Freedom

June 3, 2007

FREEDOM

Swami Vivekananda

In addition to meaning work, we have stated that psychologically the

word Karma also implies causation. Any work, any action, any thought

that produces an effect is called a Karma. Thus the law of Karma

means the law of causation, of inevitable cause and sequence.

Wheresoever there is a cause, there an effect must be produced; this

necessity cannot be resisted, and this law of Karma, according to our

philosophy, is true throughout the whole universe. Whatever we see,

or feel, or do, whatever action there is anywhere in the universe,

while being the effect of past work on the one hand, becomes, on the

other, a cause in its turn, and produces its own effect. It is

necessary, together with this, to consider what is meant by the

word " law " . By law is meant the tendency of a series to repeat

itself. When we see one event followed by another, or sometimes

happening simultaneously with another, we expect this sequence or co-

existence to recur. Our old logicians and philosophers of the Nyaya

school call this law by the name of Vyapti. According to them, all

our ideas of law are due to association. A series of phenomena

becomes associated with things in our mind in a sort of invariable

order, so that whatever we perceive at any time is immediately

referred to other facts in the mind. Any one idea or, according to

our psychology, any one wave that is produced in the mind-stuff,

Chitta, must always give rise to many similar waves. This is the

psychological idea of association, and causation is only as aspect of

this grand pervasive principle of association. This pervasiveness of

association is what is, in Sanskrit, called Vyapti. In the external

world the idea of law is the same as in the internal--the expectation

that a particular phenomenon will be followed by another, and that

the series will repeat itself. Really speaking, therefore, law does

not exist in nature. Practically it is an error to say that

gravitation exists in the earth, or that there is any law existing

objectively anywhere in nature. Law is the method, the manner in

which our mind grasps a series of phenomena; it is all in the mind.

Certain phenomena, happening one after another or together, and

followed by the conviction of the regularity of their recurrence--

thus enabling our minds to grasp the method of the whole series--

constitute what we call law.

The next question for consideration is what we mean by law being

universal. Our universe is that portion of existence which is

characterised by what the Sanskrit psychologists call Desha-kala-

nimitta, or what is known to European psychology as space, time, and

causation. This universe is only a part of infinite existence, thrown

into a peculiar mould, composed of space, time, and causation. It

necessarily follows that law is possible only within this conditioned

universe; beyond it there cannot be any law. When we speak of the

universe, we only mean that portion of existence which is limited by

our mind--the universe of the senses, which we can see, feel, touch,

hear, think of, imagine. This alone is under law; but beyond it

existence cannot be subject to law, because causation does not extend

beyond the world of our minds. Anything beyond the range of our mind

and our senses is not bound by the law of causation, as there is no

mental association of things in the region beyond the senses, and no

causation without association of ideas. It is only when " being " or

existence gets moulded into name and form that it obeys the law of

causation, and is said to be under law; because all law has its

essence in causation. Therefore we see at once that there cannot be

any such thing as free will; the very words are a contradiction,

because will is what we know and everything that we know is within

our universe, and everything within our universe is mouled by the

conditions of space, time, and causation. Everything that we know, or

can possibly know, must be subject to causation, and that which obeys

the law of causation cannot be free. It is acted upon by other

agents, and becomes a cause in its turn. But that which has become

converted into the will, which was not the will before, but which,

when it fell into this mould of space, time, and causation, became

converted into the human will, is free; and when this will gets out

of this mould of space,time, and causation, it will be free again.

From freedom it comes, and becomes moulded into this bondage, and it

gets out and goes back to freedom again.

The question has been raised as to from whom this universe comes, in

whom it rests, and to whom it goes; and the answer has been given

that from freedom it comes, in bondage it rests, and goes back into

that freedom again. So, when we speak of man as no other than that

infinite being which is manifesting itself, we mean that only one

very small part thereof is man; this body and this mind which we see

are only one part of the whole, only one spot of the infinite being.

This whole universe is only one speck of the infinite being; and all

our laws, our bondages, our joys and our sorrows, our happinesses and

our expectations, are only within this small universe; all our

progression and digression are within its small compass. So you see

how childish it is to expect a continuation of this universe--the

creation of our minds--and to expect to go to heaven, which after all

must mean only a repetition of this world that we know. You see at

once that it is an impossible and childish desire to make the whole

of infinite existence conform to the limited and conditioned

existence which we know. When a man says that he will have again and

again this same thing which he is having now, or, as I sometimes put

it, when he asks for a comfortable religion, you may know that he

has become so degenerate that he cannot think of anything higher than

what he is now; he is just his little present surroundings and

nothing more. He has forgotten his infinite nature, and his whole

idea is confined to these little joys, and sorrows, and heart-

jealousies of the moment. He thinks that this finite thing is the

infinite; and not only so, he will not let this foolishness go. He

clings on desperately unto Trishna, and the thirst after life, what

the Buddhists call Tanha and Tissa. There may be millions of kinds of

happiness, and beings, and laws, and progress, and causation, all

acting outside the little universe that we know; and, after all, the

whole of this comprises but one section of our infinite nature.

