practice and precept.

j An Element of Freedom in Every Man Suppose we have this precious human body. This in itself is not enough. Two more blessings must come along with it, and the second one is extremely important. It is the desire to be free (mumuksutvam). This is the second touch of Divine Grace. The privilege of being a member of the most exalted species called Homo sapiens can lead us to life-fulfilment only if it is sustained by an intense desire to become free. Without it human life remains stagnant at the sensory level. Most of us spend our lives in mere organic indulgences. We pass our days in satisfying our sensory cravings, and slowly we find ourselves in the grip of old age and death. We do not utilize this precious human life for the right purpose it is meant for. Why? Because that second blessing has not come into our lives—that urge to be free. There is an element of freedom in every man. As I said earlier, we are a bundle of bondage and freedom. Body is the product of food, and so also is mind. They are controlled and bound by nature. But there is a focus of light inside us, though glimmering in our present state, which is the true focus of freedom. That is the atman, the divine spark, which is beyond nature. The little semblances of freedom we all experience in our day-to-day life is due to the light of atman, which percolates through the intellect, mind, senses, and the body. It makes all these faculties energized and vital. In a physical existence, where the light of atman seems submerged in the psycho-sensory mire, we are totally in bondage. Most of us do not even realise that we are bound. We remain satisfied. But when this great blessing of ‘the desire to be free’ enters into our lives, it marks a turning point. Then begins our march towards freedom—first, by searching for the true focus of freedom in our psychophysical experiences and, then, having discovered the true focus, by a mighty penetration into its real nature. Our whole being then responds to the Divine stimulus coming from the atman. —Swami Ranganathananda, The Message of Vivekachudamani, p.35-37

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Freedomâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Indian Context SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

In India the bondage of superstition is a social one; here in the West society is very free. Social matters in India are very strict, but religious opinion is free. In England a man may dress any way he likes, or eat what he likesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;no one objects; but if he misses attending church, then Mrs. Grundy is down on him. He has to conform first to what society says on religion, and then he may think of the truth. In India, on the other hand, if a man dines with one who does not belong to his own caste, down comes society with all its terrible powers and crushes him then and there. If he wants to dress a little differently from the way in which his ancestor dressed ages ago, he is done for. I have heard of a man who was cast out by society because he went several miles to see the first railway train. Well, we shall presume that was not true! But in religion, we find atheists, materialists, and Buddhists, creeds, opinions, and speculations of every phase and variety, some of a most startling character, living side by side.1 One of the good effects of Vedanta has been freedom of religious thought, which India enjoyed throughout all times of its history. It is something to glory in, that it is the land where there was never a religious persecution, where people are allowed perfect freedom in religion.2 Thus India has always had this magnificent idea of religious freedom, and you must remember that freedom is the first condition of growth. What you do not make free, will never grow. The idea that you can make others grow and help their growth, that you can T h e

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direct and guide them, always retaining for yourself the freedom of the teacher, is nonsense, a dangerous lie which has retarded the growth of millions and millions of human beings in this world. Let men have the light of liberty. That is the only condition of growth. We, in India, allowed liberty in spiritual matters, and we have a tremendous spiritual power in religious thought even today. You grant the same liberty in social matters, and so have a splendid social organisation. We have not given any freedom to the expansion of social matters, and ours is a cramped society. You have never given any freedom in religious matters but with fire and sword have enforced your beliefs, and the result is that religion is a stunted, degenerated growth in the European mind. In India, we have to take the shackles from society; in Europe, the chains must be taken from the feet of spiritual progress. Then will come a wonderful growth and development of man.3 According to the history of human progress, it is disobedience to nature that has constituted that progress. It may be said that the conquest of lower laws was through the higher. But even there, the conquering mind was only trying to be free; and as soon as it found that the struggle was also through law, it wanted to conquer that also. So the ideal was freedom in every case. The trees never disobey law. I never saw a cow steal. An oyster never told a lie. Yet they are not greater than man. This life is a tremendous assertion of freedom; and this obedience to law, carried

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far enough, would make us simply matter— either in society, or in politics, or in religion. Too many laws are a sure sign of death. Wherever in any society there are too many laws, it is a sure sign that that society will soon die. If you study the characteristics of India, you will find that no nation possesses so many laws as the Hindus, and national death is the result. But the Hindus had one peculiar idea—they never made any doctrines or dogmas in religion; and the latter has had the greatest growth. Eternal law cannot be freedom, because to say that the eternal is inside law is to limit it.4 Let me tell you now that the ideas behind our [Indian] marriage system are the only ideas through which there can be a real civilisation. There cannot be anything else. If a man or a woman were allowed the freedom to take up any woman or man as wife or husband, if individual pleasure, satisfaction of animal instincts, were to be allowed to run loose in society, the result must be evil, evil children, wicked and demoniacal. Ay, man in every country is, on the one hand, producing these brutal children, and on the other hand multiplying the police force to keep these brutes down. The question is not how to destroy evil that way, but how to prevent the very birth of evil. And so long as you live in society your marriage certainly affects every member of it; and therefore society has the right to dictate whom you shall marry, and whom you shall not. . . References: 1. CW, 2:114

2. CW, 1: 425

And in passing I may remark that according to Manu a child who is born of lust is not an Aryan. The child whose very conception and whose death is according to the rules of the Vedas, such is an Aryan. Yes, and less of these Aryan children are being produced in every country, and the result is the mass of evil which we call Kali Yuga. But we have lost all these ideals—it is true we cannot carry all these ideas to the fullest length now—it is perfectly true we have made almost a caricature of some of these great ideas. It is lamentably true that the fathers and mothers are not what they were in old times, neither is society so educated as it used to be, neither has society that love for individuals that it used to have. But, however faulty the working out may be, the principle is sound; and if its application has become defective, if one method has failed, take up the principle and work it out better; why kill the principle?. . . Work it out afresh and make a reformed application.5 India has to learn from Europe the conquest of external nature, and Europe has to learn from India the conquest of internal nature. Then there will be neither Hindus nor Europeans—there will be the ideal humanity which has conquered both the natures, the external and the internal. We have developed one phase of humanity, and they another. It is the union of the two that is wanted. The word freedom, which is the watchword of our religion, really means freedom physically, mentally, and spiritually.6

3. CW, 2: 115

4. CW, 5: 286-87

5. CW, 3: 408-9 6. CW, 5.: 16

Struggle and fight for selfish ends may be a necessity for the evolution of brute life; but the path of human progress right up to the eminence of a Buddha or Jesus lies through renunciation and service. . . The ideal man, according to Hinduism, is he who sees ‘the self in all and all in the self’. —Hinduism at a Glance, R.K. Mission, Calcutta Students Home, p.241 T h e

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Freedom and Indian Culture K. PANCHAPAGESAN

Indian Culture through the Ages Swami Vivekananda in his famous lecture given in Madras in 1897, ‘The Future of India’, repeatedly uses the words ‘rock’, ‘shocks’ and ‘culture’—each time with a different connotation. The lecture begins in retrospect describing how India had withstood the shocks of foreign invasions like a rock. Rightly did Swamiji say elsewhere [CW, 3: 291], We all know in modern times of nations which have masses of knowledge, but what of them? They are like tigers, they are like savages, because culture is not there. Knowledge is only skin-deep, as civilisation is, and a little scratch brings out the old savage. . . Teach. . . but something more is necessary; give them culture. . .

Swamiji, in the course of his inspiring speech, clarifies that it is the Indian culture that has withstood the shocks of history that came her way. He adds further that it is culture, and not mere knowledge, which has the power, prestige and the spiritual strength to withstand the shocks. Swamiji identifies Sanskrit with culture, power, and spirituality. Culture has largely been identified with spirituality. Spengler, the eminent thinker, defines culture as a ‘spiritual phenomenon rooted in a definite landscape’1 T.S. Eliot, the great English poet, believes that ‘the basis of culture is religious beliefs.’2

The well-known Russian historian A.L. Basham conveys more or less the same thought when he says that Sanskrit was the lingua franca [the commonly spoken language] throughout India, providing cultural solidarity which was always maintained. It was a most potent force in preserving Hindu civilization against the various waves of invasion which might otherwise have overwhelmed it on many occasions, and also in assimilating many of the invaders when they settled in the land.3

Freedom in Indian Culture The term, ‘freedom’ implies more than one thing. Besides meaning the state of being physically and intellectually unfettered, the term may denote ‘liberation from bondage’ in a spiritual sense. Swami Vivekananda uses it in the latter sense on almost all occasions. Freedom is also a condition of the mind, enabling it to accept a different or a new point of view. India believes in the freedom of the human spirit and, therefore, respects all religions in consistency with her tradition. The dominant feature of the Indian culture is tolerance and acceptance. The Indian mind is ready to welcome and assimilate truth from wherever it comes. As the Rig Veda says, ‘aa no bhadrah kritavo yantu vishwatah—‘Let noble thoughts come from all directions.’ Rightly does a western scholar aver, ‘Spirituality is a search for the sacred’4. As far

A long-standing devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, the author taught English at the Vivekananda College, Mylapore, Chennai. T h e

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as Indian mind is concerned, spirituality is primarily a search for the universal. This universal outlook, or sarvatma bhava, characterises the attainment of spiritual freedom according to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.5 This singular broadmindedness is the most striking aspect of the Indian culture. And this universal outlook has had an unbroken continuity from the Vedic age coming with the sage utterance, ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti—‘Truth is One and the Wise call It variously’6, through the scholastic era when Adi Shankara established Vedanta as a compact and comprehensive system of philosophy, down to the modern times when Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda transformed it into a universal philosophy of life. It is the same spirit that runs through the various periods of Indian cultural history. Swamiji in his celebrated Chicago Address, given at the Parliament of Religions in 1893, declared that he was proud to belong to a nation which sheltered the persecuted and the refugees from various countries. Old copper plates from archaeological records indicate that Christians were granted freedom to worship and even enjoy the privilege of the highest caste in India. The first Christian Church was built by a Hindu king in the State of Travancore [Kerala]. It was a Hindu king, again, who built the first Fire Temple for the Zoroastrians in India7. Since the Vedas are universal laws discovered by different Rishis at different times they are impersonal in nature. This kind of impersonality gives a universal outlook, in addition to the Hindu’s belief in ‘transmigration’ [punarjanma], which gives us a sense of unity with all living things. Catholicity of Spirit This catholicity of mind and spirit to grant freedom to all religions and sects to T h e

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practise their own convictions, this unity in variety is strongly advocated by Swami Vivekananda. Otherwise, human beings will ‘look like Egyptian mummies’, he feels. According to him, ’It is the difference, the differentiation, this losing of the balance between us, which is the very soul of our progress, the soul of all thought’.8 Swamiji strongly believed that unity is preferable to uniformity. Sri Ramakrishna himself had practised what modern researchers in Comparative Religion call ‘equimanism’ 9 which means identifying oneself with another religion as an actual believer. Max Muller, the German Indologist, wondered at the capacity of Indians to fight like heroes, if necessary, and convert a meanest handiwork into a work of art, a real joy to the maker and to the buyer.10 Indian culture has a religious background no doubt, but it is essentially a secular culture which is based on two conceptions— the purusharthas [literally, ‘man’s purposes’ or four things that man wants in life] and the ashramas [four stages of life, physically as well psychologically]. Four purusharthas are dharma (righteousness), artha (money/wealth), kama (desire for enjoyment), and moksha or ultimate freedom from the cycle of life and death. The first three purusharthas—dharma, artha and kama—sublimate in moksha or mukti. Speaking of this, Swami Vivekananda asserts: Liberty, mukti is all my religion and everything that tries to curb it, I will avoid by fight or flight.11

