TO WHOM IS LIBERATION?

Nowadays we hear a lot about liberation, often referred to as nirvana or moksha or salvation. Before talking about liberation, one must ask some questions like, to whom is the liberation? and from what does one have to be liberated?

Let’s discuss it.

We are born out of nature. We are born with some tendencies which are supported by nature. These tendencies include greed, hatred, lust, fear, anger etc. They are prominent in us which gives rise to a fictional quantity called ego. Ego is a sense of incompleteness, an inner hollow which is present in every human being. This hollow has to be filled in order to attain peace and happiness.

Ego can be referred to as the “I” tendency. It acknowledges itself as a doer. But if observed closely, the action by each one of us conforms to a pattern. Everyone does the same thing out of greed, hatred, lust, fear and anger. And actions inspired by these tendencies had almost every time brought suffering to us. What this ego does is, it gets bound to a person or a thing which it thinks can give happiness but always returns empty handed.

We have got a way to fill this hollow with material things. This have not helped us, rather caused the inner hollow to be hollower. The more we feed it, the hungrier it gets. Then why do we repeat this thing again and again? It is due to the presence of these tendencies which are supported by nature and then nurtured by social conditioning.

The only way out is to observe nature and not to participate in its play. Nature has its own purpose. It wants us to engage in its play for the process of survival and procreation. We need to enquire about each and every action we do. We need to be constantly aware of our actions and thought processes. When we are aware that we are aware then this awareness is a fake awareness. Initially, fake awareness is needed as we act from our socially conditioned centre. For us to act from centre of freedom, we need to enforce it over the socially conditioned centre.

The actions arising from freedom are right actions. When we are free, there is a state of equanimity. Being equanimous means to act the same for the situations of opposite nature. By doing this we no longer remain slaves to our body. The body is conquered and so are its tendencies and what remains is absolute freedom and this freedom in itself is called liberation.