Article From Sri V. Ganesan

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends

 

Sri Ganesan recently had this article published in an American Journal

which is distributed to Prisoners in Jail .

I am sharing it with you all on his behalf. Regards, Alan

 

 

 

> TRUTH IS IN FREEDOM

>

> By V. Ganesan

>

>

> In ‘Hinduism’ - a living Religion of the East - all forms of

> understanding take place in the dual realms of and in the interaction

> between the Eternal Existence - God - and, the individual beings’

> bodies and minds. Thus, in all branches of fine arts, like, music,

> painting, dancing etc., the focused display is always around God and

> His ‘Leelas’ (plays) around individual beings. In this regard,

> according to Hindu mythology, the Lord God descended on the Earth many

> a time. Lord Krishna, in this lineage, incarnated as the Eighth

> ‘Avatar’ (descent). It was Lord Krishna who imparted, in the midst

> of a fierce battle-field, the Great Teaching of Truth, through the

> world-renowned text : The Bhagavad Gita.

>

> The Lord chose to be born to a pious couple who were imprisoned in a

> cruel manner of being permanently chained ! Before He converted

> Himself into a child, according to the legend, He gave a Divine

> Vision of Himself in all His splendor; and, announced to them the

> arrival of Himself as their son, to dispel the darkness and

> unrighteousness ; and, save the world. The Lord, thus, was born

> within the dire conditions of a prison cell ! It is also stated that

> the Lord then ordered to be taken out of the prison to a specified safe

> village. When the devotedly surrendered father decided to obey the

> commandment of the Lord, lo ! the chains dropped off, the iron gates

> opened of themselves and all the jailers were sound asleep ! The new

> born baby was thus safely moved and left with the king of a tribal

> nomads. When the father returned to the prison, everything came back

> to as of old - gates got closed, chains put themselves and the

> jailers woke up, afresh !

>

> The high-walled prison is no prison but only man's own mind and body.

> To treat mind and body as one's true state of being is

> self-imprisonment. Living physically in a prison, thus, can mean

> total 'freedom' if one can come out of the 'prison' of mind and

> body. This is achieved by an inward, total, unquestioned 'surrender'

> to the inner, invisible, ever-free Self, which dwells in the Heart of

> all beings. Every man, even in a 'concrete- prison', has a right to

> attain this 'freedom' and come out of one's own self-made shackles of

> remaining in the 'flesh-prison' of body-mind. In such a case, one

> becomes a role model of one ever living in 'Freedom' , ever living

> in 'Truth' , as 'Truth' !

>

> This aspect of the story is significantly symbolical of the possibility

> of ‘release to freedom’ from the chains of enslavement, if one fully

> surrenders to the revelation of the Inner Call, even today.

> Willingness to surrender is the real ‘clue’ to attaining “Freedom” !

>

> ‘Surrender’ to what ? How ? And, to whom ?

>

> One’s mind is the ‘prison’ and the five senses are the impregnable

> iron walls. The ‘Self’ , the ‘Truth’, the ‘Lord’ - “ I AM “

> - is imprisoned in the body-mind-prison, i.e., cut off from the

> freedom “to be” as it ever “IS” ! Willingly choosing to

> ‘listen’ to the “Teaching” , is surrendering oneself to ‘Truth’ ,

> the Lord within as one’s own Inner Voice ! Such pragmatic

> decision-making is within the easy reach and scope of each one of us -

> whether one is inside the scorching iron walls of a concrete prison or

> imprisoned within flesh body, obeying the cruel dictates of the five

> senses ! Each one of us are ever ‘free’ - God created every one of

> us to be born ‘free’ , live ‘free’ and die ‘free’ ! This true

> essence of ‘freedom’ , the feeling of ‘freedom’ , every one enjoys

> in deep sleep, wherever one’s body is laid taking a nap ! Therefore,

> the ‘key’ to freedom is in one’s own mind ! Choose to be ‘free’ and

> any one is ever ‘free’ , only !

>

> The true significance of the ‘jailed’ father carrying the child

> (God) to safety; and, its symbolic identity with a true seeker’s

> gaining ‘freedom’ from the shackles of the body-mind-prison, have to

> be dealt with in greater details to have a clearer understanding. Each

> one of us are endowed with a ‘brain’ and a ‘heart’ -- the former,

> dealing with logic and intellectual decisions and the latter, with

> pure emotion and intuitional decisions.

>

> Please note : - The father’s feet and hands were chained with heavy

> metals. The prison gates were robust and impregnable. The soldiers

> were many – strong and hard-hearted. The village was at a far off

> distance; it could be reached only after crossing over the virulent

> river – Jamuna - which was in spate ! In addition, it was very

> heavily raining ! These were the dire situations when the ‘child’

> ordered the father to carry him away to the village ! If the ‘brain’

> were to be relied upon, would it not pose all these practical

> ‘impossibilities’ as obstacles ? Fortunately, the father listened to

> his ‘heart’ which guided him to obey, simply carry out the dictates

> of the child’s voice, which he understood as echoing the words of

> God.

>

> Obeying one’s commands of the ‘Heart’ is called ‘surrender’ !

> In a seeker’s life, commands of the ‘Heart’ -- call it,

> ‘conscience’ or ‘inner voice’ -- which ‘tunes’ perfectly well

> with the Teaching of ‘Self-Enquiry’ , is the secret, is the essence,

> is the content of ‘true surrender’ . Conversely, surrendering one’s

> mind to the Heart is the result and effect of plunging oneself into

> ‘Self-Enquiry’ . Such enquiry,

> done inwardly, reveals the ‘Truth’ of one’s Self, the ‘ I AM “ .

> Has not Jesus Christ said : “ Attain first the Truth; and, the Truth

> will lead you to Freedom – the Kingdom of God” ?

>

> Listening to one’s Heart positively, leads one to the ‘Truth’ ! All

> apparent non-truths obstructing attainment of the Truth, will fall

> away of themselves, leading one to Freedom ! Freedom Supreme is

> within one’s Heart - irrespective of the fact whether one is inside

> the iron walls of a prison or whether one is inside the flesh-prison of

> the body-mind complex !

>

> Truth is in Freedom !

>

> Truth is Freedom !

>

>

> * * * * * * *

>

 

 

 

 

 

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