Why freedom is so much sort for ?

The word freedom instantly bring the feeling of euphoria deep inside. Freedom is sought by everyone subconsciously, little knowing what our bondage really are. We humans, as individuals, are unrestricted, disposable, replaceable and unwanted most of our lives. We only attach ourselves to our surrounding, to people and the system. This inner knowledge of our own worthlessness makes us worry and feel insecure. The fear of being left out drives us to these attachments. Most of us turn toward being copycats, without realizing that by doing this we are sacrificing our freedom. This takes us on a path of comparison and competition. We ape an idol, copy a neighbor, outdo a friend. People even change family, friends, companion, place, profession, ideology, a nose, and even gender to free themselves, but unknowingly they get bound to the pursuit of this new idea of freedom. The cycle turns over again, keeping one in shackles and away from being free.

What is it then to be really free and to set oneself on the path of attaining freedom? We have to be mindful however, that the word freedom could also spell doom. Use it at home, office and in public and I may get more attention than I ever got. The same word stands for defiance, dislike, disobedience, discontent, and more. Nonetheless,  we look for it every time and in every place.  In childhood, it would be escape from the monotony of school and the compliance. It then quickly  shifts to multiple subjects such as freedom from body, beliefs, culture, emotions and such.  Freedom is also to get away from the stiffening orderliness and an organized system. 

In spite of this, we have a deep set feeling that “good-life” can only be achieved through freedom. 

Freedom is a state where one comes to realize one is unique, one of a kind on this Earth. Between idol adoration and idol copying, most of the time we miss this truthful realization. Charismatic and thought defining, Indian Godman Rajneesh, known around the world as Osho, cited freedom as a need for everybody. He was precise when he said “freedom means that everybody is free to be unequal”. He says further that “every individual is born with some specific talents, some specific genius to himself. That something in him needs to be discovered. Freedom can only bring out his talents, or else he will be equal to someone else. Osho said, “Equality and freedom cannot go together. They cannot coexist. If you choose equality, freedom has to be sacrificed. Genius is sacrificed, man’s qualities are sacrificed. Everybody has to fit with the lowest and one denominator, only then you can be equal. Freedom gives you the power to be unequal. It opens the way to differ. It makes you what you are truly”. 

The body and mind too shackles an individual from gaining freedom for the individual. We run to idyllic location and take ourselves from out from routine work to gain freedom. But the body pins us down on natural law and the mind ran on the created culture, holding us down. The body follows its urges and looked for satiation and we soon realize fleeing from the body is futile. In spite of this, ascetics try it all the time. They try to overcome the body rule by following a method of denial. They keep the body away from good food. They deprive the body of pleasure. They even try to inflict starvation, pain and torture. These ascetics are revered by throngs of visitors for their power to beat the bodily urges as they continue to live. A phenomenal amount of denial is a way they believe they can get freedom from their body. 

However such denial of bodily needs will not help one realize spiritual goal less earn freedom. The body does not do any wrong. The body is a miracle where life plays its role. Nurturing a body is one’s primary work. The shackle a nurtured body throws upon an individual is its constant craving, which according to Buddha is the reason for all suffering. This suffering keep us away from the freedom we seek. Buddha said “Craving literally drives human beings. It is different from desire and in Buddha’s teaching he does not seem to have disapproved of wanting per se. To want something out of one’s free will, and with the right intention, is not craving. Craving came into being ‘wherever that is which seems lovable and gratifying, there it comes into being and settles’. It made humans seek ‘fresh pleasure now here and now there’. There is a craving to escape pain as well as for acquiring wealth, power, status, sensual pleasure as well as right opinions. This involves escape from here and now, to some place other, but to seek ceaselessly some new state of being while at the same time striving for permanence was to expose oneself to frustration.”

Buddha found that “those who are free from craving do not suffer”. The wisdom to get away from craving is another way to freedom. This freedom is liberating ....!