Moksha may mean, among other things, merging of the individual in the Absolute or union of the soul with a personal God, or the dissolution of the personality in an indescribable state called nirvana or complete separation of the spirit and matter. Buddha asked

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his disciples to work for their spiritual deliverance. He aimed at a new spiritual existence attained through jnana or Bodhi i.e., ‘being established in awareness’ in which there will be no old age, nor fear, nor disease nor any renewal of activity. Hinduism also speaks of various paths to moksha and calls them ‘yoga’. These paths, based on one’s inner inclination, are Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Raja Yoga. These are not conflicting but complementary to each other. But often, owing to our limited understanding, the adherents of these paths have difference in opinions and that led to fanaticism and narrowness. When this conflict among the paths of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti arose Sri Krishna made His grand appearance on the scene and reconciled the opposing points of view—one has to merely read Gita for a clear understanding of it. Centuries after Sri Krishna, religious bigotry raised its ugly head again. It was then Sri Ramakrishna, aptly called as ‘the Supreme Reconciler of Religions’12, who brought about reconciliation of different sects of Hinduism. Whatever be the name—salvation, nirvana or moksha—all religions teach that the ultimate object of life is to obtain liberation from the bondage of good and evil, birth and death, disease and suffering. In this respect, the Hindu teaching is that the soul is finally liberated from the effects of karma and attains mukti. Freedom is thus the birthright of the soul. Mukti is inherent in us. The Mukti Ideal Swami Vivekananda affirms that all religions hold the mukti idea.13 Christianity holds that the first man Adam was pure and it was his evil deed that defiled his purity. Swamiji is able to see an allegory in this episode. Perfection was the nature of the T h e

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primitive man; impurities are only superimpositions. Christian religion shows that it is possible and certain that the original perfection can be regained. Swamiji further states that the Mohammedans also believed in the purity of Adam and through Mohammed, ’the way was opened to gain the lost state.’ Coming to the Buddhists, Swamiji finds in Nirvana something similar to Brahman, which is beyond the relative world, and the whole system of the Buddhists is founded upon regaining the lost state of Nirvana’,14 says Swamiji. Swamiji, in his wonderful lecture ‘The Ideal of a Universal Religion’, beautifully illustrates how different types of human minds need different methods of self-expression through diverse disciplines, all pointing towards freedom. Let us have a look at these disciplines: In Raja Yoga human mind is the subject and the object of all efforts. Swamiji shows the difference among instinct, reason and inspiration. Instinct operates in a limited area, that too, in the case of animals. Reason, of which Man is proud, cannot answer the Obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings; Blank misgivings of a creature Moving about in worlds not realized.15

Only the instrument of inspiration (human mind) goes behind and beyond the phenomena. Instinct, reason and inspiration, let us remember, do not contradict one another. However, the lower instrument cannot be mistaken for the higher. The instrument for the Raja Yoga—concentration of mind —has to be used for acquiring kaivalya or freedom. The Karma Yogin, on the other hand, wants to be free from the vicious cycle of cause

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and effect. Anything that obeys the laws of time, space and causation cannot be free. Effect becomes the cause in turn. The only way out for one is not to identify oneself with anything. Getting rid of the concepts of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’ takes one to eternal freedom. When the fruits are surrendered at the feet of God, the bonds of the heart break, leading one to freedom Dr. S Radhakrishnan defines bhakti as the feeling of contemplative humility which accompanies the consciousness of absolute dependence on God16

Swamiji posits a triangle of love in his Bhakti Yoga lectures. The first angle of love expects no return. For instance one of the Azhvars, the great Vaishnava saints of Tamil tradition, says that he does not want even Indra Loka in exchange for the relish of the description of the emerald form, the coral lips the red lotus eyes of Lord Ranganatha [Vishnu]. ‘Love for love’s sake’ is the quintessence of Bhakti. Kulasekhara Azhvar prefers the shravanam [hearing] of the valiant exploits of Sri Rama to celestial ambrosia.17 The second angle of Bhakti is the complete absence of fear, and the third one is the absence of rivals. God is enjoyed in the form of a growing child by the Tamil devotional poets. That is why, perhaps, Swamiji says, ’One single moment of the madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom’.18 Take some examples: saint Arunagiri Nathar through his devotion to Lord Karthikeya prays for the speechless realisation which is liberation. Though saint Thiruvalluvar has not treated moksha in a separate section, he says in the prayer section that only those who constantly remember God will be able to cross the Ocean of samsara or relative existence. He also refers to the attainment of a state of bliss beyond good and evil, caused by avidya, through true T h e

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love to God. Swamiji succinctly traces the steps through which God as Person and Man as Person are developed in the Upanishads as God as Principle and Man as Principle along two lines which finally ‘become one, and the last word of each Upanishad is “Thou Art That”’.19 This is how Swamiji explains the merging of the individual soul in the cosmic soul. Other Indian Traditions All the offshoots of Hinduism have the Mukti idea. The Jains believe that the Tirthankara provides the ship to cross the ocean of birth and death, the ship being ‘dharma’. The liberated attain infinite knowledge, infinite perception, infinite power and infinite bliss. The Sikhs too, like the Hindus, believe in the freedom of the spirit. Sri Ramakrishna relates an interesting anecdote regarding the Sikh gurus. He says he heard from a Sikh that King Janaka was born successively as the ten Gurus of the Sikhs before he attained mukti. According to Vallabhacharya, doing service to Sri Krishna in Gokula entitles one to eternal freedom. Shaiva Siddhanta or the tradition of Shiva worshipers, considers that souls and the world are identical in essence with Siva. Siva is the cowherd leading the soul-cows to mukti. Divinity, Man and Cosmos are mystically related unity. According to Ramanuja, moksha is the privilege of service to God. When this condition is fulfilled, Man will have attained the highest good of his existence. ‘Experience of God itself becomes liberation’ says, Dr.K.C. Varadachari.20 India has not only allowed freedom to others but it has also assimilated the best from others. Hinduism has not lost its essential character though it has assimilated the local

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elements—local deities vary—Vithoba in Maharashtra, Murugan and Aiyanar in Tamil Nadu, Shasthi and Manasa in Bengal—says A.L.Basham. 21 In Tamil Nadu the Hindus worship at Velankanni and Nagore. The lighting of the Hindu traditional lamp in churches shows how others have also absorbed the Indian culture. Some historians attribute democratization and brotherhood in the Bhakti cult to the Islamic influence. Sardar Panikkar cites a number of instances of India’s assimilative character—the influence of Persepolis on the Mauryan art, the Greek impact on the Gandhara school of art, the mastery of the Persian paintings by our painters and so on.22 The Indian culture which has fused the two different ideals, orthodoxy and the ascetic ideal, both leading to liberation in the same system of thought raises many an eyebrow.

Conclusion Swami Vivekananda always advised a fellow-feeling which must spring from mutual adjustment and mutual esteem among all the religions in view of the fact that they all stand or fall together.23 We began with Swamiji’s ideas about how the religion of the spirit saved India from foreign onslaughts. Dr Radhakrishnan, the scholar-statesman, hoped for an inter-religious understanding and an atmosphere of harmony in the India of the future thus: Those who thirst for a first-hand experience are the prophets of the religion of the spirit which is independent of all the ecclesiastical organisations, and the subtleties engendered by human learning, which looks for the formation of an earthly community governed by love. The widespread existence of this state of mind is the hope of the future.24

References

3. 4.

5. 6. 7.

8. 9.

Cited in Vivekananda—the Prophet of Human Emancipation, Santwana Das Gupta, Golf Green, Calcutta - 45, 1991, p.157 Cited in Essential Features of Indian Culture, K.M.Panikker Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan: Bombay, 1964, p.2 Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture, Asia Publishing House:Bombay, 1966, p.3 Pargament K.I. Cited in The How of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomyrsky, The Penguin Press: New York, 2008, p.232 The Cultural Heritage of India, R.K. Mission Institute of Culture: Calcutta, 1958, Vol.1, p.xxxiv Rig Veda, I:164.46 Cited in Adventures in Religious Life, Swami Yatiswarananda, Ramakrishna Math, Madras, 1959, p.55 Abridged Edition of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Advaita Ashrama: 1985, p.163 Sri Ramakrishna, Life and Teachings, Swami Tapasyananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math: Madras, 1983, p.80 T h e

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10. Cited in Representative English Essays, ed. D.C. Sharma, Blackie and Son Ltd, London. 1968, p.89 11. Letters of Swami Vivekananda. Advaita Ashrama: Calcutta, 1986, p.212 12. Sri Ramakrishna and His Unique Message, Advaita Ashrama: Calcutta, 2005, p.115 13. Jnana Yoga, Advaita Ashrama:Calcutta,1972, p.202. Hereafter, J.Y. 14. Ibid. p.203 15. ‘Ode on Intimations of Immortality’, William Wordsworth, Palgrave’s Treasury 16. Indian Religions, Orient Paperbacks: N.Delhi, p.61 17. Perumal Thirumozhi, trans. by Vankeepuram Rajagopalan , Cetana: Chennai 20, p.97 18. Bhakti Yoga, Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama: Calcutta, 1970, p.3 19. J.Y., p.197-198 20. Alwars of South India, Bharaitya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, 1966, p.x to xvii 21. Aspects, p.35 22. Essential Features, p.6 23. J.Y., p.18 24. Recovery of Faith, Orient Paperbacks: New Delhi, 1989, p.185

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Freedom and Magnanimity: A Dialogue PREMA NANDAKUMAR

Dharma-directed Living When Draupadi was being insulted in the court of the Kurus, she naturally turned to the elder statesman Bhishma, asking him whether the heinous act being perpetrated by Duryodhana and Duhshasana was in accordance with dharma. Bhishma’s reply was evasive: … the course of morality is subtle. Even the illustrious wise in this world fail to understand it always. What in this world a strong man calls morality is regarded as such by others, however otherwise it may really be; but what a weak man calls morality is scarcely regarded as such even if it be the highest morality. From the importance of the issue involved, from its intricacy and subtlety, I am unable to answer with certitude the question thou hast asked.1

And yet, in spite of being understood in this cynical manner by the hero who had seen generations occupy the throne in Hastinapura, the term dharma has remained the base for the whole of Indian civilisation. Veda Vyasa’s compendium of dharma-directed action as well as situations of dharma-sankata [dilemma involving dharma issues] has been teaching us how to bring into everyday practice the idea of dharma in all that we think, speak and do. Reading the epic is itself the finest lesson we can have of the true nature of dharma as the epic poet looks at the terms from various situations and we are able to take the one that

is closest to our svabhava (own nature) and lead a dharmic life. As Sri Aurobindo says: His very subject is one of practical ethics, the establishment of a Dharmarajya, an empire of the just, by which is meant no millennium of the saints, but the practical ideal of government with righteousness, purity and unselfish toil for the common good as its saving principles … Vyasa’s ethics like everything else in him takes a double stand on intellectual scrutiny and acceptance and on personal strength of character; his characters having once adopted by intellectual choice and in harmony with their temperaments a given line of conduct, throw the whole heroic force of their nature into its pursuit. He is therefore pre-eminently a poet of action.2

