Gita 18.37 Freedom without framework is paralyzing not liberating

Transcript

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thank you the different ages if you consider from a modern perspective they had different characteristics and freedom is the ethos of is the defining ethos of the modern world if you consider freedom is a very important virtue but if nothing really matters in the sense that if everything is relative then freedom often gets reduced to pandering to to whichever impulse that comes from who knows where within us freedom is a very important virtue but it has to be seen in the light of life of purpose it has to be seen in some higher context without that context if we enthrone freedom it’s alone as the highest virtue then we end up without a coherent understanding of things we can’t figure out what is happening and why and or what should be chosen and why essentially let’s try to understand this freedom from a journey’s perspective say we are travelling and we come to a cross road a fork now freedom means that we should be allowed to choose which of the two roads we take if somebody takes over our car and they tie us up and then they take us along then we are not free in fact we are being hijacked, we are being kidnapped we are being abducted so somebody puts a gun on our head and tells us to drive this way then we are not free so being forced to do something is definitely not freedom but then if we come to that fork and we have no map we have no idea of what lies ahead in which fork we have started off without even any idea of where we want to drive and if we are completely lost totally then freedom may not be empowering, it may be paralyzing to have a map, a map tells us for example at this fork take left now in a sense the map is giving us a direction if we use something like google maps it can give us a verbal direction another way of phrasing it is instruction it is telling us do this, don’t do this so now we could say that if I am following google maps then where is my freedom I am not free I am just doing what I am told to do but then we had the freedom when we decided what to put in as a destination and once the destination is decided then we have to more or less follow the path we could also decide whether I want to go by road I want to go by bus, I want to go by plane I want to walk, whatever but once we have decided destination and once we have decided the mode of transportation if I am going to drive then the direction is not a restriction the direction is not a depriver of freedom the direction is actually a facilitator of its assistant it is a facilitator of our freedom because we at our core we at our core have done the choice now suppose if somebody takes freedom to imply that nothing matters that if freedom is exalted to an absolute virtue then that means we make everything relative if you want to go from say Los Angeles to Seattle, it is a cross country ride which we are going to take somebody says all knowledge is relative we say from Los Angeles we will have to go eastward from Los Angeles say if you have to go to Boston then you have to go cross country in the eastern direction he says no actually all knowledge is relative then you don’t have to go eastwards that is just your opinion that you have to go eastwards well it is not a matter of opinion it is a matter of direction if somebody doesn’t follow the direction to go east they will not get to the destination of Boston so the point here is that if freedom is seen as a facility to choose and it involves giving the opportunity to choose then that is to that extent to choose among various alternative trajectories alternative pathways that freedom is good but freedom requires a framework and if in the name of freedom we reject one framework we will have to adopt some other framework if we reject all frameworks then freedom without frameworks is not empowering it is paralyzing so somebody decides that where I am, where I want to go I should be allowed the freedom to believe you know you think you have to go eastwards to get to Boston but I believe I can go north and I can get to Boston well you can go north if you want but you won’t get to Boston there freedom is not freedom does not mean the right to freedom does not determine the right to determine facts facts are what they are facts always win simply because they are facts no matter how much we campaign for truth our campaigning for truth is not going to change the facts for what they are so when there is when in the name of freedom we reject all frameworks then we actually become freely paralyzed freedom without framework is paralyzing it is not empowering, it is not energizing it is not liberating so if for example somebody says I want the freedom to pursue happiness yes that is good but if somebody starts relativizing and saying that happiness itself is nothing but ultimately nothing but matter exists and if matter is all that exists then happiness also is simply a state of the brain and certain chemicals are fired in the brain and that’s why some people feel happy and ultimately this firing of chemicals in the brain doesn’t have any meaning so if happiness itself becomes meaningless then what does the pursuit of freedom to pursue happiness mean so we need some framework now somebody may say that oh I can drink a lot and by drinking I get happiness yes they may drink a lot and they may get happiness by drinking but whether that is the happiness worth pursuing there is some alternative better happiness that can be pursued that is something that is an objective criteria to decide that somebody can get healthy food that is tasty and healthy drink that is tasty and they get happiness to that somebody takes alcoholic drink that tastes good to them and they get some pleasure in that yes you can have that freedom but then there is a framework over there and in that framework the consequence is not something which we once we make a choice the consequence comes with the choice we have the freedom to choose we have the freedom to make choices the freedom to make choices does not give us the freedom to choose the consequences of those choices that once a particular choice is made the consequences inbuilt in that choice so frameworks basically help us envision or comprehend the correlation of choices and consequences now if freedom is made into an absolute virtue wherein I am free to believe what I want you are free to believe whatever you want if a diabetic patient says that you doctor are free to believe that eating sugar will cause me will worsen my condition but I don’t believe that I am going to eat sugar well you can eat sugar but then you have the choice but we don’t have the choice once we make the choice of eating sugar the diabetic person will not be able to choose whether they get the consequence or not the consequence is going to come because consequences are built in choices are inbuilt to certain consequences are inbuilt to certain choices and when freedom is made in the absolute virtue then we start claiming that there is no framework that correlates choices and consequences and that everything is relative so then that is totally unsustainable conception of freedom so when we are provided some directions by scripture for example scripture tells us that you know discipline yourself so for example when the Bhagavata says that which tastes like poison in the beginning will taste like nectar in the end this is a statement which tells us about the nature of reality it tells us about that often things which feel exhausting demanding draining in the beginning often they are what we need they eventually turn out to be most fulfilling and so we need to persevere through the exhausting demanding draining stage till we come to the fulfilling state and this journey from the exhausting to the fulfilling is what is the life journey of all of us is what we as intelligent human beings are meant to achieve and for achieving this we cannot make freedom into an absolute virtue rather we use our intelligence and our freedom to choose the most intelligent framework for understanding things and the framework for guiding our life and once we have chosen that framework which makes sense and which works then we have to adopt that framework so that it can benefit us so just as if a person wants to improve their health if they are having diabetes they have the freedom to choose okay which form of treatment makes most sense to them do they want to take Ayurveda do they want to take allopathy but once they have chosen a particular form of treatment then they have to adhere to the rules of that it is only by adhering to those rules of that particular treatment will they be healed so if freedom means the rejection of all freedom then it is paralyzing if freedom means freedom to choose a framework and then responsibly make the choices which give the desirable consequences then that is an empowering use of freedom not a paralyzing misapplication of the conception of freedom