February 28th, 2021 Sunday Morning Youth Session: Freedom

In this Sunday Morning Youth session, Pujya Swamiji draws our attention to the secret of gaining freedom in life.  How it is important to master the mind to develop an inner freedom, and one who hasn’t mastered the mind becomes a slave of the mind.  When we become slave of the mind, then the mind makes me do things, we helplessly do things which we may regret later on!  Happiness is where freedom is, while unhappiness is where there is dependence.  So with every relation in our life we need to check whether there is freedom or slavery in that relation.  Are we able to control or manage our emotions, or are we controlled and managed by our emotions?  Are we demanding in our relationships or are we giving, contributing?

Pujya Swamiji gives description of a saint, of a wise person, of a free person, the one who doesn’t have hatred for anyone, who is a friend to all.  Freedom is an inner disposition of the mind.   It is this inner freedom that makes us free in life.  First it begins with the freedom to do what is right and not what I like, and ultimately what is right is also what such a wise person likes by default.  This inner transformation happens provided we are clear of what we want in life.  We may have material goals in our life to be wealthy, powerful, etc, but we also have the desire to be free.  We want to be wealthy and free, powerful and free, successful and free.  So really speaking there is only one goal behind all the goals:  to be free!  So self-transformation should happen for self-management!  While pursuing external goals we should also pursue inner goal for our spiritual growth.  Power, success etc can be used to either help others or to exploit others.  And our goal should be to be successful and help others succeed.

The youth and the seekers are encouraged to refer to the ‘Management Wisdom from Bhagavad Gītā’ by Pujya Swami Viditatmanandaji.  This reading will provide further clarity of understanding and interpreting the issues we face in our daily life, and will complement this Satsanga.