Personal Strength of Character Character! Ultimately that decides the dharma one follows. There are innumerable situations when one feels something wrong taking place but feels there is no freedom left for interference. Does one possess the strength of character to use one’s freedom and take the consequences? And yet, the term has percolated into the very veins of the Indian that one cannot ignore the place of dharma in our life either. In this connection let me cite an incident that happened in my father, K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar’s life which he would recount often. A scholar, he had engaged a rickshaw to go to

Dr. Prema Nandakumar is a devotee from Srirangam, Tamil Nadu. She has several publications to her credit, and regularly reviews books for The Vedanta Kesari and other journals. T h e

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Andhra University in Waltair from Visakhapatnam. This was in 1950. When he reached his place, he gave the change asked for by the rickshaw-puller who returned two annas as excess to what had been agreed to originally. Father asked him: ‘I had not checked properly, but why did you return the excess money?’ The rickshaw-puller’s simple, automatic response in Telugu was, adhi dharmam kaadhandi [‘that is not dharma’]. He should not take advantage of a mistake. That is not dharma. Father used to go ecstatic saying how the unique idea of Indian ethics had percolated to even the illiterate peasant and labourer. The Mahabharata gives us innumerable situations to indicate how one’s personal character gives one the freedom to practice dharma. Sri Krishna had tried hard to avoid the Mahabharata War even after the insult to Draupadi, and Duryodhana was not willing to give to the Pandavas what was theirs by right. For, as we all know who have been through so many wars in recent times (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and other Wars), peace is of prime importance both to the contenders and the common people. Commenting upon Krishna’s attitude, Sri Aurobindo clarifies the situation that Krishna ‘though fixed to support justice at every cost, was earnestly desirous to support it by peaceful means if possible.’3 War and Peace Draupadi had to be avenged and the Pandavas had the freedom to do so; but the practice of dharma needed the careful sifting of avenues for possible peace. The United States of America had the atom bomb and the freedom to use it, but we know the government had not exhausted the ways of not using it. The result was the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, an adharmic act in every way. T h e

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Those who died were innocent citizens going about their everyday tasks. But the argument is not over. The violence of war cannot be justified. But how else to uphold Dharma? Do we not need the kshatratej [the valour of a warrior] to back Dharma? Kshatratej, of course, is not the final answer but it is the best possible solution under the circumstances. After all humanity is still in the mental consciousness where hate coexists with love and darkness is never far away from light. When a civilised community needs to be protected, there has to be a set of law-enforcers. Punishment is meted out to those who indulge in crime. How does one compute the punishment? Freedom to punish is fine; but do we have the freedom to take away a person’s life in the name of punishment? Capital punishment has often been discussed in India. It is interesting that Veda Vyasa has also discussed the issue of capital punishment in detail when Dyumathsena, King of Shalwa, converses with his son Satyavan. It is interesting to note that though Satyavan is said to be heroic, he does not thirst for vengeance when living in the forest as the son of an exiled monarch in the Vana Parva section of the Mahabharata. Even after marrying Savitri the princess of Madra, he expresses no wish to take her father Ashwapati’s help in ousting the enemies of Shalwa. Was he worried that such attempts may cause harm to the citizens of Shalwa? Apparently Satyavan was a test-case of the thinking of our ancients who knew the harmful result of wars and so often preferred a single combat to sort out issues. Hence they created an elaborate system of kshatra-dharma [the dharma of a warrior]. The heroic soldier would not cause harm to old people, the young, women, the sick. Unarmed persons

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were not supposed to be killed. There should be no warfare after the sun goes down. The list is long. Satyavan is a total pacifist and to make of him a battle warrior against Shalwa’s enemies would not be appropriate. The input for this approach is found in the important canto in the Mahabharata in Shanti Parva. The subject is one that has been intriguing our minds for centuries. Is capital punishment justified?

Shalwa throne, he had spent his years in the forest. Nature is red in tooth and claw in the forest. Must the same type of destruction go on in places nurtured by civilization? Satyavan is not against punishment. But he cannot accept killing as a punishment and gives his reasons in detail: Without destroying the body of the offender the king should do that unto him which is directed by the scriptures. The king should not act otherwise, neglecting to reflect properly upon the character of the offence and upon the science of morality. By slaying the wicked, the king (practically) slays a large number of individuals that are innocent. Behold, by slaying a single robber, his wife, mother, father and children are all slain (because they become deprived of the means of life). When injured by a wicked person, the king should, therefore, reflect deeply on the question of chastisement.

Freedom to Punish? Yudhistira asks Bhishma lying on the bed of arrows: ‘How, indeed, should the king protect his subjects without injuring anybody. I ask thee this, O grandsire, tell me, O foremost of good men!’4 Bhishma then recounts the ‘old narrative’ (itihaasam puraatanam). Some criminals had been brought to justice. Dyumathsena had pronounced the capital punishment on them and ordered that they should be impaled. Satyavan intervened and said something unprecedented:

Sometimes a wicked man is seen to imbibe good behaviour from a righteous person. Then again from persons that are wicked, good children may be seen to spring. The wicked, therefore, should not be torn up by the roots. The extermination of the wicked is not consistent with eternal practice. By smiting them gently they may be made to expiate their offences. By depriving them of all their wealth, by chains and immurement in dungeons, by disfiguring them (they may be made to expiate their guilt).

Sometimes righteousness assumes the form of iniquity, and iniquity assumes the form of righteousness. It can never be possible that the killing of individuals can ever be a righteous act.

Dyumathsena tells his son that there are people who have committed heinous sins and they do not deserve to live at all. And if the king does not punish the evil-doer in a befitting manner, it would not be possible to have the rule of dharma. In the Kali Age this is just not possible. However, if Satyavan thinks there is a way in which we can preserve the worldorder in a dharmic manner, he would be most happy to listen to the same. Though Satyavan had been brought up as a kshatriya, his environs had been forest hermitages. Till the boon of Yama given to Savitri had restored Dyumathsena to the T h e

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The destroying of a person roots and all, is not Sanatana Dharma (na moola gaatah karthavyo naisha dharma sanatanah). Also, Satyavan considers this approach to be the command of the Creator (daatru shaasanam). Satyavan is firm that punishment should not be withheld, even if it is a brahmin or monk who has committed a crime. But to whatever varna one may belong, they should not be killed in the name of justice. Dyumathsena does not contradict Satyavan but recounts the

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history of punishment up to condemning a person to death: Men of remote and remoter times were capable of being governed with ease. They were very truthful (in speech and conduct). They were little disposed to disputes and quarrels. They seldom gave way to anger, or, if they did, their wrath never became ungovernable. In those days the mere crying of fie on offenders was sufficient punishment. After this came the punishment represented by harsh speeches or censures; then followed the punishment of fines and forfeitures. In this age, however, the punishment of death has become current. The measure of wickedness has increased to such an extent that by slaying one, others cannot be restrained. The robber has no connection with men, with the deities, with the Gandharvas, and with the Pitris. What is he to whom? He is not anybody to any one. This is the declaration of the Shrutis. The robber takes away the ornaments of corpses from cemeteries, and swearing apparel from men afflicted by spirits (and, therefore, deprived of senses). That man is a fool who would make any covenant with those miserable wretches or exact any oath from them (for relying upon it).

A Interesting Dialogue A promise given by such declared offenders means nothing. They are incurable and it is best their lives are put an end to for the health of the society. Satyavan’s reaction is interesting. If there is so much power in yajnas [sacrifices] to make people lead a prosperous life, there must be a way to transform villains into good people also! Why should a person impale the offender on a stake? He could with equal felicity transform him through his Vedic sacrifice! Satyavan said, If thou dost not succeed in making honest men of those rogues and in saving them by means unconnected with slaughter, do thou then exterminate them by performing some sacrifice. T h e

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Kings practise severe austerities for the sake of enabling their subjects go on prosperously in their avocations. When thieves and robbers multiply in their kingdoms they become ashamed. They, therefore, betake themselves to penances for suppressing thefts and robberies and making their subjects live happily. Subjects can be made honest by being only frightened (by the king).

The guilty should be shamed into becoming honest! Is this possible in human affairs today? So the two continue to argue for a while. The extended discussion found in Shanti Parva must have exercised Sri Aurobindo’s mind. In his epic poem Savitri he has projected Satyavan as the future man full of brilliance like the sun, Vivasvaaniva tejasvi: So he appeared against the forest verge Inset twixt green relief and golden ray. As if a weapon of the living Light, Erect and lofty like a spear of God His figure led the splendour of the morn. Noble and clear as the broad peaceful heavens A tablet of young wisdom was his brow; Freedom’s imperious beauty curved his limbs, The joy of life was on his open face. His look was a wide daybreak of the gods, His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched with light, His body was a lover’s and a king’s.5

Satyavan was not brought up in the harsh man-made dharma. He learnt his lessons directly from Nature. Do the animals and birds stand in judgement over fellow-creatures? Obviously one who could present a cool argument against capital punishment in the Mahabharata was certainly an extraordinary person imbued with the powers of the intellect and the holistic gaze of spiritual consciousness. His union with Savitri does not make him think of armed power to overcome the state of exile. Instead he sees Savitri’s coming as a

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way of overcoming the assaults of the Inconscient that refuses to allow man’s consciousness to rise to a higher, unitive consciousness. That is why Satyavan tells Dyumathsena in the Shanti Parva dialogue that one must go in for spiritual practices to transform people into becoming good. After all, when things go wrong with their subjects, kings do feel ashamed and take to tapasya for atonement. Enactment of laws or severe punishments will never make this world wholesome. It is a question of perfecting oneself before seeking to perfect the race.

Conclusion The conversation between Dyumathsena and Satyavan reported by Bhishma in Shanti Parva is thus an important message in the context of accepting capital punishment. If one had to judge, one must do so as tapasya (austerity) and then the right judgement would come, causing no violence to anyone or anything. This is a shining truth about the practice of dharma—magnanimity in its fullness— within the framework of freedom to judge as set down millennia ago and relevant even to this day.

References 1. 2. 3.

Sabha Parva, canto 69, verses 15-16. Translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli Vyasa and Valmiki (1964), p. 39 Ibid., pp. 142-3

4. 5.

