Freedom

The Independence Day ushers in a message of freedom and hope. But the key question is - Freedom from what? and what is the definition of freedom or liberation? Many a great sacrifices are made for liberation of every country. Many heroic souls lay down their lives for the future generations to survive and succeed. However future generations tend to forget them and in their lethargy and ignorance do not understand the sacrifices, or are afraid of them. Because of this failure to understand and appreciate the sacrifices and need to preserve the legacy of those sacrifices, they soon run into grave danger and are ultimately destroyed. Then again comes another set of heroic souls to liberate the rest. Thus this cycle continues ad nauseum. However nobody can deny that freedom is a basic need of the mankind. Nobody wants to remain as slaves. While now education and awareness have increased appreciably this is all the more evident.

Worldwide fundamentalism, which is a major impediment against freedom, is taking a hasty retreat and yet it seems that the fundamentalist forces are gaining strength. As the forces gain strength, the resistance against them is also gaining, so that a pitch battle is occurring in many countries. In Bangladesh there is a movement to punish the perpetrators of heinous religious and ethnic crimes during the 1971 war. In Egypt the religious orthodoxy has been rejected. In Saudi Arabia the women have finally raised their voice against the tyranny of the men in the name of religious doctrines. With proliferation of education and dawning of better sense, people are not satisfied with dogmas. Internet has vastly opened up the ground. The facebook generation can instantly connect to anybody across the world and they are no longer bound by prevailing dogma and non secular notions. They no longer wish to remain as the frog in the well. They need something more concrete and thus are lashing out against the fundamentalists and oppressive regimes which are trying to undermine their aspirations. The goal of every individual is freedom or liberation, from all kinds of bondage. The aspiration after freedom is the key driver for this movement. 

The concept of freedom has always inspired the youth but they often did not know where to search for it and how to channelize their angst against an oppressive dogma ridden socioeconomic system. Therefore they had rebelled in their own ways, from taking up weapons to leading a highly irresponsible and “free” life. Most of these were passing phases as they soon discovered the futility of it all and the generation therefore compromised and went back to living the old way, or simply disappeared. There were a lucky few who could discover the hidden path to actual freedom and they survived. So are the events happening today worldwide are also passing phases? The experience says so and yet, we refuse the believe it. It is all the more likely that things are heading for a change. Fundamentalism, hatred, violence against women and children and almost anybody with whom we differ in terms of races and religions, are still very much there, probably on the same scale as in the past. But what has changed is that there is an increasing voice against such atrocities. People are becoming more courageous. They are finding their lost voices. They have realized that only in a dogma free society the concept of liberation will be meaningful. They are not willing to give in to the browbeating and ruthless measures. That is certainly a sign of hope. This proves conclusively that the inherent need of people is freedom, which is probably a notch higher than the need of self actualization, which unfortunately Maslow did not consider in his model. This need surpasses all other needs and this need is ultimately manifested against man’s rebellion against nature. 

Evolution in a sense is also a march towards greater freedom from less in the animal world. From more limitations the physical world has evolved to less constraints imposed upon them by the nature. In sort, nature aided them in the journey when they struggled against its injunctions, thereby promoting a lower form to a higher form. Consciousness also evolved in the same way. There is thus a conscious movement from less freedom to greater freedom and nature supports the process in various ways.

Swami Vivekananda had defined life as that force which struggles against nature, against its oppression and tyranny, to dominate over the environment that tries to crush it at every step. The ultimate liberation is then manifested when nature is subdued and man comes out of the bondage imposed by the senses and passions, the internal forces of nature. That is the goal of mankind and every smaller struggle towards freedom is a step taken in that direction.