# 024 Independence day greetings - Freedom from everything

Independence day greetings

Freedom from everything

Essence of Indian culture has always been about human liberation. On the day of (political) Independence Day, let us talk of not just political, social and physical liberation freedom (like Westerners) but of ultimate liberation: freedom from everything, freedom from prejudice, freedom from fear, freedom from death.

India is now at the peak of world attention. It is important to see how we are presenting ourselves to the world, about what we have to offer to the world. The essence of Indian culture has always been about human liberation. No other culture has looked at a human being with so much depth and understanding and created methods to evolve a person into his ultimate nature. To put it very bluntly, we have technologies to manufacture an enlightened being! 

It is not about belief systems. It is about systematic practices that were so intellectually and magnificently presented over thousands of years that they sharpened the mind and body in a certain way. That is what "yoga" is. Yoga is not about various postures that people immediately think of but a whole technology, which leads you on to a sense of inclusion; to experience everything and everyone as a part of yourself, which ultimately brings absolute clear perception of the realities in which you exist.

There are two ways to conquer somebody/something - one is by conquest, another is by inclusiveness. Inclusiveness is the way of yoga. Indian spiritual ethos is conquest by inclusion, by making someone fall in love with you. Conquest, unfortunately, has become the way of modern science. We should become a counter model for dog-eat-dog type of world situations. We should establish a society that is respected not because of its aggression or wealth but because of its wisdom of life.

But today, power is the only thing that is respected. This is only because we have not created a world where gentleness is respected. But is this power, this craze to accumulate wealth, making us happy? 

After receiving the Bharat Ratna award in 1992, J R D Tata said, "I don't want India to be an economic superpower. I want India to be a happy country."

Let us BE HAPPY.

Based on an article (Oasis) in Deccan Herald dt. 15.8.15 by Jaggi Vasudev.

# 015 Freedom is the goal of Life

Freedom is the goal of life.

This freedom... is spiritual, a state of consciousness unhindered by any desire, unchained to any desire, ‘unimprisoned’ by any greed, by any lust for more. It is utterly empty, because if there is something, it will hinder freedom; hence it is utter emptiness.

This word ‘emptiness’ has been so very misunderstood by people, because the word has a connotation of negativity.... Emptiness is absolutely positive, more positive than your so-called fullness, because emptiness is full of freedom; everything else has been removed. It is spacious; all boundaries have been dropped. It is unbounded — and only in an unbounded space, freedom is possible. This emptiness is not ordinary emptiness; it is not only absence of something, it is a presence of something invisible. For example, let’s say you are about to empty your room: As you remove the furniture and paintings and the things inside, the room becomes empty on the one hand because there is no more furniture, no more paintings, no more things, nothing is left inside; but on the other hand, something invisible starts filling it. That invisible ‘thing’ that you now perceive is ‘roominess’, spaciousness; the room becomes bigger. As you remove the things, the room is becoming bigger and bigger. When everything is removed, even the walls, then the room is as big as the whole sky.

Freedom is the ultimate goal of true religion. Freedom is the highest, the summum bonum; there is nothing higher than that.

Osho