Question::
What is “external freedom” and Why is it called relative freedom? What is “spiritual freedom” and Why is it called “internal freedom”? How different are these two?
(or)
What is “freedom of ignorance”? What is illusory/localized freedom?
(or)
Why is “spiritual freedom” is called the BASIC FREEDOM? What happens if ‘spiritual freedom” is not there?
(or)
Why “spiritual freedom” is necessary for each and every human being?
(or)
What makes “spiritual freedom” ABSOLUTE and UNLIMITED? What are the conditions to attain “spiritual freedom”?
(or)
Why is it that a ‘Perfect Master’s guidance’ is indispensable to achieve freedom?
(or)
Why “wanting” is considered a ‘limitation’? What happens when our “wanting” stops?
(or)
Why God loves “helpless” and “destitute” THE MOST?
(or)
What are the advantages of “spiritual freedom”? How does “Pure/Selfless Love” help attain “spiritual freedom”?
(or)
Why should one eliminate ‘one’s own ignorance’ and attain the eternal experience of ‘one’s own self’?
(or)
What is the best way of offering “help” to those who are helpless? What does “real help” comprise of?
Answer:
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, which is a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust(©AMBPPCT), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
Throughout the ages, the voice of mankind has been lifted up in a great clamour for freedom. The love and quest for freedom are principal characteristics of humanity, regardless of race, time, nationality, or geography.
But, in spite of the fact that freedom has been the watchword of groping mankind for so many thousands of years, there are very few persons who really understand the full implications of true freedom. There are many, though, who struggle to attain a relative freedom dictated by their partial understanding of the “nature” and “conditions” of true freedom. Thus different persons long for different kinds of freedom according to the different things they have come to value.
Relative freedom, which is the brand of freedom usually involved, is sought in all phases of life and is usually related to the “type of existence” people wish to lead. For instance,
- those who identify themselves with their country, instinctively work for ‘national’ and ‘political’ freedom.
- Those who are motivated by economic considerations strive for ‘economic freedom’.
- Those who are inspired by religious drives work towards ‘religious freedom’.
- Those who espouse some sociological or cultural ideology promote ‘freedom of movement or speech’.
The localized freedom which grows from these limited goals is ILLUSORY, and can only be termed a ‘contrasting state’ in which the REVERSE of the discomforting situation prevails. It is a ‘freedom of ignorance’ in which there is at best transitory peace and plenty, and passing relief and enjoyment.
Regardless of the material bindings of the good and the bad, “spiritual freedom” is always at hand ready to be grasped by man. This is true because man’s inherent spiritual freedom of the soul is eternal, infinite, and changeless regardless of whether it is experienced with ‘full human consciousness’ or not.
Few realize that this is the basic freedom. It alone can give the stamp of true value to the different kinds of relative freedom, for in the long run they are all dissolved in it. Even when the external conditions of a free life are completely fulfilled and guaranteed, the mind of man will still be in a straight-jacket if man failed to win ‘spiritual freedom’.
External, relative freedom is inevitably restricted by contact with other individuals. Therefore, external freedom is subject to redefinition and restriction within the limits imposed by group, communal and national living. Inevitably, ‘national rights’ in turn become subject to adjudication or violent readjustment because of the overlapping ‘rights’ of other nations.
The constant adjustment of these so-called ‘rights’ at all levels is completely incapable of final solution within the spheres of interest and controlling principles natural to them. Consciously or unconsciously, ‘individuals’ as well as ‘nations’ must draw upon a more reliable concept of freedom within which those ‘rights’ may be resolved.
National, economic, religious, and cultural freedoms are the reflection of the “duality of existence”. They exist only in varying degrees, subject to constant discordant adjustment.
Even when won through persistent effort, they cannot be permanently maintained because the ‘external conditions’ upon which they have been constructed are themselves subject to deterioration.
Only spiritual freedom is ‘absolute’ and ‘unlimited’; when it is won through persistent effort, it is won forever. For, although spiritual freedom can and does express itself in the duality of existence, it is grounded in and sustained by the realization of the inviolable unity of all life.
