All of us in India celebrated Independence Day yesterday. What a great feeling, independence is. Freedom from dependence on anything must be great. What about freedom from reactions? We often get triggered when we listen to anything unreasonable such as an unreasonable statement from the boss, the unreasonable behavior of a fellow traveler in an airplane or train, the behavior of a rash driver or blowing the horn unnecessarily, or even during the social discussions when somebody takes unreasonable view.
Suppose somebody or something can trigger us and we lose our control over ourselves, or become sad, or become agitated, or anxious. Does that not simply mean that we have given undue powers to that person or thing over ourselves? Nobody wants to be agitated or angry. I think that is an eternal reality because whenever we get agitated or angry, we do not feel good. Yet, if some situations or people are making us crazy, does that mean that there is some divine injustice with us, or are we missing something critical?
I feel that we are missing something critical in the process. In our interactions with the world, we divide everything into good and bad, right and wrong, and generally, we try to stand on the side of right and whosoever is not going our way is on the wrong side. Sometimes people are standing on the wrong side because they have a different view. Sometimes they are on the wrong side because they are not able to appreciate the view we have. We get attached to our view and that becomes the center of our lives. We seek identity and validation in our view and feel happy if that view is supported by many people.
I feel that the biggest reason for such fixation with the views is that we all are insecure. We get disconnected from the inner selves, the divine, and seek security in the validation of our views because if our view is validated by many, we feel that society considers us to be intelligent and that gives us some sort of security. An insecure mind seeks security in a range of things such as money, power, knowledge, and self-image. In a group where almost everybody has the same money, power, and knowledge (such as discussions among colleagues), or these factors are not considered to be that important (such as during philosophical discussions), views weigh heavily because a person tries to prove his strength by showing that his views are more acceptable by the masses. However, in the process, we end up committing the same mistake. We again seek some security by anchoring to a sinking ship. At the end of the day, if we are connected and secure internally, what matters is truth and only truth. A boat is not going to be secure by anchoring to thousands of sinking ships. In fact, that will create more of a problem rather than providing a solution. If truth becomes the guiding force of our lives, we do not need any external security or anchoring. However, the truth can never be our guiding force until and unless we accept the death of any and every material form, including our viewpoint, as temporary and stop anchoring our lives around them. That gives us true freedom.
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