Translations from Santi Parva quoted in this article are by Kisari Mohan Ganguli Savitri, Book v, canto ii

True Freedom in Society Suppose we have realised this oneness of the universe, that we are that one Infinite Being, and suppose we have realised that this Self is the only Existence and that it is the same Self which is manifesting in all these various phenomenal forms, what becomes of us after that? Shall we become inactive, get into a corner and sit down there and die away? ‘What good will it do to the world?’. . . This will be the great good to the world resulting from such realisation, that instead of this world going on with all its friction and clashing, if all mankind today realise only a bit of that great truth, the aspect of the whole world will be changed, and, in place of fighting and quarrelling, there would be a reign of peace. This indecent and brutal hurry which forces us to go ahead of every one else will then vanish from the world. With it will vanish all struggle, with it will vanish all hate, with it will vanish all jealousy, and all evil will vanish away for ever. Gods will live then upon this earth. This very earth will then become heaven, and what evil can there be when gods are playing with gods, when gods are working with gods, and gods are loving gods? That is the great utility of divine realisation. Everything that you see in society will be changed and transfigured then. No more will you think of man as evil; and that is the first great gain. No more will you stand up and sneeringly cast a glance at a poor man or woman who has made a mistake. No more, ladies, will you look down with contempt upon the poor woman who walks the street in the night, because you will see even there God Himself. No more will you think of jealousy and punishments. They will all vanish; and love, the great ideal of love, will be so powerful that no whip and cord will be necessary to guide mankind aright. —Swami Vivekananda, CW, 2: 285-87 T h e

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Freedom, the Chord that Unites World-Views JAY LAKHANI

Religious Pluralism The two difficult issues faced by religious communities this century are: firstly how to reconcile the multitude of religious worldviews and secondly, perhaps more importantly, how to reconcile a religious worldview with a science-oriented, rationally-founded worldview. Sri Ramakrishna offers the best resolution to the first issue—reconciling multitude of religious world-views; articulated as Religious Pluralism. In the United Kingdom I present this concept as acceptance that there are many or plural pathways for making spiritual progress. Different religions are different pathways promoted by different prophets suited to the needs of the society they interacted with. To explain this concept we often use the metaphor of reaching the same mountain top using different pathways. Of course, the exclusivist lobby of some world religions would challenge such a metaphor asking: ‘How can we be sure that we are climbing the same mountain top?’ They argue, that maybe we are climbing different mountains. After all, different religions describe their destinations in very different terms. Some call their destination salvation, some enlightenment; some as realising God or gaining Self Know-

ledge. My response has been that the only proof of pluralism is spiritual experience. This concept cannot survive purely as a speculative venture nor can it be mere intellectual acceptance. It needs experiential proof, and that comes with the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna. He is perhaps the first person in the history of humanity who categorically affirms that different pathways prescribed in the Hindu as well as non-Hindu, lead to the same final experience. He asserts that the view he gets after climbing the mountain top using a variety of different pathways is the same. The fountainhead of all religions has always been spiritual experience. In the final instance all religions rely on the spiritual experience of their prophets, sages and seers. Pluralism too needs such experiential validation, and that comes with Sri Ramakrishna. In days to come the world will recognise Sri Ramakrishna as the first prophet of pluralism. It is the comprehensive nature of his spiritual experiences that gives credence to the concept of Religious Pluralism. Not only does this concept address the issue of removing strife in the name of religions; the reconciliation this concept offers has the power of refreshing and breathing fresh life into all world religions.

Jay Dilip Lakhani, M.Sc., is the chairman of Vivekananda Centre, London, a non-profit organisation working towards improving the quality of religious education in UK and other places. Their activities include reaching out to various youth groups, holding lectures/presentations about Hinduism and ideals of Ramakrishna Vivekananda. For more information visit their website at http://www.vivekananda.co.uk. T h e

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Freedom—the Goal of All Religions Swami Vivekananda said that the goal of religions is not to find God but to gain freedom. Theistic religions focus their attention on building a relationship with a super personality—‘a theos’ or ‘God’ who is not limited or bound. A devotee hopes to build up a relationship with Him and thereby transcend his or her limitations. The most rudimentary manner in which this freedom can be conceived is to think about living in heaven where there is pleasure without pain. Simple analysis shows that this does not seem philosophically sound. Pleasure and pain are relative concepts that rely on each other for their very existence; one cannot exist without the other. The idea of living in heaven where there is pleasure is invoked to offer a kind of naive freedom—freedom to enjoy pleasure without exposure to pain. The more mature theologians have now moved away from the idea of heaven as a place of pleasure to the idea of heaven as a place of ‘bliss’ generated by the presence of God. In this sense, the concept of God or living in his presence can be seen as a ploy. In the guise of spending eternity in His presence the individual hopes to free himself or herself from human limitations. The underpinning to religions is a stirring in the heart of every humanbeing; every living thing to overcome limitations. Carrot or Stick Religion World religions can be classed as offering two major prescriptions for addressing the human condition. Theistic religions offer a carrot in the guise of living in heaven or living in the presence of God; while the non-theistic religions like Buddhism employ the ‘stick’ method saying unless we achieve enlightenment we are bound to undergo endless T h e

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suffering. It is interesting to see how these diametrically opposed approaches are both aiming for the same outcome: to break free from human limitations. The resolution of the second issue: how to reconcile a multitude of religious worldviews with a science and art oriented worldview; what is normally termed as secular worldview; lies in the teachings of Swami Vivekananda. The thread that links these two diverse enterprises sits in the simple phrase he often used: Freedom is the goal. Seeking freedom is the hidden aim of religions as well as arts and sciences. When a single ‘cell’ being is interacting with its environment, it is attempting to fight the limitations imposed by its environment. It is the same force that becomes more articulate and drives human beings to search for God or find meaning to life. They are all attempts to break free from human limitations. In the human kingdom this struggle is not confined to struggle against mere physical limitations but is extended as a struggle to transcend mental and intellectual limitations. Sciences—a Search of Freedom The aim of sciences is to discern the laws of nature and then to harness them for the benefit of humanity. Hard sciences like Physics focus on the laws that dictate the outer world while soft sciences like Sociology or Anthropology try to discern the laws that dictate the inner man. The durable aspect of sciences is that by coming to terms with these laws it is able to harness them for the benefit of humanity. One famous scientist describes the aim of science as seeking patterns in nature, and by understanding these patterns, increasing our power of predictability thus empowering us. The real aim of science is perhaps not to learn about nature but allowing

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humanity to gain an upper hand over nature. A good way of defining science would be to say that it allows us to understand the world around us so that we can overcome the limitations it imposes on us. Ancient man felt threatened by thunderbolts and had to hide in the caves to escape its wrath. Modern man no longer sits huddled and shivering in dark caves frightened by lightning but captures it and puts it in wires to heat and light up his home. Knowledge of the working of both the inner and outer world gives humanity the power to free itself from limitations. All sciences, unknowingly, have been participating in this process. Human life span has almost doubled in a century due to the dramatic advances in the field of medicine. Not only are we able to fight foreign organisms attacking our bodies; we are now in a position to restore or replace body parts that have become dysfunctional. Transplanting a kidney or a heart that was unthinkable fifty years ago is now classed as routine procedure. When we think carefully about what is actually being achieved we realise that the underlying aim of science has been to fight and overcome our limitations. Arts—Search for Freedom In this category we can incorporate poetry & music. The common thread running

through all these endearing human enterprises is a search for freedom. If sciences are keen to break free from physical limitations, the arts are keen to test the boundaries of mental and intellectual limitations. A poet plays with words in such a manner that allows him to jump over linguistic limitations. An artist attempts to capture on canvas a reality that remains obscured by what we see! A musician weaves a pattern of sound and rhythm in such a manner that the individual is transported from the mundane to the divine realm. Freedom is the Goal The aim of religious pursuits like discovering God or the aims of what would be termed as secular pursuits like arts and sciences is the same. Knowingly or unknowingly they are all aiming at the same target. The target is freedom from all limitations. There have been many attempts to describe the nature of the spirit. Swami Vivekananda has come up with a new definition: ‘that which cannot be shackled.’ In fact the signature of the spirit is this stirring for freedom. This definition is very apt for our times because it demolishes the artificial demarcation we sometimes draw between a secular and a spiritual world-view. Both these pursuits share the same motivation: Motivation to break free from all limitations.

v Experiencing God—the Ultimate Goal of All Religions From the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna All religions and all paths call upon their followers to pray to one and the same God. Therefore one should not show disrespect to any religion or religious opinion. It is God alone who is called Satchidananda Brahman in the Vedas, Satchidananda Krishna in the Puranas, and Satchidananda Siva in the Tantras. It is one and the same Satchidananda. There are different sects of Vaishnavas. That which is called Brahman in the Vedas is called Alekh-Niranjan by one Vaishnava sect. ‘Alekh’ means That which cannot be T h e

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pointed out or perceived by the sense-organs. According to this sect, Radha and Krishna are only two bubbles of the Alekh. According to the Vedanta, there is no Incarnation of God. The Vedantists say that Rama and Krishna are but two waves in the Ocean of Satchidananda. In reality there are not two. There is only One. A man may call on God by any name; if he is sincere in his prayer he will certainly reach Him. He will succeed if he has longing. (p.306) I see people who talk about religion constantly quarrelling with one another. Hindus, Mussalmans, Brahmos, Saktas, Vaishnavas, Saivas, all quarrel with one another. They haven’t the intelligence to understand that He who is called Krishna is also Siva and the Primal Sakti, and that it is He, again, who is called Jesus and Allah. There is only one Rama and He has a thousand names.’ Truth is one; only It is called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the variance is due to climate, temperament, and name. A lake has many ghats. From one ghat the Hindus take water in jars and call it ‘jal’. From another ghat the Mussalmans take water in leather bags and call it ‘pani’. From a third the Christians take the same thing and call it ‘water’. (All laugh.) Suppose someone says that the thing is not ‘jal’ but ‘pani’, or that it is not ‘pani’ but ‘water’, or that it is not ‘water’ but ‘jal’. It would indeed be ridiculous. But this very thing is at the root of the friction among sects, their misunderstandings and quarrels. This is why people injure and kill one another, and shed blood, in the name of religion. But this is not good. Everyone is going toward God. They will all realize Him if they have sincerity and longing of heart. (p.523) One should not harbour malice toward any person or any opinion. The believers in the formless God and the worshippers of God with form are all, without exception, going toward God alone. The jnani, the yogi, the bhakta—all, without exception, are seeking Him alone. The follower of the path of knowledge calls Him ‘Brahman’. The yogi calls Him ‘Atman’ or ‘Paramatman’. The bhakta calls Him ‘Bhagavan’. Further, it is said that there is the Eternal Lord and His Eternal Servant. A man can reach God if he follows one path rightly. Then he can learn about all the other paths. It is like reaching the roof by some means or other. Then one is able to climb down by the wooden or stone stairs, by a bamboo pole, or even by a rope. A devotee can know everything when God’s grace descends on him. If you but realize Him, you will be able to know all about Him. You should somehow meet the master of a house and become acquainted with him; then he himself will tell you how many houses he owns and all about his gardens and government securities. (p.374) You see how many opinions there are about God. Each opinion is a path. There are innumerable opinions and innumerable paths leading to God. You must stick to one path with all your strength. A man can reach the roof of a house by stone stairs or a ladder or a rope-ladder or a rope or even by a bamboo pole. But he cannot reach the roof if he sets foot now on one and now on another. He should firmly follow one path. Likewise, in order to realize God a man must follow one path with all his strength. (p.514) T h e

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The Holy Mother and Freedom PREMA RAGHUNATH

‘Look at the Holy Mother—what a wonderful understanding she had.’ (Swami Ashokananda, quoted in A Disciple’s Journal, by Sister Gargi) Freedom and Courage Freedom has been defined variously: it is one of those terms which is loaded with meaning, connotation and implication. So, although there is no one definition of the term, what it conveys is nothing short of joyous, exhilarating and uplifting. The one thing freedom naturally presupposes is the presence of courage: It comes naturally because no freedom can be obtained or exerted without great courage. Holy Mother showed her essential strong sense of independence through everything she did in her remarkable life, as an expression of her bravery and courage. Whether it was the decision to see for herself if the stories of her divine husband’s ‘madness’ were true or not and courageously leaving her home for that, or facing the robbers and turning them into her ‘parents’ and winning them over for life, her sense of freedom showed itself in her indomitable will and, ultimately, courage. The more one contemplates Holy Mother’s decision to go from Jayrambati to Kolkata’s Dakshineshwar Temple to serve Sri Ramakrishna, the greater the admiration one feels for this young so-called simple village girl’s intrepidity in venturing on this journey.

