Freedom of Mind

During a European War, a sailor was captured by the enemy and put in prison. After fifteen years the warring countries stopped fighting by concluding a treaty. The sailor was then released from prison, and on the day of release a friend placed in his hands a purse containing fifty pounds sterling. While the sailor was walking along a street, he came across a shop in which there were various species of birds in cages, for sale. He went up to the shopkeeper and bought all the cages with the money be had, and then opened the trapdoors of the cages one after another, setting free all the birds therein. Astounded at this, the shopkeeper asked the sailor as to why after paying quite a bit of money for these birds, he was releasing them all. The sailor replied:
"You see, I know what it is to be imprisoned, and denied the privilege of freedom. I have suffered prison life for fifteen long years. I therefore, couldn't bear to see these birds unhappy in their cages."

When a Tilak or a Garibaldi freedom fighters of India and Italy respectively proclaims that 'Freedom is my birthright', we rightly stand by them and say that man should be free of oppression, whether it is of the foreign or native variety. All the political, social and economic struggles waged earlier, and which continue to be a part of our life today, are no doubt aimed at freeing man (including women, of course) from the restrictions imposed on them through the system, tradition, custom, habit etc.

All this constitutes outer freedom which undoubtedly is necessary for mankind all over the world. But without 'inner freedom', outer freedom loses all its meaning. The soul of man is, really speaking, 'free'. But if you look carefully you will see that it is in chains almost everywhere, and never allowed to break through and shine forth. And who is it that is imprisoning this 'splendor' otherwise known as the soul, who exactly is caging it? You.

This may sound strange, but it is true. You do not want to liberate yourself from your conditioning, your age old tradition, your customs, and your patterned thinking. You worship the mind, the intellect, but you do not realize that beyond a particular point, the mind is just a cul-de-sac.

There is no way out of the mind; you can go round and round within its limits, but it cannot show you a way out of the blind alley in which you are trapped. 'Kill the mind' says the Zen master. But even without the need for such stern measures, see for yourself the limitations of the mind, which as a tool is quite useful, the finest tool that man has been gifted with, but utterly dangerous if you allow it to dictate what you should or should not do.

For the latter, you would have to consult the heart. Go to the heart, not the superficial heart with its output of mere emotion and sentiment, but the heart of your very being, your core, the center, the soul. Once you discover the existence of the soul, which is freedom itself, you turn free. The 'seeing' of freedom is the 'being' of freedom.

From now on, you are utterly totally free. You can no longer be enslaved because nothing in this world is of any value to you as compared to the' intrinsic freedom' which you have discovered on your own. Now you don't need to defend it with all your might, since you have discovered that your very nature as a human being is 'freedom'. This 'freedom' is your birthright, and you have to realize it here and now.

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