ONE IMPORTANT CONDITION OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM IS FREEDOM FROM ALL WANTING.
It is wanting itself which chains life by attaching it to the conditions in environment which would fulfill that want.
If there is no wanting, there is no dependence, and therefore no limitation.
The individual never achieves true freedom until he is no longer pushed or pulled by any inner compulsion. When he has worked through all the desires and worn them so threadbare that he can be, or not be– have, or have not– then, he is free. It is here that the Perfect Masters are indispensable in helping to lighten this CRUSHING BURDEN of trying to wear out and discard the wants.
When the individualized soul breaks through the encasing steel armour of wanting, it emancipates itself from its illusory bondage to bodies, mind, & ego. This is the spiritual freedom which brings with it the final realization of the unity of all life and puts an end to all doubts and worries.
Fully conscious, eternal experience of spiritual freedom is the inevitable and final destination for all life and for each individual being.
The method for abandoning the hold which ‘duality’ has on consciousness is not simple.
The more “comfort” and “pleasure” available to man, the less his chance for a strong enough push to force him to give up even the temporary happiness of his achievements.
And yet, he must eventually do this (internally) to bring the full focus of consciousness to bear on the experience of the eternally inherent self or soul, with all its blissful freedom of real existence.
This is why God loves most the so-called “destitute” and “helpless.” The greater the helplessness, the greater can and should be the dependence upon God for His help, which is ever more ready than are the sincere and earnest wishes for it. The greater the bindings, the greater the chances for quick, permanent relief through fully conscious experience of man’s own original and everlasting freedom.
The unlimited and everlasting spiritual freedom of the self or soul exists eternally and infinitely in one and all, and is equally available to every man and woman irrespective of class, creed, or nationality.
“Spiritual freedom” can and does transcend all the illusory phenomena of duality, because divine Oneness is always divine Oneness before the ‘beginningless beginning’ and beyond the ‘endless end’. Contrarily, the illusion of all material binding from first to last is always illusion, and even its illusory existence depends upon the play of the eternal spiritual freedom of the soul.
- It is only in spiritual freedom that one can have enduring happiness and unhampered self-knowledge.
- It is only in spiritual freedom that one finds the supreme certainty of truth-realization.
- It is only in spiritual freedom that there is final end to sorrow and limitation.
- It is only in spiritual freedom that one can live for all, and yet remain detached in the midst of all activity.
Any other lesser type of freedom is like a house built on sand, and any lesser attainment is fraught with fear of decay. There is no gift greater than that of spiritual freedom, and no task more important than helping others to find spiritual freedom.
Those who have understood the supreme importance of spiritual freedom must not only strive for it themselves, but also share the God-given duty of helping others win it.
Regardless of whether a man is wealthy or poor, highly educated or illiterate, the only real help is to give him the ‘perfect hope’ that everyone has a really equal opportunity to achieve everlasting freedom from all bindings.
Helping others achieve ‘spiritual freedom’ is very different from rendering other types of help.
- For the hungry, one can provide food, and they have only to eat it.
- For the naked,one can provide clothes, and they have only to wear them.
- For the homeless,one can provide houses, and they have only to live in them.
But for those who experience the agonies of human bondage, there is no ready means of providing immediate relief except by the ‘grace of God’.
As a rule, ‘spiritual freedom’ must be won through watchful and unfailing war against the ‘lower self’ and its ‘desires’. Those who would help shoulder the load in the cause of truth have not only the responsibility of attaining the goal for themselves, but of extending ‘love’ and ‘understanding’ to othersin every step which they take towards that attainment.There is no other way of sharing their burden.