Mother’s Silent Strength Many great minds have tried to comprehend that understanding and have given us a portrait of Ma Sarada, a portrait which we now look at and, with her serene face in front of us, we try to follow. The basis of the Holy Mother’s life was her simplicity, her unbounded love and her own unique way of looking at things, her own world-view which is the signal of her freedom of thought and action. Sri Ramakrishna imposed no restrictions on her thinking, though he trained her slowly and surely for the spiritual ministry which he knew was going to follow. He often reiterated that she was his Shakti, that people could even take the liberty of offending him, but woe betide anyone who roused her anger. Every act of hers was underpinned by freedom, reflected in the courage she showed, in the unbounded love she displayed and in the way she lived both in the lifetime of Sri Ramakrishna as well as after his mortal end. From the very start of their journey together, Holy Mother displayed an independence of spirit and thinking that marks her divine understanding of both her own and her husband’s real natures. Sarada Devi’s simplicity, which hid her real identity, was born out of freedom and the knowledge that she had the ability to assert herself through her faith and simplicity. Several incidents prove that she was completely liberated from the usual ideas of the way

A long-standing devotee from Chennai, Mrs. Prema Raghunath has been teaching English for 35 years. T h e

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women must conduct themselves. She was the very epitome of modesty and purity, and set those standards for herself. They were not a blind, slavish imitation of societal standards. The well-known incident of her looking at the moon which, though beautiful, still has dark spots on it, and praying that she might not have a single blot to mar the pristine purity of her character is an example. It was not only to be a consort fit for Sri Ramakrishna that she wanted to be spotlessly pure, it was for her own and highest standards of attainment. This is the action of a strong, independent woman who would brook nothing but the highest because she herself was divine, though she hid this from the common eye. Only Sri Ramakrishna knew and he would tell everyone that she must not be angered at any cost for she was Shakti herself: ‘She who lives in Nahabat and Bhavatarini in the temple are one and the same.’ Then why did Mother veil her true identity as closely as she veiled her face? Why did she not show herself to others as she really was? Many times she did. Devotees had seen her goddess form when she chose to reveal her true identity to them. It was her greatness that let her restrain herself from showing her real form. Freedom to Help Others The situation in which we see her at her most assertive is the manner in which she initiated anyone who requested her for an entry into spiritual life. This was something she would never refuse, whatever anyone might say. Whoever went to her for initiation was never turned away on grounds of being unprepared or unfit. It was here that she showed her divinity at its brightest—Holy Mother knew the eagerness with which people came and she would put an end to their search T h e

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by her loving strength. There was nothing that could enslave her—her purity was so intense that she could never be made to do anything that did not pass her gold standard. Mother’s Free Thinking The corporal passing of Sri Ramakrishna left Mother in utter grief and at first a feeling of hopelessness assailed her. When she cried out in the darkness of night, Sri Ramakrishna appeared before her. Why should she be so despondent, he asked her. He had only gone to the next room. In a similar fashion, he appeared once more when she was preparing to wear plain white clothes and take off the bangle adorning her wrist, as was the custom for widows. Again, he intervened. To the very end, Holy Mother continued wearing her bangle and a narrow red-bordered sari. This incident is not a simple one. It shows clearly the Holy Mother’s strength of free thinking and independent spirit. In the India of those times, to go against popular custom required clear and free thinking. The real impact of this lasts across the decades for the India of the 21st century. It tells us, as a clarion call for freedom would, how the right thing remains our ideal, even if it is difficult. For the Holy Mother was not one to advocate freedom for its own sake. Her modesty and shyness, her retiring and selfeffacing nature is too well-known to need repeating. Shibarani Devi, a devotee who had the good fortune of meeting the Holy Mother several times, says, Once I heard her advising a young and beautiful housewife, ‘Always cover yourself well with your sari or a cloak when you go out. Then you will truly feel that someone is with you’.

We know, then, that the Holy Mother, by her words and actions, was teaching all of us how to be discriminating,

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In and through every aspect of her life, the Holy Mother’s clear and unbiased thinking, led to her acting in ways that were absolutely her own, although she considered what was right and best for everybody. The final decision, however, remained her own. The decision was made from the mother’s heart, full of love and faith and infinite knowledge. One incident immediately comes to mind: The Holy Mother was about to take Sri Ramakrishna’s food to his room in order to serve him when another lady expressed a desire to serve the Master. Sarada Devi allowed her to do so, but the Master could not eat this food handled by this lady, and so remonstrated with Mother. But Mother was not to be repressed! She told Sri Ramakrishna that she would never be able to say a ‘no’ to anyone who addressed her as ‘Ma’. Sri Ramakrishna accepted this answer. Such assertions of her independent and free thinking are to be found over and over again. Another time, a devotee in an inebriated condition came to her window and started singing loudly, addressing her as the Mother of the Universe. Swami Saradananda, ever watchful, told him off. But Holy Mother opened the window of her room on the upper floor and allowed this sincere man, albeit drunk, to have a darshan of her. Then again, the story of Amzad is very well-known. The Holy Mother demonstrated, over and over again, how she would only listen to her own heart when she was with her devotees. She initiated anyone who showed a will to be initiated, even those considered to be of loose moral character. When a man of questionable character came to Udbodhan and asked to see her, he was at first denied permission. Holy Mother invited him in and even initiated him. Her answer to the sannyasins who suggested that she should T h e

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not have done this was: ‘You have nothing to interfere in this matter. I can do as I wish’. Mother’s Free Nature The question naturally begs itself—how was the Holy Mother, to all appearances, a simple, village woman, able to show the spirit of freedom which enabled her to awaken spirituality in whoever wanted it? How did she welcome foreigners in her midst and consider them as her very own? What was that state of the mind that saw not only what freedom was, but even more importantly, how it must be asserted? These are the lessons that we need to learn from her life. For, her life does not teach us to condemn tradition in order to be free. No one was more traditional than she. Her life in Dakshineswar was a monument to tradition—her shyness and modesty was such that no one ever saw her going about her daily duties, which were many and diverse. Her life was confined to a small space, the Nahabat [below the temple music tower], and it is there that she lived her life, content and blissful, concentrating only on serving her divine husband. After Sri Ramakrishna’s passing, she became what Swami Tapasyananda calls ‘the mother who gave birth to the spiritual movement associated with Sri Ramakrishna’s name.’ How did she do this? From her infinite power and knowledge, which Sri Ramakrishna with his omniscience knew she possessed. Freedom versus Liberty As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, the message of Holy Mother’s towards freedom is ever more relevant. There is a general tendency to interpret freedom as the liberty to do whatever one wants, anywhere one pleases, with scant consideration for time and place. Holy Mother redefined

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freedom to mean doing the right thing with love and compassion, within the framework of our ordinary, workaday lives. The colour that holy Mother gave to freedom was complete respect for others but with honesty and a sense of purpose so that the right thing is done every time. Holy Mother, who herself asserted to a woman devotee ‘I know who is good and who is not’ was entirely and always conscious of this. How did she know? Through her divine nature and her infinite knowledge and power, it is true, but what is the message for us, who do not possess these attributes? When we read of Holy Mother’s approach to her devotees and their needs, we learn several important lessons. We learn that one of the first requisites for true freedom is purity, which leads to clarity and conviction of action. Then we learn that independence of thinking is superior by far to independence of action, which is usually motivated by selfishness. For

it was her free mind that allowed Holy Mother to welcome and accept anyone who came to her—from that greatest of Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples, Swami Vivekananda to Amzad and a host of other devotees and disciples who would not, especially at that time in India’s social history, have found succour from anyone else. Holy Mother is a role model in many ways—her handling of her immediate and infinitesimal responsibilities as the wife of Sri Ramakrishna, as aunt to the troubled Radhu, as sister to her brothers. With each of her many personas, it was her own mind she consulted. Of course, Holy Mother’s mind was completely dependable, based as it was on her knowledge and power, but we of this age can uplift all our lives by consulting with her and asking, if only to ourselves, ‘What would Mother have done?’ Right answers are sure to follow.

Bibliography 1. 2.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Nikhilananda’s translation Sri Sarada Devi, the Great Wonder—A Compilation of Revelations, Reminiscences and Studies, Advaita Ashrama, Dehi Entally Road, Kolkata The Compassionate Mother, by Brahmachari Akshaya Chaitanya, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata

Reminiscences of Sri Sarada Devi, compiled in Bengali by Swami Purnatmananda, translated by Maloti Sen Gupta, Advaita Ashrama, Dehi Entally Road, Kolkata Holy Mother by Swami Nikhilananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai

Very early one morning a calf was pitifully crying in the outer courtyard of the Mother’s house at Jayrambati. The calf was kept separated from its mother for the purpose of milking the cow. On hearing its cry the Mother rushed out, saying, ‘I am coming, child, I am coming. I shall release you just now.’ Coming to the courtyard, she freed the calf. I was wonderstruck on seeing this revelation of the compassion of the Divine Mother towards all beings. Alas! Only such an anguished cry can bring about the release of the soul. —The Gospel of Holy Mother, SRK Math, Chennai, p.235

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Layers of Inner Freedom SWAMI SATYAMAYANANDA

The Simple Truth of the Universe Says Swami Vivekananda, Freedom is the one goal of all nature sentient and insentient and consciously or unconsciously everything is struggling towards that goal. [CW, 1: 109]

Right. ‘Freedom is the one goal . . .‘ but our experience shows we are bound. We know that life is a series of bondages. Is this escaping from one bondage to fall into another called struggle for freedom? It doesn’t really make sense; yet, deep down we believe Swami Vivekananda’s statement has to be true. Not just true but it is metaphysics made easy. Freedom is a fact of the universe and a fact of our lives too. How many books have been written, theories propounded, to explain the universe! Some are true but partial; some are bad; others are, simply, confusing. With this shift in perception we can understand, to a great measure, this vast complex and mysterious universe and life. It is the same impulse of freedom everywhere— the saint praying, the robber’s devious ways, a monk meditating, a householder working hard to earn, a child weeping, and the grief of a widow and so on. It was, and is, the impulse for freedom that is working diversely everywhere, in innumerable ways. There are some mature souls that see through the illusions of bondage and make a conscious effort to break free. The law of karma

which was thought of as the law of bondage becomes, then, the law of freedom. This essay is meant for such people. The others will need it later, and then they can access the archives of the Vedanta Kesari! Freedom and its Linkages This simple formula is linked with other truths, for instance: ‘Freedom means true morality.’1 Freedom is knowledge, it is immortality, is perfection, is fearlessness, and above all, Freedom is God. How does one attain Freedom? ‘No freedom without renunciation’.2 ‘To become pure is the shortest path to freedom’.3 ‘Freedom is never attained by the weak’.4 This freedom is not about going to heaven but freedom here and now. Truth Was Staring at Us All Through If this is the simple fact of the universe, why didn’t we see it before? Why did not anyone speak of it? This mighty metaphysical fact was actually unblinkingly staring at us all the time. Only we are blinded with innumerable things, preoccupied with thousands of duties and beset with hundreds of cares. We were temporarily lulling ourselves with drugs and drinks and other titillations to cover the harshness of life’s burdens that we wanted to throw away. All religious, philosophical and moral systems speak of it. The whole gamut

