The Joy of Freedom

From around the world, we are hearing calls for freedom as though a great tide of demand is rising up against all that militates against it. The word, freedom, is being used in many contexts and with various shades of meaning – but what essentially is it? As we experience our inherent urge to freedom, we learn firstly that the freedom one individual seeks can either enhance or inhibit the freedom of others according to what freedom means for each within the scope of their understanding and their sense of who they think they are.

Freedom is often spoken of as freedom from something or freedom to do something. It may also be used in a more universal sense as the freedom of something: of choice, of thought, of speech, of will. All are expressions of the underlying dynamic of the spark of life seeking release from some imprisoning form – when that form no longer serves life’s purpose. It is the freedom of the prodigal son to return to the Father’s home and its infinite possibilities. And as we free ourselves from one form into an expanded one, our sense of identity expands with it. In Supermundane we are told:

…Give freedom to the spirit; do not bind it with human limitations. It will soar by itself and return triumphant; thus man becomes attuned to the Supermundane World… No special incantations are needed; the spirit striving to its Motherland, attracted by the Great Magnet, is enough.
“… freedom of spirit is the gate into the Supermundane World. One’s entire earthly life can be transformed through the manifestation of free will…” Supermundane: from Sloka 749, 778

As our understanding and our sense of “self” expands, we realise that we are part of a greater life which sustains us and our world; and what affects any part affects the whole. In this realisation freedom is understood as the freedom to direct life energy, life’s creative power, to contribute to the life of the whole. If we seek a personal freedom that contravenes another, or seek to acquire what may harm another, we create a division, a separation, a counterforce which militates against freedom.

How clearly this is playing out in so many situations around the world – from personal struggles to political divides, territorial disagreement, and exploitation of the vulnerable. At the same time, and on a rising trajectory, we are seeing the universal freedom of the greater life expressing creatively through global coordination by humanitarian agencies, a growing unity of nations, the movement to address climate change and restore the health of the planet, collaboration in scientific discoveries, and the compassion of individuals as they open their homes to refugees and donate to help those in desperate need.

In this larger perspective and expanded sense of human identity, efforts to curtail freedom by force or by lies are more clearly identified for what they are: part of a worldview that no longer serves even those who pursue such a backward course – could they but realise. Even as despotic regimes impose greater limitations on the freedom of their people, they are doomed to fail as the life-force of our world is being realised through human consciousness and expressed through the human heart.

…It should be remembered that freedom requires a high discipline, and those who manifest disorder and confusion cannot be regarded as free…” Supermundane: from Sloka 832

Life expresses in cycles and brings order out of a chaos of energies. Order unfolds through time and space according to a purpose. A freely chosen purpose gives direction to free will. It operates under the principle of limitation (a chosen limitation), limiting possibilities to those that serve that purpose. Having a purpose unlocks or frees one’s power to participate creatively and meaningfully in life’s expression – if our purpose is aligned with divine intention. If not, we learn by pain and suffering, but when we act in concert with divine will, we experience joy, that transcendent state that can be experienced no matter whether we are on a battle front or in peaceful reflection. The Agni Yoga teachings remind us of joy.

Urusvati knows how to bring joy. This quality is contained in the disciplined will. The realization of joy grows through conviction, not through the acquisition of things. There is no condition that cannot be turned into joy. When We speak repeatedly about joy We evoke it as a great reality. One cannot imagine Our Abode without joy. The most tense battles are filled with joy. Without it there is no action. To elucidate the meaning and value of joy is to resolve a great physiological principle.
…It should be understood that We wish to explain joy as something creative and inspired. Joy is a reliable magnet. We want people to know where their panacea is. They can conduct a better and higher communion in joy. They will find a firm co-worker in joy. They will wish that the world might live in joy. … Let people remember that no one can deprive them of their joy. …For Us it is a festival when We see that Our co-workers have understood the shield of joy.” Supermundane, Sloka 55

The joy of freedom is experienced when as free spirits we no longer feel contained by our form of embodiment – when we know that we are not the form but are the presence and creative power that animates it for as long as it serves a purpose and progresses the realization of our oneness with the greater Life in Whom we live and move and have our being. This is when our identity and Presence radiate beyond the limits of the form of embodiment. The Tibetan master explains this process of liberation:

Radiation is the outer effect produced by all forms in all kingdoms when their internal activity has reached such a stage of vibratory activity that the confining walls of the form no longer form a prison, but permit of the escape of the subjective essence.
…[This is] the effect produced by the inner essence as it makes its presence felt through the form, when the form has been brought to a stage of such refinement that it becomes possible…
[It] comes about when the internal, self-sufficient life of any atom is offset by a stronger urge, or pull, emanating from the enveloping greater existence of whose body it may form a part.
… the essential life of any atom, its highest positive aspect, is ever of the same nature as that of the greater life which is drawing it to itself.
…The liberated essences become conductors of the greater force which is their magnetic centre, because they are responsive to it… A treatise on Cosmic Fire, from page 1060 onwards

* * * * * *