By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
You want to solve problems. You want to be creative. You want love and joy. You want to care and share. Where does all that come from?
It all comes from within. As you settle in deeper and deeper, you can base yourself in your own Divine Essence. It is Grace that gives you inner access, but it is your own efforts that give you the inner steadiness, the deep inner center that sets you free.
This is freedom, in Sanskrit — moksha. It means liberation. It means you won’t have to come back for another lifetime. You can if you want to, but you won’t be stuck in the repetitive cycle for eons. You’re free!
In honor of 4th of July, the American holiday celebrating freedom, I focus on freedom. I do realize that July 4 is about political freedom – but I like to use it every year to celebrate spiritual liberation. That you really can become free:
* No more inner shadows.
* No more knee-jerk reflexes.
* No more need, greed and fear.
When you find your own inner essence, and when you base yourself in your own Self, you are free from everything that used to drag you down. It’s great!
And it’s a little strange.
* For your past is still your past, but it doesn’t drag you down.
* And your life is still your life, but it’s not weighty and constraining.
* And your future is still your future, whatever you think it could be or should be – it’s up to you, but you’re not holding your breath waiting to see.
You know what freedom is? That your sense of self doesn’t come from your past, nor your imagined future, and not even from the circumstances of your life. Your sense of self is an inner sense, an inner knowing, a wordless Knowingness… of your own Beingness.
In the Knowingness of your own Beingness, you have fulfilled life’s highest purpose – liberation! Freedom!
And you have the freedom to create, to care and share. To give without measure. Free to be without analyzing or strategizing, without making up for or trying to attain. And your mind becomes your greatest tool. Instead of having mental shadows that block your inner light, your mind shines with the light of Consciousness. Chetana, it’s called in Sanskrit.
Expanded mind. Divine mind. Your heart overflows. What a way to live!