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of Hinduism preaches just one thing—moksha, mukti, freedom, as a goal for all. Sri Ramakrishna also said, ‘The goal of human life is to see God.’ We Were Impelled All Along Besides receiving inputs from all around we were actually goaded on by Nature. Only the end, the purpose, and the means, were kept a secret from us. Thus, we were being driven but were never adrift. These inputs, this goading, were orienting us unconsciously to freedom; and freedom being perfection we had been striving day and night for this unawares, unknowingly. ‘Within ourselves is this eternal voice speaking of eternal freedom; its music is eternally going on.’5 We had been too distracted with surface things to catch it. Freedom Is the Soul’s Nature Freedom is for all but there is no short cut to it; one has to earn it. There is no eternal damnation for anyone. In the profound process that Nature takes us to freedom, she uses us also to oil her machine. Everything we do is nothing but a spin off from this going towards freedom: art, literature, culture, science, technology, life, law, and so on. When the pravritti, ‘the circling forward’ gives place to the nivritti, the ‘circling inwards’, the desire for freedom begins consciously, deliberately. Then only does the mystery unravel. We do not travel down a radius to the centre but we begin orbiting back. From the outer fringes of life, inside, and each orbit brings us closer to the core, to freedom. The retrograde movement mainly depends on God’s grace. Each orbit has a definite characteristic. Each is a spiritual dimension. Each orbit progressively grows subtler, and is a more elevated state of being, of freedom. These are the spiritual dimensions. These spiritual T h e

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dimensions are looked at, in this article, from the subjective side, for freedom is subjective. Instead of using difficult technical terms of scriptures on Yoga and Vedanta, let us look at these following stages in the language we are used to. The sense of freedom keeps growing at every stage until we are absolutely free. Twelve Spiritual Dimensions of Freedom As the first inward circling commences the world remains as it is but one’s relationship with it changes. This is a profound transformation, and the first dimension of freedom. One feels like a sojourner in a strange land. Peoples, places, things, do not tug one anymore. No longer does the world’s bark or bite frighten one but yes, its clamour and cacophony keeps one away. The world which was so long felt like home is no more a home while a definite relationship with God is established. In the second dimension changes occur in the body, senses and mind. The strong cravings, the stress, the tensions, the mad rush of hormones in the bloodstream have waned. This brings in clarity in perceptions and the body is calmer and so are the senses. The first sign is: restless eyes and fingers are steady and coordinated. The body changes, for it is thought that sculpts the body. With calm and pure thoughts the signs on the body are unmistakable. Harsh lines vanish, the voice is sweet, and the gaunt and hungry look in the face and eyes disappear, there is a sense of wellbeing; eating and recreation habits change. A mighty spiritual ‘restlessness’ comes over one. In the third dimension there is a major shift in one’s centre of gravity inwards. One also becomes solicitous, patient and kind. All attachments have gone. The other shift is regarding the time and type of activities. Time

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becomes very precious and work that ennobles oneself and the world is performed. The spiritual restlessness has increased so much that day and night a thirst for God keeps burning us as it were. These changes do not mean that the person is pulled in the orbiting spiral while being passive. Nothing is easy here. One has taken up serious sadhana or spiritual striving and the only support one has is: the guru, shastras (scriptures), and Ishta (the chosen spiritual ideal). One has to bleed for every inch of the way through tremendous self-effort. Nothing is for free here. These three changes are external to those that follow. With each orbit one gets better and better in devotion and knowledge. As sadhana commences one gets progressively more faith and energy and these are reemployed in sadhana. It is like ploughing back the profits accrued from a business into the business itself, for more profits. The sadhanas can be any of the numerous ones found all over the religious and spiritual literature or it can be a combination of the four yogas or of two or three. The fourth dimension has many levels. For instance, in japa or dhyana, one’s body feels light and one can sit for hours on the asana, seat, without fatigue. Joy and energy courses though the body and mind all the time. Japa and dhyana no longer feels mechanical or dry. The mantra or the image of the Ishta gets deeper and deeper within oneself. Till it feels it is glowing and living from the deepest recesses of one’s being. In the fifth dimension comes a rock-solid concentration and shows a tremendous urge for freedom as results of sadhana start coming in. The latent powers of the soul are unfolding because the subtle mind has opened. This subtle mind is the spiritual mind. Minor T h e

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obstacles which inevitably rise are so easily overcome that a strong sense of exaltation and conquest enraptures one. Subtle perceptions now take place indicating that one is entering into the inner dimensions of spirituality. ‘Like snowfall, smoke, sun, wind, fire, firefly, lightning, crystal, moon, these forms, coming before gradually manifest the Brahman in Yoga.’6 Like a child needs conditioning to make it strong enough to walk, so do these perceptions come and strengthen the mind. The doubt so long held whether this external world is a creation of the mind, is finally removed. The sixth dimension, the sixth orbit, reveals a still inner spiritual world and one is overwhelmed at its vastness, its infinity. One feels like a speck of dust, helpless, in the vast sky. Traversing this infinity looks impossible and the awareness of the lack of competency, time and energy hits one like a painful blow. In this vast dimension there are powers (personal and impersonal) and other phenomena lurking to thwart any stout soul. It is here that most of the advanced aspirants get stuck if they are not careful. It is also here that the soul starts doubting about God but this is due to the old conceptions being washed away by higher and higher conceptions of God which have not yet taken firm root. Here one feels clearly that one’s grit in sadhana is helped by divine grace. It is like we do one percent and the divine does ninetynine. We are pulled on, traversing field after field of this vast dimension. It is very strong discrimination that is the best guide here. For subtle temptations are hard to be removed easily. Here it is that one sees many visions but this is not a criterion of one’s progress. The criterion is renunciation. ‘The Yogi should not feel allured or flattered by the overtures

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of celestial beings for fear of evil again’7 Swamiji commenting on this Patanjali sutra says: ‘Gods and other beings come to tempt the Yogi.’ Various visions, of course, don’t come to everyone. The seventh dimension shows one has crossed over most of the previous dangers. The intellect has become very sharp and clear. This is not to be mistaken with cognitive abilities. It is a higher intellect. It can penetrate into the heart of matter and knowledge comes in a powerful flash. This is a high state. The world appears like a shadow. In the eighth dimension the mind comes under one’s great control. Was not it under control so long? This question shows one’s ignorance about the nature of the mind. The vast areas of the subconscious mind are finally in one’s grip totally. One however cannot rest on one’s oars and be complacent yet for dangers might still lurk to take one unawares. In the ninth dimension, orbit, the mind has become luminous. Ahamkara, the sense of ‘I’, which is an aspect of the mind, has become clear. The two dimensions of past and future, hidden by the present, have opened up. No more is the mind swayed by internal or external delusions. The mighty love to see God is lifting and carrying one effortlessly towards Him. God’s infinity dwarfs the spiritual world’s infinity. The tenth dimension shows the mind full of bliss and light and love. One’s meditation has become natural and effortless—meaning the mind has acquired the habit to plunge in Samadhi. In this state one rises to higher levels of samadhi beyond time and space. Then the subject of samadhi becomes oneself.

The eleventh dimension reveals the mind has become so strong that it could crush a mountain to dust or could dry an ocean by merely blowing. One feels so invincible that nothing gross or subtle, no gods, nobody, can have its sway over one. With the conquest of matter also comes the conquest of time and space. This triad and everything comes under the yogi’s powers. This strength is divine strength. The twelfth dimension takes us almost to the core. The greatest bondage of the universe, the bondage that we have been carrying for eons and eons, life after life, this identification with the body, is finally dissolved. This mind which exists in its superfine form wants to gives up its individuality. God is equal to Freedom, absolute freedom; this mind now plunges in. It is like a moth trying to plunge into the fire but is obstructed by a fine glass. The need to be one with God is indescribable. This is divine madness, this is divine love, and this is the madness of knowledge. Then it is over. There remains only the infinite ocean of consciousness, of supreme love. The worlds (gross, subtle, causal) are nonexistent and so is the yogi. Only God exists. The deepest reaches of the twelfth dimension is dimensionless. It has been described by Adi Shankaracharya in the Vivekachudamani (408) thus:

The vidvan (wise one) realizes in his heart through Samadhi, the Infinite Brahman, which is something of the nature of eternal Knowledge and absolute Bliss, which has no exemplar, which transcends all limitations, is ever free and without activity, and which is like the limitless sky, indivisible, and absolute.

References 1. c.f. CW, 8: 27 5. CW, 2: 325 T h e

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Mukti—‘the Worthiest Gain of Man’ SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

We must always hold ourselves ready, even to give up our lives for the lowest beings. When a man has become ready even to give up his life for a little insect, he has reached the perfection which the Advaitist wants to attain; and at that moment when he has become thus ready, the veil of ignorance falls away from him, and he will feel his own nature. Even in this life, he will feel that he is one with the universe. For a time, as it were, the whole of this phenomenal world will disappear for him, and he will realise what he is. But so long as the Karma of this body remains, he will have to live. This state, when the veil has vanished and yet the body remains for some time, is what the Vedantists call the Jivanmukti, the living freedom. If a man is deluded by a mirage for some time, and one day the mirage disappears—if it comes back again the next day, or at some future time, he will not be deluded. Before the mirage first broke, the man could not distinguish between the reality and the deception. But when it has once broken, as long as he has organs and eyes to work with, he will see the image, but will no more be deluded. That fine distinction between the actual world and the mirage he has caught, and the latter cannot delude him any more. So when the Vedantist has realised his own nature, the whole world has vanished for him. It will come back again, but no more the same world of misery. The prison of misery has become changed into Sat, Chit, Ananda— existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss T h e

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Absolute—and the attainment of this is the goal of the Advaita Philosophy.1 The idea of freedom is the only true idea of salvation—freedom from everything, the senses, whether of pleasure or pain, from good as well as evil.2 Mukti means entire freedom—freedom from the bondages of good and evil. A golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that, to pick out one thorn which has stuck into the foot, another thorn is requisitioned, and when the thorn is taken out, both are thrown away. So the bad tendencies are to be counteracted by the good ones, but after that, the good tendencies have also to be conquered.3 Freedom in all matters, i.e. advance towards Mukti is the worthiest gain of man. To advance oneself towards freedom— physical, mental, and spiritual—and help others to do so, is the supreme prize of man. Those social rules which stand in the way of the unfoldment of this freedom are injurious, and steps should be taken to destroy them speedily. Those institutions should be encouraged by which men advance in the path of freedom.4 Who is free? The free must certainly be beyond cause and effect. If you say that the idea of freedom is a delusion, I shall say that the idea of bondage is also a delusion. Two facts come into our consciousness, and stand or fall with each other. These are our notions of bondage and freedom. If we want to go through a wall, and our head bumps against

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that wall, we see we are limited by that wall. At the same time we find a will power, and think we can direct our will everywhere. At every step these contradictory ideas come to us. We have to believe that we are free, yet at every moment we find we are not free. If one idea is a delusion, the other is also a delusion, and if one is true, the other also is true, because both stand upon the same basis—consciousness. The Yogi says, both are true; that we are bound so far as intelligence goes, that we are free so far as the soul is concerned. It is the real nature of man, the soul, the Purusha, which is beyond all law of causation. Its freedom is percolating through layers of matter in various forms, intelligence, mind, etc. It is its light which is shining through all. Intelligence has no light of its own.5 The soul itself is the centre where all the different perceptions converge and become unified. That soul is free, and it is its freedom that tells you every moment that you are free. But you mistake, and mingle that freedom every moment with intelligence and mind. You try to attribute that freedom to the intelligence, and immediately find that intelligence is not free; you attribute that freedom to the body, and immediately nature tells you that you are again mistaken. That is why there is this mingled sense of freedom and bondage at the same time. The Yogi analyses both. . . and his ignorance vanishes. He finds that the Purusha is free, is the essence of that knowledge which, coming through the Buddhi, becomes intelligence, and, as such, is bound.6 You must remember that freedom of the soul is the goal of all Yogas, and each one equally leads to the same result. By work alone men may get to where Buddha got largely by meditation or Christ by prayer. Buddha was a working Jnani, Christ was a Bhakta, but the same goal was reached by both of them. T h e

