Truth Liberates
"Truth liberates," said Jesus Christ. But both words are Greek to most people though innumerable opinions can be expressed in this regard. Liberation also implies bondage. Man is a prisoner to himself, a prisoner of his ignorance, his ego and his conditioning. As the prison is very subtle and vast, one feels that one is free. We have developed the habit of living in bondage, thus we are used to it and any idea of liberation seems foolish and even mad. The greatest problem is that we are ignorant of our bondage and thus everyone thinks that he is free. Who can deny the fact that one is caught between death and birth? Who is not a prisoner of his thoughts?
Man is a strange creature; he likes to build his own prison. By becoming fanatic of a religion, sect, ideology, political party or football team, one builds a very strong wall around oneself. What are habits if not the solid wall of the prison called mind or ego? Man is like the bird which has lived in a cage for a very long time and has become used to it. Even if he were proposed a life outside the limitation of the cage, he would refuse to venture. Thus what is outside remains unknown to him. Beyond the mind where opinions, beliefs and philosophies arise, is the infinite space of pure consciousness. Beyond the limitation of the senses, beyond the knowledge of scriptures and beyond the limitations of what the eyes behold is the infinity freedom of the soul.
Stress, misery, tension, illness, violence, racial discrimination, hatred, greed, anger, lust, fanaticism and so on are not the real nature of our being; we have created them. Our real nature is one of overflowing love, ineffable peace and boundless freedom. Likes, dislikes, beliefs, disbeliefs, mine-thine attitude and habits are very powerful shackles that prevent one to come out of the prison of the ego. In fact, the ego or the I-consciousness is the central prison, the human nature forms its chains. Liberation from the prison of the ego and thus from its shackles is possible only by breaking the ego. The ego can only be broken by treading the path of truth, by experiencing the great truth called the soul or the God within. Only truth can liberate. It will be no doubt difficult in the beginning, it will even hurt but there is no shortcut. Little by little, as one develops the taste of the great freedom, one will be ready to give everything to achieve it.
People do not want to acknowledge that whatever they possess, be it knowledge or wealth, is something external and that as they are, they have achieved nothing. Try to imagine that now you are about to die: what can you really claim to be yours? Do not speak about what you have borrowed from scriptures or prophets. You have known yourself as nothing but a body and now you know that the body is dying! Then are you doomed? Is it your end? Do not talk about soul, after-life or God because you have not experienced any of these. Even if you say you believe in all these, have these changed or transformed your consciousness?
Be very sincere to yourself: do you think that by merely believing in all these things you have become enlightened? Is believing enough? Most people, not to say all, die unconsciously. I mean that they die without any great change in the level of their consciousness. They were born with more than ninety percent unconsciousness and they die with the same amount of it. I know of many people who think that by believing in God or in a certain prophet, by not doing any wrong to people or by observing the commandments, they will attain paradise and will never be born again. If only people could understand that paradise too is nothing but a shackle built by the mind! In fact, paradise is nothing but another subtle dimension of this universe. Only the experience of truth liberates one from all forms of bondage and thus leads one to the Supreme Liberation, which is bliss, peace and infinite presence.
Hence, when a Jesus or a Krishna says, "Only truth liberates," it means that one should identify oneself not as a body but as a soul, the eternal boundless principle beyond the body. Indeed truth liberates. Many people who are a little more vigilant know fully well that they are not happy when they feel that they have gone against the laws of nature, but habits die hard. After all, when the powerful veil of ignorance is here, what to do and where to go? But let those who have understood my message know that where there is a will and a strong determination, doors open from all sides. And if not from all sides, at least one door will certainly open.
