I used to believe that the “History of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom!”
“I don't want to study right now, mom. Even though I always do my homework, you never let me play with my friends for as long as I want to. You don't give me freedom!”
“Dad, why do you irritate me by asking the same question every time? “When I'll be back home?” I do have concerns about my safety. I can make it on my own. Please give me some freedom!”
“Don't be a cheesy and possessive boyfriend! Give me my space! I am not your belongings. I deserve to be free! I can be free even though we are in a relationship!”
“Bro, my organization is a shitty place! Nothing exciting is going on. Simply adhering to the cliched structures! We can't even make a single decision on our own! There is no creative freedom!”
Earlier, the word freedom incorporated the 5 core motifs:
Freedom For Speech
Religion
Press
Assembly
The Right to Petition the Government
But later we, the Millennials and Gen Zs have become relentless in our pursuit of self-space, ‘Detachment from The Material’, ‘Isolation’, ‘Freedom to Opt Our Personal Financial Choices’, and ‘Confining Our Career Goals on Our Responsibility.
Recently I was going through the article ‘Understanding freedom and its evolution over the years’ by Dr. John Milliken, Assistant Professor at LCC International University in the Theology department.
After going through the article, my perspectives about the word freedom, freedom as an individual phrase, and freedom as a fundamental phenomenon turned out to be crystal clear! Consequently, I've used some excerpts from the mentioned article to present this piece of mine.
Have you ever wondered? When you crave something or hold a pure desire for something within you, that WISH at that precise moment seems too fascinating and we feel a lot of adrenaline rush within when we think of it.
But, at some point in your life, when you have achieved your goal despite all of your efforts put, tears shed, pains endured, and hurt felt, have you ever had the thought,
“Yeah, I wanted this! But not in the way in which it came to me!”
“I went through a lot! It cost me everything to achieve it! Now I don't feel anything when I can proudly hold it in my hands!”
“I can't feel proud!”
…
Perhaps pride is not something to be felt. Because it takes all of your breaths to feel its presence within you. And when you throw all that you have into the fire just to achieve your goal, even after grabbing it from your destiny, in the end, a mindset gets developed within you that ‘You Are Never Meant to Get Settled Down!’
And then you start looking constantly for ‘Better Versions of Your Desires’, ‘Refined Forms of Your Ambitions’, and ‘A Perfect Mould of Your Endeavours’.
…
Now the question remains the same! “Why does that cost everything?”
Why can't there be a solitary effort?
Why is there no actual freedom to choose what to do, how to do it, and ultimately be solely responsible for the consequences of the outcome?
The entire reason is in the word: INTERDEPENDENCE!
It is still believed today, that freedom is the ability to live a fulfilled life without anyone else’s interference, without permission or approval.
But the core ideology of what we think morality is, means to understand that we are free when we can do what we wish without any constraints and harming another individual.
But, a basic level matter arises that no individual is free to do anything because the cost is the trade-off between things. The moment of choice arises, and where there are more choices, there are more constraints.
“Since we can’t be completely free; we must trade some freedoms for others, submitting ourselves to constraints”.
Given the nature of reality, we are unable to completely decide what those constraints are, and eventually, it becomes easier to get lost in this cycle of seeking complete freedom.
As Saint Kabir Says:
चलती चक्की देख के, दिया कबीरा रोये ।
दो पाटन के बीच में, साबुत बचा न कोए ॥
When Saint Kabir saw a moving mill, he started crying because he sees how between the continuous collision of two stone wheels, no grain of wheat or pulse remains whole, it breaks or breaks. It turns into flour after grinding.
Frankly speaking, there will always be two stone wheels ‘Grinding Us from Within’, besides, ‘Grinding Our Choices’, ‘Grinding Our Intentions’, ‘Grinding Our Motifs’.
and in the end, every grain of our ‘Effort’, ‘Blood’, ‘Sweat’, and ‘Tears’ is crushed into millions of insignificant small grains! What we can feel is just dust. Nothing solid to move ahead with!
…
Just Particles!
…
Is this the fundamental principle of achieving the desire? Will it always crush our good intentions? So why bother making an effort? Why bother trying? Why live as an individual when there is no liberty?
…
The answer is here again mentioned by Saint Kabir:
जैसे तिल में तेल है ज्यों चकमक में आग
तेरा साईं तुझमें है , तू जाग सके तो जाग
Just a seed has oil, and a spark is the essence of light,
divinity lies within you realize this if you can.
This Doha also reminds me of Swami Vivekananda, who said, "Man is potentially divine and the sole purpose of this life is to discover that divinity. The time to do is here and now".
The goal is to find inner freedom while holding the entire universe within you. There are numerous possibilities for Exploration, innumerable paths to your Intentions, and innumerable ways to make your intentions Powerful. Don't just believe in the external structure of what you're doing, and don't complain about the difficult path you're taking to get there; instead, believe in the intention and in the core motif which is hidden somewhere in the shady caves of your inner mind.
It's always worth asking the question:
“What significance does this have for me?”
If it has, am I willing to pour my heart and soul to achieve it?
If your answer is YES! Then go ahead and do it. It will be an unforgettable chase for you. And if your answer is NO, find something that will make your voice express itself!
Because what I believe is that in this era, the goal is not to achieve freedom, but to be Self-Sufficient and Solely Responsible for the millions of possibilities that will come your way.
Those will be exciting! I repeat, JUST EXCITING!
And as if we don't know what Robert Frost tells us about being responsible for the way we choose in his poem “The Road Not Taken”,
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
This article is written by a good friend of mine Neeraj Garud, currently based in Germany, who is an Engineer, Theatre Practitioner, and Experimentalist… High five and cheers buddy :-)
To know more about Neeraj, please follow him on - Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram
If you want to share anything or have any suggestions/questions, please leave them in the comments!
That’s it for today :-)
Hope each of you has a great start to your day. See you soon.
— Amit
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