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All these things which we call causes of misery and evil, we shall laugh at when we arrive at that wonderful state of equality, that sameness. This is what is called in Vedanta attaining to freedom. The sign of approaching that freedom is more and more of this sameness and equality. In misery and happiness the same, in success and defeat the same—such a mind is nearing that state of freedom.7 The difficulty is here. Liberation means entire freedom—freedom from the bondage of good, as well as from the bondage of evil. A golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one. There is a thorn in my finger, and I use another to take the first one out; and when I have taken it out, I throw both of them aside; I have no necessity for keeping the second thorn, because both are thorns after all. So the bad tendencies are to be counteracted by the good ones, and the bad impressions on the mind should be removed by the fresh waves of good ones, until all that is evil almost disappears, or is subdued and held in control in a corner of the mind; but after that, the good tendencies have also to be conquered. Thus the ‘attached’ becomes the ‘unattached’. Work, but let not the action or the thought produce a deep impression on the mind. Let the ripples come and go, let huge actions proceed from the muscles and the brain, but let them not make any deep impression on the soul.8 Freedom is the motive of the universe, freedom its goal. The laws of nature are the methods through which we are struggling to reach that freedom, under the guidance of Mother. This universal struggle for freedom attains its highest expression in man in the conscious desire to be free. Only freedom can produce true morality. If there were only an endless chain of cause

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wall, nor fly up into the skies, but the gods whom he worships can do these things. What is meant by that, philosophically? That the assertion of freedom is there, that the gods whom he worships are superior to nature as he knows it. So with those who worship still higher beings. As the idea of nature expands, the idea of the soul which is superior to nature also expands, until we come to what we call monotheism, which holds that there is Maya (nature), and that there is some Being who is the Ruler of this Maya.10 The man who has in this life attained to this state, for whom, for a minute at least, the ordinary vision of the world has changed and the reality has been apparent, he is called the ‘Living Free’. This is the goal of the Vedantin, to attain freedom while living.11 . . . . The whole vision is changed, and instead of an eternal prison this world has become a playground; instead of a land of competition it is a land of bliss, where there is perpetual spring, flowers bloom and butterflies flit about.12 This freedom is attained by the threefold means of—work, worship, and knowledge. (a) Work—constant, unceasing effort to help others and love others. (b) Worship—consists in prayer, praise, and meditation. (c) Knowledge—that follows meditation.13 Give up the world, then alone you are loosened from the body. . . Be free. . . Freedom must be attained by our own efforts during life; then, when the body falls, there will be no rebirth for the free.14

and effect, Nirvana could not be. It is extinction of the seeming self, bound by this chain. That is what constitutes freedom, to get beyond causality.9 All human life, all nature, therefore, is struggling to attain to freedom. The sun is moving towards the goal, so is the earth in circling round the sun, so is the moon encircling round the earth. To that goal the planet is moving, and the air is blowing. Everything is struggling towards that. The saint is going towards that voice — he cannot help it, it is no glory to him. So is the sinner. The charitable man is going straight towards that voice, and cannot be hindered; the miser is also going towards the same destination; the greatest worker of good hears the same voice within, and he cannot resist it, he must go towards the voice; so with the most arrant idler. One stumbles more than another, and him who stumbles more we call bad, him who stumbles less we call good. Good and bad are never two different things, they are one and the same; the difference is not one of kind, but of degree. Now, if the manifestation of this power of freedom is really governing the whole universe—applying that to religion, our special study—we find this idea has been the one assertion throughout. Take the lowest form of religion where there is worship of departed ancestors or certain powerful and cruel gods; what is the prominent idea about the gods or departed ancestors? That they are superior to nature, not bound by its restrictions. The worshipper has, no doubt, very limited ideas of nature. He himself cannot pass through a

References 1. CW, 1: 365 7. CW, 1: 426 13. CW, 5: 434 T h e

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Song of the Free SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

There is but One—the Free—the Knower—Self! Without a name, without a form or stain. In Him is Maya dreaming all this dream. The witness, He appears as nature, soul. Know thou art That, Sannyasin bold! Say— ‘Om Tat Sat, Om!’ Where seekest thou? That freedom, friend, this world Nor that can give. In books and temples vain Thy search. Thine only is the hand that holds The rope that drags thee on. Then cease lament, Let go thy hold, Sannyasin bold! Say— ‘Om Tat Sat, Om!’ Say, ‘Peace to all: From me no danger be To aught that lives. In those that dwell on high. In those that lowly creep, I am the Self in all! All life both here and there, do I renounce, All heavens and earths and hells, all hopes and fears.’ Thus cut thy bonds, Sannyasin bold! Say — ‘Om Tat Sat, Om!’ —Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, , 4: 394

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Volume 97 Index to Titles and Authors

January–December 2010 ‘Let the Lion of Vedanta roar, the foxes will fly to their holes.’ —Swami Vivekananda

Managing Editor: S W A M I G A U T A M AN A N D A U Editor: S W A M I ATMASHRADDHANANDA Printed and Published by SWAMI ABHIRAMANANDA for

S RI R AMAKRISHNA M ATH MYLAPORE, CHENNAI 600 004

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Title - Index A Annual Report Synopsis of the Governing Body’s Report for 2008-09—Swami Prabhananda

B Book Reviews 42, 81, 121, 161, 201, 241, 281, 321, 361, 400, 441 Buddhist Path to Freedom, The—His Holiness The Dalai Lama 464 C Compilation Freedom and Love—Swami Vivekananda ‘Freedom is the Watchword’—Swami Vivekananda Freedom or Liberation: In the Words of the Direct Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna ‘Freedom, O Freedom!’ is the Song of the Soul—Swami Vivekananda Freedom—the Indian Context—Swami Vivekananda Mukti—‘the Worthiest Gain of Man’—Swami Vivekananda Thus Prayed Sri Ramakrishna Coping with Family Stress: Holy Mother’s Example—Sharmila Bose

487 513 469 451 549 579 330 110

Disaster Relief: Valuable Experiences—Swami Suvirananda Dimensions of Freedom in the Bhagavad Gita—Swami Yuktatmananda Dimensions of Inner Freedom—Swami Tyagananda

297 522 534

Editorial—Swami Atmashraddhananda Freedom: Inner and Outer Gift of Giving, The Harnessing the Power of Words Holding the Mirror to Oneself

446 2 126 46

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Living Like A Lotus May All Be Happy Reality Behind the Veil, The Simplicity Personified Spiritual Dimension of Human Birth Strength is Life Struggle-Mantra, The Worker behind the Work, The Event in the Court of Janaka, An—Swami Golokananda

326 366 246 406 86 286 166 206 294

Frame and the Fill, The—Thoughts on Some Aspects of Human Brain—Swami Samarpanananda Freedom and Indian Culture—K.Panchapagesan Freedom and Magnanimity: A Dialogue—Prema Nandakumar Freedom and Meditation—Swami Nityasthananda Freedom as the Goal of Four Yogas—Swami Brahmeshananda Freedom from Distractions—Swami Dayatmananda Freedom of Choice—Pramod Kumar Freedom, the Chord that Unites World-Views—Jay Lakhani Freedom—A Hindu View—Swami Abhiramananda Freedom—The Core Theme of the Upanishads—Swami Gautamananda

154 552 558 502 516 491 544 563 508 458

God’s Ways God Alone Knows—Dr. Satish K Kapoor

417

Holy Mother and Freedom, The—Prema Raghunath

569

Indian Ethos in Business Management—Swami Samarpanananda

393

Karma Yoga—the Path of Blissful Action—Hasmukh Adhia

429

Layers of Inner Freedom—Swami Satyamayananda Laws of Karma and Thermodynamics—Gopal C Bhar Loving Aspect of Holy Mother, The—Swami Tathagatananda

574 348 170

Mary Tappan Wright: Swamiji’s first Western Chronicler—Somenath Mukherjee

302, 342, 375, 413

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Materialism—A ‘Truth at Lower Level’—Krishnan Unni

358

N New Find: Unpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda

28, 68, 108, 140, 184, 227, 268, 312, 353, 384, 432

Order on the March, The

40, 79, 117, 158, 199, 239, 279, 318, 360, 398, 437

P Poem Difficult People—Reena Sinha Song of the Free—Swami Vivekananda

115 582

Praise of Japa, In—William Page Prayer of the Heart—Pravrajika Brahmaprana

137 178, 214, 255

R Ramakrishna’s Idea of Freedom, Sri—Swami Bhaskarananda

476

Questions and Answers—Swami Brahmeshananda Goal and the Way, The Peace and Bliss—A Vedantic Understanding Practising Spirituality in a Busy World

382 34 229

R Ramakrishna, Sri—One with Cosmic Existence—Sudesh Reminiscences Memoirs of Mahapurush Maharaj—Shivakrishnananda Reminiscences of Master Mahashay—Gokuldas Dey Reminiscences of Master Mahashay—Swami Kamaleshwarananda Reminiscences of Master Mahashay—Lalit Chattopadhyay Reminiscences of Master Mahashay—Ramesh Chandra Sarkar Reminiscences of Master Mahashay—Swami Dharmeshananda Review Article Bohemian Devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, A—M Sivaramkrishna Interpreting Ramakrishna: Kali’s Child Revisited—Jeffery D. Long

148 9, 56 15 420 95, 132 250 336 24 422

S Sanskrit Commission, The (1956-1957) A Brief Summary of the Report—Swami Harshananda Simhâvalokanam T h e

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Adbhutananda, Swami Confessions on the Way towards Peace Holy Mother, The Influence of India on Western Civilisation Letters of Swami Premananda Letters of Swami Premananda Ramakrishna Samaj, Cuddapah, At Shri Ramakrishna, the Great Master, Sri Spiritual Greatness of India Taittiriya Upanishad Work at the Shanti Ashrama Special Column Influence of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda on Contemporary Bengali Literature—Hironmoy Mukherjee Special Report New Temple of Sri Ramakrishna in Kodagu, A Parliament of Religions—Melbourne 2009 Spiritual Dimensions of Freedom—Pravrajika Vivekaprana Spiritual Values in the Gita—Swami Visharadananda Story of Scientific Freedom, The—NVC Swamy Suresh Chandra Datta: A Householder Disciple of Sri Ramakrishna—Swami Tathagatananda Swamiji and Madame Calvé—Swami Tathagatananda

249 329 409 209 370 5 89 289 130 169 49

142, 231, 270, 309 36 75 497 30, 100, 314, 387 539 371, 410 91

T Tampering with National Pride —Swami Harshananda Towards a Vedic Philosophy of Peace—Rudraprasad Matilal Travelogue Pilgrimage to Kalady, A—the Birthplace of Adi Shankara—Atmashraddha World’s Largest Act of Faith—Glimpses of Mahakumbh Mela in Haridwar-2010—Atmashraddha