To acquire freedom we have to get beyond the limitations of this

universe; it cannot be found here. Perfect equilibrium, or what the

Christians call the peace that passeth all understanding, cannot be

had in this universe, nor in heaven, nor in any place where our mind

and thoughts can go, where the senses can feel, or which the

imagination can conceive. No such place can give us that freedom,

because all such places would be within our universe, and it is

limited by space, time, and causation. There may be places that are

more ethereal than this earth of ours, where enjoyments may be

keener, but even those places must be in the universe and, therefore,

in bondage to law; so we have to go beyond, and real religion begins

where this little universe ends. These little joys, and sorrows, and

knowledge of things end there, and the reality begins. Until we give

up the thirst after life, the strong attachment to this our transient

conditioned existence, we have no hope of catching even a glimpse of

that infinite freedom beyond. It stands to reason then that there is

only one way to attain to that freedom which is the goal of all the

noblest aspirations of mankind, and that is by giving up this little

life, giving up this little universe, giving up this earth, giving up

heaven, giving up the body, giving up the mind, giving up everything

that is limited and conditioned. If we give up our attachment to this

little universe of the senses or of the mind, we shall be free

immediately. The only way to come out of bondage is to go beyond the

limitations of law, to go beyond causation.

But it is a most difficult thing to give up the clinging to this

universe; few ever attain to that. There are two ways to do that

mentioned in our books. One is called the " Neti, Neti " (not this, not

this), the other is called " iti " (this); the former is the negative,

and the latter is the positive way. The negative way is the most

difficult. It is only possible to the men of the very highest,

exceptional minds and gigantic wills who simply stand up and

say, " No, I will not have this, " and the mind and body obey their

will, and they come out successful. But such people are very rare.

The vast majority of mankind choose the positive way, the way through

the world, making use of all the bondages themselves to break those

very bondages. This is also a kind of giving up; only it is done

slowly and gradually, by knowing things, enjoying things and thus

obtaining experience, and knowing the nature of things until the mind

lets them all go at last and becomes unattached. The former way of

obtaining non-attachment is by reasoning, and the latter way is

through work and experience. The first is the path of Jnana-Yoga and

is characterised by the refusal to do any work; the second is that of

Karma-Yoga, in which there is no cessation from work. Every one must

work in the universe. Only those who are perfectly satisfied with the

Self, whose desires do not go beyond the Self, whose mind never

strays out of the Self, to whom the Self is all in all, only those do

not work. The rest must work. A current rushing down of its own

nature falls into a hollow and makes a whirlpool, and, after running

a little in that whirlpool, it emerges again in the form of the free

current to go on unchecked. Each human life is like that current. It

gets into the whirl, gets involved in this world of space, time, and

causation, whirls round a little, crying out, " my father, my brother,

my name, my fame, " and so on, and at last emerges out of it and

regains its original freedom. The whole universe is doing that.

Whether we know it or not, whether we are conscious or unconscious of

it, we are all working to get out of the dream of the world. Man's

experience in the world is to enable him to get out of its whirlpool.

What is Karma-Yoga? The knowledge of the secret of work. We see that

the whole universe is working. For what? For salvation, for liberty;

from the atom to the highest being, working for the one end, liberty

for the mind, for the body, for the spirit. All things are always

trying to get freedom, flying away from bondage. The sun, the moon,

the earth, the planets, all are trying to fly away from bondage. The

centrifugal and the centripetal forces of nature are indeed typical

of our universe. Instead of being knocked about in this universe, and

after long delay and thrashing, getting to know things as they are,

we learn from Karma-Yoga the secret of work, the method of work, the

organising power of work. A vast mass of energy may be spent in vain

if we do not know how to utilise it. Karma- Yoga makes a science of

work; you learn by it how best to utilise all the workings of this

world. Work is inevitable, it must be so; but we should work to the

highest purpose. Karma-Yoga makes us admit that this world is a world

of five minutes, that it is a something we have to pass through; and

that freedom is not here, but is only to be found beyond. To find the

way out of the bondages of the world we have to go through it slowly

and surely. There may be those exceptional persons about whom I just

spoke, those who can stand aside and give up the world, as a snake

casts off its skin and stands aside and looks at it. There are no

doubt these exceptional beings; but the rest of mankind have to go

slowing through the world of work. Karma-Yoga shows the process, the

secret, and the method of doing it to the best advantage.