Real help in achieving the perfect hope of attaining spiritual freedom can only be given by the Perfect Master who has achieved with full consciousness the ‘freedom of the self’, and at the same time continues to be entirely conscious of the ‘illusion of duality’. From Him, true and great help can be obtained, for He has experienced one hundred per cent of the truth of spiritual freedom, and is one hundred per cent confident that the truth is real. Such a Perfect Master can give relief to humanity from “IMMEDIATE IGNORANCE”, as well as relief to the individual from “CONTINUAL IGNORANCE”.
But “direct help” from a Perfect Master is RARELY AVAILABLE, and so each individual must help others in every field of life to the utmost of his capacity.
First, however, he must take every possible precaution against the development in himself a “sense of obliging” or of “obligation” in the receiver.
This is best achieved by a feeling of pure love between man and man.
Such ‘selfless love’ springs from the profound understanding that– each individual, on achieving full human consciousness, has arrived at the same threshold of infinite divine Oneness. Each human being does possess, therefore, a truly equal spiritual opportunity to achieve the oneness of spiritual freedom, which is potentially as complete in himself as in the other.
Even though one may have tried to take every precaution to avoid any “sense of obligation” in the help one gives, undoubtedly, there is every chance of this element entering to some extent, through either giver or receiver.
Still, this should be no cause for hesitation in rendering whatever relief one can provide.
Although, extending help to others is fraught with the danger of endlessly multiplying misery for both giver and receiver, man must nevertheless help his fellow beings with the same care that he meets his own needs.
There are further questions of great importance in rendering help to a suffering humanity, such as temporary and permanent relief. Often a sharp choice must be made. hen immediate relief is likely to turn a curable case into an incurable one, or to spread the infection to others, insistence upon “immediate relief” and refusal to try for a permanent cure is unthinkable. Similarly,
there is no real value in helping if one robs Peter in order to pay Paul.
There is no point in giving relief at one end by creating misery at the other.
The question of pity for the suffering and downtrodden is also a moot one. Such expressions of pity in themselves are an expression of ignorance, as “pity” itself is invariably based on unconscious denial of the equal capacity for everlasting freedom of the self.
There is no truth in the myth that the well-fed, well-clothed, well-educated can best find God.
On the contrary, the so-called “rich” are comparatively more handicapped by ‘fleeting comfort’ and ‘mercurial resources’ than are those who feel chained by their material needs.
Since God loves the afflicted ones most, to emphasize their helplessness is to act in ignorance of their true state of “grace”.
- Instead of making them think more and more about their helplessness, they must be made to come nearer and nearer to God.
- Instead of stressing the limitations of some men, the emphasis should be placed on the limitations of all men.
- Instead of stressing the need that– “I” help “you” or “you” help “me”, it should be “WE” helping “US”.
- Instead of making ourselves and others helpless-minded, we should become and help others to become “helpful-minded”.
The relative difference between man and man in material resources or physical endowment becomes lost like a mote of dust in the infinitely greater resources of the inner self– the treasure house of all.
It must be impressed constantly upon humanity that the real birth-right of every man and woman is– to achieve his own ‘original freedom’, that it can be achieved, and that sooner or later it must be achieved.
Without this, there is no lasting escape from the day-to-day problems born of duality.
Men must be made to understand clearly that their present life is a chain of continuous strife, that this chain is composed of links of the “opposite experiences” of virtue and sin, service and tyranny etc., and that the chain can never be permanently ended as long as ‘ignorance’ is not eliminated by achieving the eternal experience of one’s own self.
Except in cases of complete physical helplessness, help can best be given by offering the individual– ‘work,’ and making him feel that he is fit to do work. Yet even this help is superfluous when judged from the standpoint of spirituality.
Real help that can be rendered humanity is to make man feel his inherent divinity, and to cause him to see that the only purpose of life is to love Godin order to become one in full consciousness with Him.
No sacrifice is too great to set man free from spiritual bondage and help him achieve ‘spiritual freedom’. This alone can bring peace to all, sustained unfailingly by an unassailable sense of universal fellowship and cemented by an ungrudging love for all as expressions of the same reality.
– Meher Baba
Source ::
Listen Humanity, Pg :: 145- 150
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India/Bharat
