Freedom Is Awareness of Life, Which Is Forever

September 26, 2008

by Swami Shyam

Question: Swamiji, I really loved all your talks today. You described the functioning of the mind and how the human being’s nature is such that the ego is there, and the individual sense comes, and out of that comes a desire for something. And if that desire is not fulfilled, anger comes, and if the desire is fulfilled, the sense of possession comes. In this way, the human individual consciousness occurs, and everybody is caught in that. Then you said that the only way is ...

Swami Shyam: Everybody has that functioning. Why should it be called caught?

Question: Well, he’s caught if he suffers.

Swami Shyam: If he suffers, then why not call suffering part of his personality?

Question: Yes, it is part of his personality.

Swami Shyam: So then he should relish it.

Question: But he doesn’t relish it.

Swami Shyam: Yes, yes. Say something, please.

Question: I thought that it was an amazing description. Basically it was the description of raag and dwaysh, or happiness and unhappiness. You explained that the fulfilment of desire leads to possession, which means happiness, and disappointment leads to anger or unhappiness, and there’s only one way to be free from that.

Swami Shyam: First you have to establish if a person is ever unhappy. You have to convey this point to people, because you are not only speaking for yourself. It’s just possible that you are always happy, and your listeners are happy; then the word “unhappiness” cannot be used easily. This is because nobody will accept that he is unhappy. Right? So how can you say, “You are unhappy, so you should meditate.” No. You have to give them something, because we have come to know that meditation should be communicated to some people—one, and one, and one. These people listen to me, and that which they wanted has been communicated to them. Now, tell me what they wanted.

Question: Everybody wants freedom.

Swami Shyam: Yes, freedom from what?

Question: Freedom from any sense of suffering. I won’t say the word unhappiness. [Laughter]

Swami Shyam: It’s not necessary to say freedom from suffering. We want freedom. We are all healthy, but still, we want freedom. This you can understand. Then you can communicate to Angie that she is free. It is not that she came here because she is suffering. She came here to see her daughter and to see me, also, as well as to enquire into what Vanessa is interested in. Freedom is one thing that a person wants. After he gets freedom, then what does he want?

Question: Then he doesn’t have any want.

Swami Shyam: Then how have you been living for forty or fifty years, if want is not there?

Question: Oh.

Swami Shyam: Yes, yes. Try.

Question: Well, freedom doesn’t depend on wanting for existing or living.

Swami Shyam: Then you can say it’s not freedom that a person wants. He wants to exist. He wants to remain alive. He doesn’t want to lose the life. So he is aware of the life. If he is aware of the life, why should he be attached to and love only things that are not life? Then, he’ll become aware, and he will say, “Oh, I never thought of it—that I really like life. I like lively people, lively things, lively flowers, lively grass, lively beings—everything that is lively. A lively dog, lively cat, lively children—she wants everything lively. A person does not want that which is now dead. You don’t like your pet dog when he is dead, even when he was the dearest thing to you. You patted him so much. You put him in your lap, and did this and that and that. And no doubt out of courtesy you can lift him and pat him again, but now he is not the dog that knew you. So what is that? You want to remain alive forever. Alive means you don’t even want to have the sense of death, let alone death itself.
Now you understand that a human being is like any other being that came on earth and became aware of the life. He came from life and became a body, and then he forgot the life and began to pat the body. That is his mistake, and he wants to remove it. Thank you. Nice!

Question: Thank you, Swamiji.

Swami Shyam: Retain my words. Thank you.

Home    Swami Shyam    Features    Literature    Multimedia    Meditation
The Courses    About the IMI    Contact Us

Copyright © IMI 2003