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A man, 105 years old, was once asked about the secret to his long life. His response was simple yet profound: "The secret is that I haven't died yet, and that's why I'm still living!" This statement highlights a deeper truth about life: the mere act of living is not enough. We must understand what it truly means to live fully.It is often said that breathing signifies life, but merely breathing does not mean one is truly alive. Someone in a coma breathes but is not actively living. There are different ways people "live." Some focus only on meeting their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter, without any higher aspirations. Others live driven by ambition, seeking power, fame, and wealth, trampling everything in their path like bulldozers. A third type of person lives for the happiness and welfare of others, putting others' needs before their own.
Swami Chinmayananda once said: "Since you were born, you must die. But do not die while you are living." This reflects a critical misunderstanding many have about freedom. For many, freedom is perceived as the ability to live according to the whims of the mind. To truly appreciate freedom, we must first understand what enslavement means. Enslavement is the dependence on things we believe we cannot live without.
For example, some people are enslaved by their need for a morning coffee. Others cannot sleep without a specific pillow or in an unfamiliar bed. Our preferences and desires have imprisoned our minds. We label things as "beautiful" and derive joy from them, or we deem something "ugly" and it brings us sadness. These judgments are nothing more than projections of our own minds. Another layer of enslavement stems from the "self" that judges these things, often referred to as the ego.
Ego, in this context, is not merely pride or arrogance but a sense of individuality rooted in identification with external things. At a deeper level, enslavement is identifying with something that is not our true nature. Consider the body: it is our residence, our vehicle, the tool through which we interact with the world. But believing that we are the body is the first form of enslavement. Even thinking of it as "ours" is a form of bondage.
How much control do we truly have over this body? Can we stop it from aging? Can we prevent hunger, thirst, or illness? The second form of enslavement arises from the belief that "I am the body." As a result, we constantly seek more comfort, pleasure, and security for it. The more attached we are to the body, the greater our desires become. Ironically, security itself is tied to death; the more we seek it, the more we distance ourselves from true freedom.
Since not all desires can be fulfilled, we experience sadness, disappointment, and depression. This creates a deeper level of enslavement. We seek happiness, but our mistaken beliefs only lead to more suffering. We think material things will make us happy, but if we can find happiness without them, we are truly free. That is real happiness.
A beautiful definition of "knowledge" is that knowledge means not insisting on any particular thing. The true nature of a wise person is flexibility. In worldly matters, one must be adaptable.
The wise realize that being rigid in a constantly changing world is futile. They face both favorable and unfavorable situations with equanimity and remain free at all times. This is what it means to live in true freedom. A person who remains calm in every situation, who does not take offense, is truly free from enslavement.
True freedom, therefore, is not about escaping external constraints but liberating oneself from the mental and emotional dependencies that keep us bound. When we are free from the illusion that we are the body, and when we detach from the things that cause suffering, we experience a life of genuine freedom and peace.