What does it say? " Work incessantly, but give up all attachment to

work. " Do not identify yourself with anything. Hold your mind free.

All this that you see, the pains and the miseries, are but the

necessary conditions of this world; poverty and wealth and happiness

are but momentary; they do not belong to our real nature at all. Our

nature is far beyond misery and happiness, beyond every object of the

senses, beyond the imagination; and yet we must go on working all the

time. " Misery comes through attachment, not through work. " As soon as

we identify ourselves with the work we do, we feel miserable; but if

we do not identify ourselves with it, we do not feel that misery. If

a beautiful picture belonging to another is burnt, a man does not

generally become miserable; but when his own picture is burnt, how

miserable he feels! Why? Both were beautiful pictures, perhaps copies

of the same original; but in one case very much more misery is felt

than in the other. It is because in one case he identifies himself

with the picture, and not in the other. This " I and mine " causes the

whole misery. With the sense of possession comes selfishness, and

selfishness brings on misery. Every act of selfishness or thought of

selfishness makes us attached to something, and immediately we are

made slaves. Each wave in the Chitta that says " I and mine "

immediately puts a chain round us and makes us slaves; and the more

we say " I and mine " , the more slavery grows, the more misery

increases. Therefore Karma-Yoga tells us to enjoy the beauty of all

the pictures in the world, but not to identify ourselves with any of

them. Never say " mine " . Whenever we say a thing is " mine " , misery

will immediately come. Do not even say " my child " in your mind.

Possess the child, but do not say " mine " . If you do, then will come

the misery. Do not say " my house, " do not say " my body " . The whole

difficulty is there. The body is neither yours, nor mine, nor

anybody's. These bodies are coming and going by the laws of nature,

but we are free, standing as witness. This body is no more free than

a picture or a wall. Why should we be attached so much to a body? If

somebody paints a picture, he does it and passes on. Do not project

that tentacle of selfishness, " I must possess it " . As soon as that is

projected, misery will begin.

So Karma-Yoga says, first destroy the tendency to project this

tentacle of selfishness, and when you have the power of checking it,

hold it in and do not allow the mind to get into the ways of

selfishness. Then you may go out into the world and work as much as

you can. Mix everywhere, go where you please; you will never be

contaminated with evil. There is the lotus leaf in the water; the

water cannot touch and adhere to it; so will you be in the world.

This is called " Vairagya " , dispassion or non-attachment. I believe I

have told you that without non-attachment there cannot be any kind of

Yoga. Non-attachment is the basis of all the Yogas. The man who gives

up living in houses, wearing fine clothes, and eating good food, and

goes into the desert, may be a most attached person. His only

possession, his own body, may become everything to him; and as he

lives he will be simply struggling for the sake of his body. Non-

attachment does not mean anything that we may do in relation to our

external body, it is all in the mind. The binding link of " I and

mine " is in the mind. If we have not this link with the body and with

the things of the senses, we are non-attached, wherever and whatever

we may be. A man may be on a throne and perfectly non-attached;

another man may be in rags and still very much attached. First, we

have to attain this state of non-attachment and then to work

incessantly. Karma-Yoga gives us the method that will help us in

giving up all attachment, though it is indeed very hard.

Here are the two ways of giving up all attachment. The one is for

those who do not believe in God, or in any outside help. They are

left to their own devices; they have simply to work with their own

will, with the powers of their mind and discrimination, saying, " I

must be non-attached " . For those who believe in God there is another

way, which is much less difficult. They give up the fruits of work

unto the Lord; they work and are never attached to the results.

Whatever they see, feel, hear, or do, is for Him. For whatever good

work we may do, let us not claim any praise or benefit. It is the

Lord's; give up the fruits unto Him. Let us stand aside and think

that we are only servants obeying the Lord, our Master, and that

every impulse for action comes from Him every moment. Whatever thou

worshippest, whatever thou perceivest, whatever thou doest, give up

all unto Him and be at rest. Let us be at peace, perfect peace, with

ourselves, and give up our whole body and mind and everything as an

eternal sacrifice unto the Lord. Instead of the sacrifice of pouring

oblations into the fire, perform this one great sacrifice day and

night--the sacrifice of your little self. " In search of wealth in

this world, Thou art the only wealth I have found; I sacrifice myself

unto Thee. In search of some one to be loved, Thou art the only one

beloved I have found; I sacrifice myself unto Thee. " Let us repeat

this day and night, and say, " Nothing for me; no matter whether the

thing is good, bad, or indifferent; I do not care for it; I sacrifice

all unto Thee. " Day and night let us renounce our seeming self until

it becomes a habit with us to do so, until it gets into the blood,

the nerves, and the brain, and the whole body is every moment

obedient to this idea of self-renunciation. Go then into the midst of

the battlefield, with the roaring cannon and the din of war, and you

will find yourself to be free and at peace.

