THE INDEPENDENCE DAY
We are just a couple of days away from the 75thIndependence day in India. A day when Independence day marks the end of British rule in 1947 and the establishment of a free and independent Indian nation which came after around 200 years of slavery.
On the night of August 15, 1947, the first Prime Minister of Independent India, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru said, “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.” These words aptly captured the struggle and happiness of newly-independent India as it finally managed to free itself from the clutches of British rule.
And we celebrate this Independence at this day of the year. Yes, the nation is free, India is a democratic country. The physical independence is achieved and celebrated every year with so much ado and fanfare, we are now free of the Britishers who ruled us for so long, the core question today is whether we are completely free.
Yes, we are in the physical aspect of independence, certainly, we are now a democratic country, but a core question is –
Are we free from the clutches of the mind? Are we still living a life of slavery?
You might feel No, but just read on, maybe your thoughts change as you read this fully.
We were ruled by the British for close to 200 years, we did not have freedom of our own. We got independence from these forces but are we really free. We are even today bound by so many beliefs, perceptions, judgments, pre conceived notions, which are nothing but the mind. We are slaves of this mind and this controls our whole existence. Its not even a moment we are free of this, no wonder people say there is no peace in my life. Its actually the mind which is working or rather over working with continuous non stop thoughts one or many after each other. We feel we live in apartments, villas, bungalows or palatial homes, but actually we live in the mind 24 by 7. Not for a moment we can evade or escape this compulsive mind trap. Even as you are reading this, the mind is active in the background and shooting some thought or the other, isn’t it! Even this moment of reading is not a reading moment completely, the mind does not allow us to do even one task without its interference.
An enlightened master once remarked ‘You have not even eaten a banana in your whole life’. That’s what the truth is, we have not even had a morsel of food without the interference of the mind.
Michael Jackson appointed 12 doctors at home to examine and monitor him from hair to toe nails
His food was always tested in the lab before serving,
His bed had the technology to regulate oxygen levels,
Another 15 people were appointed to look after his daily exercise and workout.
But still he failed- he failed to understand that life happens inside out and not the other way round.
We live life in the mind and not in the physical places, thats where we exist.
After so many years and ages of struggle too we have not probably been able to comprehend that the biggest enemy is not someone outside, its right within us and we have been living unconsciously with this for so long. We feel that the mind is us only and its our thought or our belief, but actually the mind is an altogether separate entity living within us and creating an illusion that its we ourselves. And its from this created space of illusion that this mind rules our life, without so many even have the slightest inkling that this mind is the real culprit.
So what exactly is this mind?
This mind is nothing but the storehouse of past thoughts, faced emotions, false beliefs, conditionings recurring patterns, incomplete lust, viscous hurts, unfulfilled desires, failed relationships, and not to forget the unfalling ego. All worry, sadness, frustrations, anger, ego, revenge, fear, loneliness and other such emotions are the ingredients of this vast mind.
Its precisely to get free from the clutches of this mind, Prince Siddhartha left his palace and meditated for seven long years to shed it off completely and when he became successful he was called Buddha- the enlightened one. The enlightened one means who has evolved past the bindings of the mind. This is the true freedom in the total sense and meaning of the word.
This enlightened Buddha was once passing through a jungle where Unglimaan the murderer who used to kill people, cut their fingers and make a garland of these fingers. Unglimaan screamed at Buddha telling him to stop where he was. Buddha simply smiled at him and said- I have already stopped, now the time has come for you to stop. Just at this gesture and mention by the Buddha, Unglimaan threw his weapon and fell on Buddha’s feet and became his disciple. By stopping Buddha meant the mind had to stop and that’s what is the moral of this true story, we too now need to stop and end this mind.
This mind takes us through almost 60000 thoughts in a day, the mind shows all its colors. Now, as you read many might be feeling we don’t possess this emotion or thoughts at all, I know how to control the mind. I once came across a statement from an enlightened master who mentioned ‘You feel you don’t get angry, just because you are in a good zone today, you feel you can dissolve all the anger within you, but with just a simple trigger, you will experience all the frustrations, anger, rage, resentment and other viscous emotions.’ We are mere puppets of external circumstances, if our external life is going good, money flow is happening and other things favoring, we can probably accept any situation. But the real test is in the dark and its at this time the contrast personality is shown up in the form of these negative emotions and attitude. Once a master remarked- Ravana is not yet dead, its alive even today in you in the form of this mind. In fact the ten heads of Ravana represent the 10 states of mind like anger, resentment, revenge, etc.
Hence its paramount to get out of this mind if we want to experience freedom in any way.
This mind is ancient and knows how to make people dance to its tunes, we are complete slaves of the mind. Having said this, it doesn’t mean we don’t need the mind, we need it but not as a master as a slave. Whenever the mind is required we need to use it and other times, the mind is in a non existent mode. Its like you have all the vegetables in the refrigerator, you open it and take whichever vegetable you need. That’s exactly where the mind belongs, use it whenever its required.
A learned master was walking with his followers through the market. They saw a man pulling a cow by a rope. The master asked his followers “Tell me who is bound to whom? Is the cow bound to this man or the man is bound to the cow?
All of them promptly replies “Of course the cow is bound to the man!. The man is the master. The cow has to follow him wherever he goes, she is the slave.”
The master smiled and walked towards the man and cut the rope. The cow ran away from the man and he started to run after her. He remarked “Do you see who the Master is? The cow is not at all interested in this man. The cow in fact, is trying to escape from this man.” This is the case with our mind.
Like the cow, all the non-sense that we carry inside is not interested in us. We are interested in it, and have been keeping it together somehow or the other. When people grow in consciousness, they realize that the actual enemy is the mind, not any other person, its just the separation this illusionary mind creates in us which causes us to fight against the other.
What we need today is complete independence from the mind for this is what is actual freedom, till this is not achieved we are still enslaved in the past.
Just do a simple exercise- close your eyes and observe the thoughts in your mind. You will find so many just waiting to rush out. This mind chatter keeps going on even in our sleep and does not allow us to even rest in peace. The coming times are going to open up this mind completely with all these emotions running amok. Connect to your God or Higher self or Guru to help you start the process of getting rid of this trap of the mind.
The physical independence achieved today, what we need is to be independent of the mind.
For only in the freedom of the mind, lies our true freedom.
So the question we need to ask ourselves,
Although as a nation we are free, but are we free as individuals?
We are free to move about and travel anywhere we wish to go in this country, but are we free of the mind? If the answer to this question is No, your journey has already begun.
Taking this opportunity to wish each reader a Happy Independence Day. May this blessed land of India bless us with abundance. Love you all.
