I was discussing freedom with my office colleagues, and there was a common view that absolute freedom is a myth. Every freedom is relative. We are bound by rules and regulations in every society and every organization. Still, so many people aspire for freedom. Many people in pre-independence India would have believed that aspiring for freedom from British rule was a utopia, and still, some not only believed in that but also aspired for the same. Life for these freedom fighters was not easy. They have to undergo so many tortures and even give away their lives for something that they have not yet tasted. For something that nobody is sure of. The lives of the people who reconciled to slavery were comparatively easy.
The lives of those who reconcile to their situations are always easy. Those who aspire for freedom will have to work harder, face stressful situations, and also, at times, give away their lives. Yet, you ask Bhagat Singh at any point in time, and he will make the same choice again. You ask those people who did not dare to stand against the might of the British, and they will make the same choice again. Why are both of them equally convinced of their choices?
I feel that it all depends upon our awareness. We had a very different understanding of life when we were children. We had very limited awareness and exposure to life, and therefore, we will attach all our happiness to something we are aware of. Some of us would consider marks in an examination to be of paramount significance, while some will be quite attached to parents, and some will give great significance to a school or friends. Some children will become fussy about a particular toy. As we grow up, we start playing with different toys. Some become fixated on the balance in their bank account, while others want to possess someone, and some want to gather power. Some become obsessed with knowledge, and they want to know about everything under the Sun. In fact, most of these people are often obsessed with their social image of being knowledgeable. Whatever the "toy" we are obsessed with, we jump out of joy when we get the toy we desire and become sad when we do not get the same.
Some people reconcile with the "toys" they can get easily. Some make efforts to get the "toys" they want to play with. They may have many different "winning formulas". Some may like to work hard, while some manipulate, and some pray. Kauravas and Pandavas are both fighting for the "toy" they liked at the battle of Kurukshetra. What is Krishna fighting for? He is fighting the battle to tell the whole world, through his message to Arjuna in the form of the Bhagwat Geeta, how to fight the inner battle. Arjuna is fighting that inner battle between his "attachment" for social validation and "justice and fairness". Each one of us, who is even slightly connected to his inner being, has to face this inner battle. The "inner being" is always free and therefore whenever we sit silently to listen to its voice, we will always feel attracted to know the truth of our being, the truth of this universe. Fairness will be the driving force behind our actions. We will fight for justice and against unfairness. We will be driven by love and compassion because an honest examination of reality would always reveal that oneness.
In any society with widespread inequalities, the social fabric will be made of "ignorance" with the absence of all these qualities. Any aware society can't have widespread inequalities. Any aware person in that society will have to fight the inner battle like Arjuna. On the one hand, he will have an easy option to fall into the trap of "social validation" and run away from the battlefield due to his attachment to his relatives and concern about what society says. On the other hand, he will have a tough decision to stand strong with that inner call. It will not be easy. He will have to fight the battle against his own family members and near and dear ones. However, Krishna wanted to tell the world that anybody who wants to evolve and grow will have to fight this inner battle. Running away is not an option. Running away will just delay the process.
Krishna makes it absolutely clear to everyone that everything has emerged from Him and merges into Him, which is corroborated by the science of the day, which says that all the fundamental particles of matter and energy, being "fermions" and "bosons", emerge from the "Higgs field" and merge back into that billions of times in a second. All these attachments are due to our ignorance of mistaking these forms to be permanent because our "thinking apparatus" we call "brain" or "mind", has inherent limitations. It can't even make out that the movie on the screen is just pictures moving at a very fast speed. Its sole purpose is to help us survive, and that makes it an excellent storyteller; and it does not matter at all to it whether the story is real or imaginary. Only when someone trusts that "inner being", the way Arjuna trusted Krishna, can one break free of this illusion. While breaking free of that illusion, it will definitely not be pleasant because those stories have such deep roots that when they are challenged, they will create all types of discomfort. It was only Arjuna who could make such a choice. That's why it was only Arjuna who could get to know reality. So, we have an option to live comfortably with our own "mental stories" or choose that discomfort and explore reality.
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