Smritis Down the Ages: An Overview - Swami Kritarthananda

Freedom, the Goal of Life

Every true Hindu knows that his/her real nature is the pure Atman, the free soul; that he/she is not bound by any law. Notwithstanding all our limitations, the ultimate goal of our life is to attain this freedom and to go beyond all laws. The brave Hindu mother, like the great wise queen Madalasa of yore, reminds her child, of the free nature of his soul. Swami Vivekananda echoed this great truth about our real nature in the following lines, thus converting the Vedanta philosophy into a practical solution to the problems of life:

Let eyes grow dim, and heart grow faint And friendship fail, and love betray Let fate its hundred horrors send And clotted darkness block the way. All nature wear one angry frown To crush you out, still know, my soul You are divine. March on and on Nor right nor left but to the goal.¹

Man is free in his real nature. But judging by the conflicts and struggles going on in human life one is led to think that life is like a perpetual bondage. This is visibly true. Though the soul is free by nature, due to some inexplicable reason the thread of life has been wound in the wrong way resulting in a mess. We have to come out of this complicated state to prove that we are free by nature and cannot be bound by any chain—golden or iron. But who has put the chain round us? Ironically enough, it is we ourselves who have forged every link of the chain that binds us. Hence it is we who can set ourselves free by unwinding the thread of life. To be more explicit, we have exploited our freedom through lethargy, lack of discipline, and engagement in useless pursuits or gossips, and thus have fallen into such a lawless, chaotic state of life. So, the only remedy for the commoners is to discipline themselves by imposing certain laws which govern every detail of their day-to-day life. To put it otherwise, the road to freedom from laws is paved by the imposition of strict laws!

It is interesting to know, there are many people who will not refrain from doing something illegal had there not been the fear of rigid law enforced on them. Not so, however, with really great souls. They do not need laws. Still, they discipline themselves. And what is the difference in behavior when they too are confronted with critical situations? Swami Vivekananda gave his terse answer in these two lines of a poem:

‘When the soul is stirred to its inmost depth Great ones unfold their best.’²

Indeed, only great ones will unfold their best while the rest will unfold their ‘worst’! So it stands to reason that we can go beyond laws only through laws.

References

1. [CW 8:163]
2. [CW 8:163]

© "The Vedanta Kesari" (December 2002) published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004. Website: www.sriramakrishnamath.org. Reprinted with permission.

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