Freedom for…

One evening in the book store, I came across the book Freedom by Osho and immediately bought it. I have been a firm believer in giving and having freedom all my life. After reading this book, I realized that I saw freedom in the wrong way until now.

There are many kinds of freedom — social, political, economic, etc. but they are only superficial. True freedom has a different dimension to it. Freedom had two sides: freedom from and freedom for.

Freedom from: from nationality, from marriage, from work, from the boss, from a certain race, a certain religion… It comes from breaking away from restrictions imposed by outside forces. This is one side of freedom, a very basic one. When something bothers us and affects our happiness, we want to eradicate it from our life. Once you have attained this freedom, you will feel very light and happy. And you will start rejoicing in your own individuality because your individuality was covered with things that you have now become free of.

But this is only one half… The other half is…

Freedom for: Freedom from has no meaning unless we discover freedom for. Freedom from is fulfilling, but freedom for what? While finding freedom from, the person never thinks of freedom for. All this while, you are fighting to meet freedom. After breaking all the chains, you are standing under the starry night, not knowing the way.

Like others, I go through highs and lows in life. When I hit the lows, I don’t want to do things anymore, I want freedom from it. Don’t misinterpret freedom with irresponsibility here, that’s another thing. I want to be free from it and I start fighting for it, I start getting away from it. Now when I hit lows, I search freedom for. When I don’t have an answer for that, I pause my urge to fight until I get an answer. It helps.

Food for thought: India wanted freedom from slavery. For what? Did any of us think of bringing up new technology, new methods of agriculture, or new industries in the country? In fact, after getting freedom, we started fighting amongst ourselves. If we knew the reason for the rebel, we had been taking some right decisions.

Next time, when you want freedom from something, know the freedom for as well and then act.