Karma-Yoga teaches us that the ordinary idea of duty is on the lower

plane; nevertheless, all of us have to do our duty. Yet we may see

that this peculiar sense of duty is very often a great cause of

misery. Duty becomes a disease with us; it drags us ever forward. It

catches hold of us and makes our whole life miserable. It is the bane

of human life. This duty, this idea of duty is the midday summer sun

which scorches the innermost soul of mankind. Look at those poor

slaves to duty! Duty leaves them no time to say prayers, no time to

bathe. Duty is ever on them. They go out and work. Duty is on them!

They come home and think of the work for the next day. Duty is on

them! It is living a slave's life, at last dropping down in the

street and dying in harness, like a horse. This is duty as it is

understood. The only true duty is to be unattached and to work as

free beings, to give up all work unto God. All our duties are His.

Blessed are we that we are ordered out here. We serve our time;

whether we do it ill or well, who knows? If we do it well, we do not

get the fruits. If we do it ill, neither do we get the care. Be at

rest, be free, and work. This kind of freedom is a very hard thing to

attain. How easy it is to interpret slavery as duty--the morbid

attachment of flesh for flesh as duty! Men go out into the world and

struggle and fight for money or for any other thing to which they get

attached. Ask them why they do it. They say, " It is a duty. " It is

the absurd greed for gold and gain, and they try to cover it with a

few flowers.

What is duty after all? It is really the impulsion of the flesh, of

our attachment; and when an attachment has become established, we

call it duty. For instance, in countries where there is no marriage,

there is no duty between husband and wife; when marriage comes,

husband and wife live together on account of attachment; and that

kind of living together becomes settled after Rgenerations; and when

it becomes so settled, it becomes a duty. It is, so to say, a sort of

chronic disease. When it is acute, we call it disease; when it is

chronic, we call it nature. It is a disease. So when attachment

becomes chronic, we baptise it with the high-sounding name of duty.

We strew flowers upon it, trumpets sound for it, sacred texts are

said over it, and then the whole world fights, and men earnestly rob

each other for this duty's sake. Duty is good to the extent that it

checks brutality. To the lowest kinds of men, who cannot have any

other ideal, it is of some good; but those who want to be Karma Yogis

must throw this idea of duty overboard. There is no duty for you and

me. Whatever you have to give to the world, do give by all means, but

not as a duty. Do not take any thought of that. Be not compelled. Why

should you be compelled? Everything that you do under compulsion goes

to build up attachment. Why should you have any duty? Resign

everything unto God. In this tremendous fiery furnace where the fire

of duty scorches everybody, drink this cup of nectar and be happy. We

are all simply working out His will, and have nothing to do with

rewards and punishments. If you want the reward, you must also have

the punishment; the only way to get out of the punishment is to give

up the reward. The only way of getting out of misery is by giving up

the idea of happiness, because these two are linked to each other. On

one side there is happiness, on the other there is misery. On one

side there is life, on the other there is death. The only way to get

beyond death is to give up the love of life. Life and death are the

same thing, looked at from different points. So the idea of happiness

without misery, or of life without death, is very good for school-

boys and children; but the thinker sees that it is all a

contradiction in terms and gives up both. Seek no praise, no reward,

for anything you do. No sooner do we perform a good action than we

begin to desire credit for it. No sooner do we give money to some

charity than we want to see our names blazoned in the papers. Misery

must come as a result of such desires. The greatest men in the world

have passed away unknown. The Buddhas and the Christs that we know

are but second-rate heroes in comparison with the greatest men of

whom the world knows nothing. Hundreds of these unknown heroes have

lived in every country working silently. Silently they live and

silently they pass away; and in time their thoughts find expression

in Buddhas or Christs, and it is these latter that become known to

us. The highest men do not seek to get any name or fame from their

knowledge. They leave their ideas to the world; they put forth no

claims for themselves and establish no schools or systems in their

name. Their whole nature shrinks from such a thing. They are the pure

Sattvikas, who can never make any stir, but only melt down in love. I

have seen one such Yogi who lives in a cave in India. He is one of

the most wonderful men I have ever seen. He has so completely lost

the sense of his own individuality that we may say that the man in

him is completely gone, leaving behind only the all-comprehending

sense of the divine. If an animal bites one of his arms, he is ready

to give it his other arm also, and say that it is the Lord's will.