340 186 190 218, 259

U Understanding Christian Monasticism—Swami Sarvamayananda

19, 70

V Vedic Prayer 1, 45, 85, 125, 165, 205, 245, 285, 325, 365, 405, 445 Vivekananda and a New Definition of Freedom, Swami—Swami Atmarupananda 481 Vivekananda in Karnataka during 1892, Swami—M S Nanjundiah 61 Vivekananda Tells Stories 39, 78, 114, 153, 176, 237, 276, 306, 356, 391, 434 Vivekananda’s Enthralling Voice—Dharitri Kumar Das Gupta 105 Vivekananda’s Voice Recording?, Swami—M S Nanjundiah 292 T h e

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W Wings on Endless Air—B.K. Misra

526

ZZZ

Author - Index A

Adhia, Hasmukh —Karma Yoga—the Path of Blissful Action 429 Abhiramananda,Swami—Freedom—A Hindu View 508 Atmarupananda, Swami—Swami Vivekananda and a New Definition of Freedom 481 Atmashraddha—A Pilgrimage to Kalady—the Birthplace of Adi Shankara—Travelogue 190 —World’s Largest Act of Faith—Glimpses of Mahakumbh Mela in Haridwar-2010 218, 259 Atmashraddhananda, Swami—Editorial Freedom: Inner and Outer 446 Harnessing the Power of Words 126 Holding the Mirror to Oneself 46 Living Like A Lotus 326 May All Be Happy 366 Simplicity Personified 406 Spiritual Dimension of Human Birth 86 Strength is Life 286 The Gift of Giving 2 The Reality Behind the Veil 246 The Struggle-Mantra 166 The Worker behind the Work 206 B Bhar, Gopal C—Laws of Karma and Thermodynamics Bhaskarananda, Swami—Sri Ramakrishna’s Idea of Freedom Bose, Sharmila—Coping with Family Stress: Holy Mother’s Example Brahmeshananda, Swami—Freedom as the Goal of Four Yogas Brahmeshananda, Swami—Questions & Answers Peace and Bliss—A Vedantic Understanding Practising Spirituality in a Busy World The Goal and the Way Brahmaprana, Pravrajika—Prayer of the Heart

348 476 110 516 34 229 382 178, 214, 250

C Chattopadhyay, Lalit—Reminiscences of Master Mahashay

95, 132

D Dalai Lama, His Holiness The—The Buddhist Path to Freedom Dayatmananda, Swami—Freedom from Distractions T h e

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464 491 2 0 1 0

149

Dharmeshananda, Swami—Reminiscences of Master Mahashay Dharitri Kumar Das Gupta—Vivekananda’s Enthralling Voice

336 105

Gautamananda, Swami—Freedom—The Core Theme of the Upanishads Gokuldas Dey—Reminiscences of Master Mahashay Golokananda, Swami—An Event in the Court of Janaka

458 15 294

Harshananda, Swami—Tampering with National Pride —The Sanskrit Commission (1956 - 1957), A Brief Summary of the Report

340

6, 50

K Kamaleshwarananda, Swami—Reminiscences of Master Mahashay Kapoor, Satish K—God’s Ways God Alone Knows Krishnan Unni—Materialism—A ‘Truth at Lower Level’

420 417 358

Lakhani Jay—Freedom, the Chord that Unites World-Views Long, Jeffery D. —Interpreting Ramakrishna: Kali’s Child Revisited—Review Article

563 422

Matilal, Rudraprasad—Towards a Vedic Philosophy of Peace Misra, B.K.—Wings on Endless Air Mukherjee, Hironmoy —Influence of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda on Contemporary Bengali Literature—Special Column Mukherjee, Somenath—Mary Tappan Wright: Swamiji’s first Western Chronicler

186 526

142, 231, 270, 309 302, 342, 375, 413

N Nanjundiah, M S—Swami Vivekananda in Karnataka during 1892 —Swami Vivekananda’s Voice Recording? Nityasthananda, Swami—Freedom and Meditation

61 292 502

Page, William—In Praise of Japa Panchapagesan, K.—Freedom and Indian Culture Prabhananda, Swami—Synopsis of the Governing Body’s Report for 2008-09—Annual Report Pramod Kumar—Freedom of Choice Prema Nandakumar—Freedom and Magnanimity: A Dialogue Prema Raghunath—The Holy Mother and Freedom

137 552

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54 544 558 569 2 0 1 0

150

S Samarpanananda, Swami—Indian Ethos in Business Management —The Frame and the Fill—Thoughts on Some Aspects of Human Brain Sarkar, Ramesh Chandra—Reminiscences of Master Mahashay Sarvamayananda, Swami—Understanding Christian Monasticism Satyamayananda, Swami—Layers of Inner Freedom Shivakrishnananda—Memoirs of Mahapurush Maharaj Sinha, Reena—Difficult People—Poem Sivaramkrishna, M—A Bohemian Devotee of Sri Ramakrishna—Review Article Sudesh—Sri Ramakrishna—One with Cosmic Existence Suvirananda, Swami—Disaster Relief: Valuable Experiences Swamy, NVC—The Story of Scientific Freedom

393 154 250 19, 70 574 9, 56 115 24 148 297 539

T Tathagatananda, Swami—Suresh Chandra Datta: A Householder Disciple of Sri Ramakrishna —Swamiji and Madame Calvé —The Loving Aspect of Holy Mother Tyagananda, Swami—Dimensions of Inner Freedom

371, 410 91 170 534

V Visharadananda, Swami—Spiritual Values in the Gita Vivekaprana, Pravrajika—Spiritual Dimensions of Freedom

30, 100, 314, 387 497

Y Yuktatmananda, Swami—Dimensions of Freedom in the Bhagavad Gita

522

ZZZ

Review - Index

Balanced Yoga—by Dr. Svami Purna Basic Ideas of Hinduism and How It Is Transmitted, The—by Swami Tathagatananda Bhagavad Gita as viewed by Swami Vivekananda—compiled by Swami Madhurananda Bhaja Govindam of Sankaracharya—Trans. and comments by Swami Gurudasananda Chicken Soup for the Indian Spiritual School —by Jak Canfield,Mark Victor Hansen and Veena Seshadri Collection of Spiritual Discourses, A [Vol. – II (A)] —by Swami Dayanand Giri Ji Maharaj . Trans. by Prof. A.S. Mahajan, Smt. Consciousness—by Alexander Smit. Translated from Dutch by Andre van Brink Cultural and Spiritual History of India—by Dr.R.Rangan Dalai Lama, The Conversations with Rajiv Mehrotra Dewdrops of Love—by J.P Vaswani Doctrine of Bhakti in Vallabha Vedanta, The—by K. Narain T h e

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82 241 441 244 323 81 44 84 122 323 402

151

Dynamic Spirituality for A Globalized World—by Swami Ranganathananda Eternal Values: Few Literary Portrays—by Dr. Santikumar Ghosh Exploring Harmony Among Religious Traditions in India —Published by Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture,Kolkata Foundations of Dharma—by Paramananda Bharati Swami Glimpses of Devayana—by Dr. Hajari Great Sayings with Illustrations—Published by Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark, Kolkata Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna Vivekananda —Published by Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture Heritage & Tradition—by Probat Kanti Paul In My Own Words: An Introduction To My Teachings And Philosophy—H.H. Dalai Lama —Published by Hay House Pubishers (India) Pvt. Ltd. India’s Gift to the World is the Light Spiritual—by Swami Jyotirmayananda Ladder of Abhyasa—by J. P. Vaswani Lectures on the Gita—by Sri Vidya Svarupanandagiri Swamiji, translated by Prof. C. Ramaiah Living Legend Dada J.P. Vaswani Mahabharata, The—by Pandit A.M.Srinivasachariar Translated by Dr.V. Raghavan Management Mantras—by S.Ramaratnam Monk Without Frontiers, The—Reminiscences of Swami Ranganathananda —Published by Advaita Ashrama Nearer, My God, To Thee!—by J.P. Vaswani Peace or Perish: There is no Other Choice—by Dada J P Vaswani Perfect Relationship (Guru and Disciple), The—by J.P Vaswani Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Sri—by Dushyanta Pandya Sacred Mountain: The Complete Guide to Tibet’s Mount Kailas, The—by John Snelling Sadguru Omkar—Confessions, Upadesh and Talks —Published by Harish Chandra for Akshaya Prakashan Saints for You and Me—by J.P. Vaswani Saints with a difference—by J.P. Vaswani Sanskrit and Science—Edited by V.Kameswari Sarada Devi, Sri—by Dushyant Pandya Science of God-Realization, The—by Roy Eugene Davis Science of Meditation, The—Published by New Age Books Short Sketches of Saints Known & Unknown—by J.P. Vaswani Social Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda—by A.R. Mohapatra Srimad Bhagavata—by Pandit A.M. Srinivasachariar Translated by Dr.V. Raghavan Stories for Children and also for teens—by J.P. Vaswani Swallow Irritation Before Irritation Swallows You—by J.P. Vaswani Swami Vivekananda and the Erasing of the Dividing Line—by Swami Ranganathananda Swami Vivekananda’s Childhood—by Sri Pronabesh Chakraborty Swaraj—by A.R. Mohapatra Tapovana Tapasvi—by Siddhanta Tulasi T h e

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121 43 282 283 164 361 281 163 161 243 403 361 164 123 442 42 442 244 324 282 400 203 401 441 162 201 322 124 43 241 202 363 203 81 401 284 82

152

Tattwanusandhanam—Engilsh translation by Prof. R.Sankari Thus Have I Been Taught—by J.P. Vaswani To My Rabi’a—by Nileen Putatunda Towards The Goal—by Mrs. Vandana Sarathy, Dr. Rajeev Ramakrishna Uma Sahasram —Translation by Madan Mohan Sarma Unfolding The Mindfield—by Madhav Kamat Vedanta–An Outline for Modern Man—by M.S. Nanjundiah Vedanta and Modern Physics—by Dr. U. Chandrasekharayya Vedas : Traditional and Modern Perspectives—General Editor V.Kameswari Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna In Sri Aurobindo’s Writings, Swami —Published by Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry Vivekananda the Monarch of Monks, Swami—by Dushyanta Pandya Vivekananda, Swami —The Known Philosopher The Unknown Poet —Published by Meteor Books, Kolkata. Distributor: Advaita Ashrama Voice of the Rishis—by Dr. Hazari Wittgensteinian Philosophy and Advaita Vedanta—A survey of the Parallels. —by Ravindra K.S. Choudhary. Wonder That Is Sri Ramakrishna, The—by Swami Bhaskarananda You Can Make a Difference—by J.P. Vaswani

363 84 204 322 443 444 402 242 83 361 161 201 204 404 321 362

ZZZ Reviewers Arivazhagan, A. 404 Atmajnananda, Swami 361 Atmapranananda, Swami 163,203 Chetana Mandavia 281,321,322,362,401 Gokul Muthu 282 Gopalakrishnan, R. 364 Panchapagesan, K 84,201,283,323,402 Pramod Kumar 243 Prema Nandakumar 83,204,363,402,442 Prema Raghunath 83,201,401 Probal Ray Choudhury 284 Ramanarayanan, M.C. 164 Ramesh, S.R. 123

Satyamayananda, Swami 44 Seshadri, V 43,244 Sharatkumar Variyar 324 Sivaramkrishna, M. 161 Subramanian, H 81,121,161,403 Sundaram, P.S. 43,81,82,124,164,203, 204,241,244,282,323, 361,441,443,444 Suruchi Pande, Dr. Mrs., 122 Swamy, NVC 42,81,123,162,202, 241,242,322,441 Tyagananda, Swami 400

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