Independence… Truly!!!!

Independence! A day that is celebrated today by our countrymen across the globe. Celebrations of having gained our freedom from colonialism fill the day with jubilance and cheer. I take this opportunity to wish my fellow Indians a very Happy Indian Independence Day.

What also comes to my mind on this day is, that like many other words that we take for granted, for being so commonly used, Independence also is one such word that needs to be looked at in its totality to understand it better. A change in perspective is required to ensure that we understand and cherish this true sense of liberation to its fullest. Every other day, I come across some experience or the other, where I find people binding themselves to a wrong notion of freedom. I must humbly submit, that at times, I am also one of those who fall into this trap of misunderstanding what actual freedom is.

Though independence as I said, is misunderstood in various forms by different people. One common gap that I have come across with most of the cases is of associating independence only to something that is outside of us. As soon as we think of freedom, as soon as the word independence comes to mind, our thoughts automatically go into a zone of getting free from something or someone that is outside of us. And though this is not an incorrect way of thinking, it surely is incomplete.

Freedom, or independence from anything that is outside of us, is a much easier and clearer thing to gain. Getting unbound from what is not a part of us, is the easiest of any kind of freedom that we seek. Though it does have its share of effort, and challenges, the very fact that it is something that holds us from outside, makes it possible to get unclutched, if we show some determination and grit.

The facet of independence, that we often overlook, and that which completes what true independence is, lies within ourselves. It is that invisible chain that ties us to our own conceived dependence on that which does not serve us but still makes us be a slave of. What is most important is to get free from all that we bind ourselves with. We all deserve to allow ourselves independence, from all those thoughts that may make us feel liberated but bind us within set boundaries of our limited view of the world.

My experience on this comes through several life-affirming conversations that I get the opportunity to have because of my coaching endeavours. And it strengthens my belief that no matter what immediate freedom and liberation something provide to us if we do not keep relooking at it and accept it to be our ultimate truth, we are allowing ourselves to be the slave of that thing. We all must continuously keep re-visiting our thought process and ensure that we evaluate our worldview from time to time. This process of checking if a thought that has served us for so long, still holds meaning in the new ever-changing realities around us, is what makes us liberated and free in the true sense.

Safety and security that we find in the tried and tested methods and thoughts of the past also holds the potential to become equally dangerous for us, if we do not adopt the practice of having a relook at them now and then.

Our experiences of life have a great potential to serve us and make us manoeuvre through the highs and lows of life, most efficiently. What we need to do is to have an independent view and mind, to review our experiences and choose wisely what to do with them, to have them be relevant and effective for us, even in the present times and in times to come.

This unshackling from our own conceived sense of freedom and security is what gets us real liberation, and allows us to keep being independent in its truest sense.

I wish that we all allow ourselves the freedom to look at the magnificence this life has to offer to us and understand that the biggest barrier to that happening is our self-created dependence. The dependence that is not connected to anything or anyone outside of us, but that which originates and is nourished within ourselves, by ourselves.

Stay Safe! Stay Free! Love!