Everything that comes to him is from the Lord. He does not show

himself to men, and yet he is a magazine of love and of true and

sweet ideas.

Next in order come the men with more Rajas, or activity, combative

natures, who take up the ideas of the perfect ones and preach them to

the world. The highest kind of men silently collect true and noble

ideas, and others--the Buddhas and Christs--go from place to place

preaching them and working for them. In the life of Gautama Buddha we

notice him constantly saying that he is the twenty-fifth Buddha. The

twenty-four before him are unknown to history, although the Buddha

known to history must have built upon foundations laid by them. The

highest men are calm, silent, and unknown. They are the men who

really know the power of thought; they are sure that, even if they go

into a cave and close the door and simply think five true thoughts

and then pass away, these five thoughts of theirs will live through

eternity. Indeed such thoughts will penetrate through the mountains,

cross the oceans, and travel through the world. They will enter deep

into human hearts and brains and raise up men and women who will give

them practical expression in the workings of human life. These

Sattvika men are too near the Lord to be active and to fight, to be

working, struggling, preaching, and doing good, as they say, here on

earth to humanity. The active workers, however good, have still a

little remnant of ignorance left in them. When our nature has yet

some impurities left in it, then alone can we work. It is in the

nature of work to be impelled ordinarily by motive and by attachment.

In the presence of an ever active Providence who notes even the

sparrow's fall, how can man attach any importance to his own work?

Will it not be a blasphemy to do so when we know that He is taking

care of the minutest things in the world? We have only to stand in

awe and reverence before Him saying, " Thy will be done " . The highest

men cannot work, for in them there is no attachment. Those whose

whole soul is gone into the Self, those whose desires are confined in

the Self, who have become ever associated with the Self, for them

there is no work. Such are indeed the highest of mankind; but apart

from them every one else has to work. In so working we should never

think that we can help on even the least thing in this universe. We

cannot. We only help ourselves in this gymnasium of the world. This

is the proper attitude of work. If we work in this way, if we always

remember that our present opportunity to work thus is a privilege

which has been given to us, we shall never be attached to anything.

Millions like you and me think that we are great people in the world;

but we all die, and in five minutes the world forgets us. But the

life of God is infinite. " Who can live a moment, breathe a moment, if

this all-powerful One does not will it? " He is the ever active

Providence. All power is His and within His command. Through His

command the winds blow, the sun shines, the earth lives, and death

stalks upon the earth. He is the all in all; He is all and in all. We

can only worship Him. Give up all fruits of work; do good for its own

sake; then alone will come perfect non-attachment. The bonds of the

heart will thus break, and we shall reap perfect freedom. This

freedom is indeed the goal of Karma-Yoga.

June 3, 2007

Dear Mr. Kumar

You have quoted Swamiji " Any work, any action, any thought

that produces an effect is called a Karma. Thus the law of Karma

means the law of causation, of inevitable cause and sequence. "

This law of Karma theory has always bothered me, for I see no logic, consistency

or rationale behind it. I have yet to go through Swamiji article fully and

perhaps I have reacted fast by just ready the first para and started writing

this e mail. I will read slowly in details and perhaps more than once.

But let me seek clarification on above. You will agree that I have freedom to

choose my actions. Therefore my Karma or action will necessarily will cause the

effect. I will call this effect as a Prarbdha for a person upon which I have

chosen to act.

Let us say I have decided to deprive someone of his possession or money in the

form my Karma, causing the effect in loss of his money. Therefore loss of money

becomes his Prarbdha.

Now please tell me, was his Prarbdha to loose good sum of money to me due to my

crooked action? Or was it due to my crooked action that he lost the money? Had I

not chosen to act this way, this fellow would have saved his money. Therefore to

his Prarbdha good or bad depends on my choice of action. If that is so, this is

not fair then.

I will give you another example. Those fanatic Muslim who chose to crash his

plane on world tower NY causing 5000 people to die, was it the prarbdha of 5000

people to die at the same time and at the same place. If it was their Prarbdha,

then we donot have to blame Mohd Attalah to headed the plane that way. And if

that was not their Prarbdha, then why did they die?

The action of a fanatic Muslim caused the effect that is killing of 5000 people?

How would you rationalize here the law of Karma theory before I proceed with

another argument.

Best regards,

Sadoro

" C. P. Kumar " <cpkumar wrote: