What is Freedom?
Is it being free from the habits or desires, or justlying idle? Does freedom refer to actions or deeds or words or thoughts?
My the same dear friend who wanted to discuss about "SPACE" asked me another question, "What is Freedom?" have you ever thought on freedom?
we were born, we were freed from the cozy womb, and we cried, we were not happy, we were not free in real sense. We adapted to the surroundings we grew up. and we learned to be happy with it. We learnt that there is day and there is night, we formed a habit of resting and sleeping at night and waking up, being active in the day. we formed out habits and routine based on this solar cycle. these habits also furnishes our biological needs. and provides a set of activities during the day. Think, if you were to sit idlly, disregarding day or night, you had no routine, and you were living in a cave. how would you have managed your life? you will try to set a routine then too. you will learn cold/hot/rain by experience, and take actions to make yourself comfortable. when you would have felt comfortable, you would have been happier! Freedom is not leaving every earthy things and going to caves in solitude.
We grow up, we start taking more interest in opposit sex (i'm talking about in general). we feel a need to have a companion, with whom we can be ourselves. we have a burning desire here. Are we free here? This comes from our learnings since 1000s of years, we also call it our biological needs. in an average case, a person would eventually find a companion. In this association, comes expectations, responsibility. Some times this can be annoying, and we are unhappy again, striving to escape from this unhappiness. Desire is associated with what is opposit of freedom. Is there any freedom here?
Our actions or deeds are the result of a motive, a thought. A thought is motive to any action. Thought can be of your own liking or something you abhor. you are captive of your own mind! Is this freedom?
Then what is freedom?
I just realized something very unnoticed: we call it freedom which makes us happy. The unhappy status gives the feeling opposite to freedom. Is it really true though?
To think is the elementary characteristic of our perplexing mind. Thinking is learned behaviour from our past. So, when we think, we are carrying forward our past with us. When we bring our past in present, we are not free. Another act of mind is analyzing, which is the act of going through our fears, in good words, checkpoints. Fear surmounts freedom. we surrender ourselves to fear and seek pursuits we think will make us safe, which is running from fears. If we can be free from our fears, may be we can be free. It is still a subject of an exploration. A person can feel freedom even when in an association. And a person can feel opposit of freedom even when in no association. Freedom is extant, and we have to uncover it.
14 comments:
i liked reading this post. wanting something is being chained to it....its not freeing. sometimes there are ppl whose love can set u free, i hv heard.
yes i agree with gulnaz, love can set you free to a certain extent. as human we will sometimes act on fear but there are some who don't. life is a challenge. if it were meant to be easy it wouldn't be so exciting. great thought-provoking post!
I think freedom is a construct of society. We are all slaves to love and time and greed, and so on...If we did not think of freedom, we would not need to be free. The thing is, we are all chained to something, and thus the concept of freedom is born.
This is a thought provoking post, as Lorena put it.
Nice train of thoughts. I interpret freedom on two different levels. One, which is set by the government(democratic, socialistic, capitalistic or despotic) in the country in which you stay. For example, freedom of speech, freedom to move about, etc.
On another level, "personal" freedom, it is based on our interpretation of our life. It depends on the boundaries we set and the limits we maintain. We can choose to be free, not work at all but we dont do so, for obvious reasons. Similarly, we demand certain freedom in the person whom we love. I believe that it is our thoughts that define the freedom. Try being optimisic. Free your mind ;)
In recent times I have come to abhor nostalgia, simply for the reason that in whatever situation we are in right now, we always hold onto the past as the benchmark for success and failure. And if we consider the current situation as a failure, it becomes quite depressing.
freedom,, hmmm.... the fact is we are all human beings, we have a body that demands food, sleep, and in most a desire to procreate. freedom from these physical things is an illusion, they are a necessity, otherwise we would not be human. thus comes the thought, what is this freedom we seek. it is the ability to choose. and unless you are imprisoned by society (jail, repressive govt.) most of us are free to choose. You are free to explore other avenues for your life. you don't like your job, read books find another job, but in the mean time you have to eat, so don't quit just yet. Be practical with your freedom, use it, do not let the freedom to choose bring you to a place where you are imprisoned by your decisions.
gulaaz, lorena: love can be liberating, when you love everything equally, without any likings and disliking. yeah, I'm talking about universal love.
mermaid: not just freedom, all the ideals are the construct of society. for example, time, time is relativity. 8:00 am in the morning, think in bigger sense, what is 8:00 am on mars, or in some other galaxy where some habitants are existing. We have created our own traps.
arch storm: I totally agree with you. When there is an expectation, you have lost your freedom.
sensibly stoned and my dear anonymous friend: yeah, you persived me right, I'm talking about personal freedom in spiritual sense. I will have to disagree here with you. thought is the one who makes us slave. If there is no thought, there is no mind, and hence, no comparision/analysis/grudge/unhappyness and all the bad virtues you can name. then there exists universal love. The so called necessities give birth to fear, fear of losing them. In liberated state, i think, you have no fear. I think freedom is what a few elites have called it enlightenment. It's my favorite way to expplore things with negations...
A very well written post.
V: Thank you for visiting freedom!
well,If mind is the one which realizes everything, then it is not realization, because, mind works on the bedrock of past and checkpoints; then what u realize is not real, it is an illusion of your mind has created for you. I would rather would say, you are already free, you believe that you are not because of your mind, hence when mind ceases to exist, the is uncovered.
there are many streams of thinking anyways.
Neel: thank you neel for stopping by again. hope you enjoyed Chasing Amy.
I just was reminded by a friend of mine about Devil's Advocate dialogs. there's interesting one on freedom too:
John Milton: Freedom, baby... is never having to say you're sorry.
check this out, Microsoft's 'freedom and democracy' row:
http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39131146,00.htm
I remember watching a movie (Don't know the name though), in which one person was put in a prison because he was fighting for independence of his country. One day, the jailor put cowdung on one of the shoes that he was wearing and asked the prisnor to lick the cowdung. The prisoner did it. A child besides the prisoner asked him, "Why did you do it? They would at most have beat you." The prisoner replied "I am free even behind the bars to choose to do what i want." From that moment, the word freedom has a new meaning for me.
allievo: that's very interesting. I have been thinking on this: "I am free even behind the bars to choose to do what i want."
Does it mean because you have a choice, you are free?
What a question? let me raise a question "Are choice and freedom the same thing?"
I can choose between two or three things, but does that mean that i am free. I might still choose a way because that way will adhere to my schedule. And that is not freedom. Freedom is even free from choices and can't be limited by choices. It's even going beyond the choices.
To answer arch storm's question. I might be free to go to lunch at 12:30 even if the boss wants me to eat lunch at that time. What boss expects is beyond my control and he can choose what to expect or not. And i am free to choose to go to lunch or not and at what time. If i am not taking lunch just because my boss wants it, then i am free.
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