Knowledge As a Means to Freedom
Baba Times Digest© | 4 July 2013 22:11 EST | New York Edition
RELATED TOPICS >>> Knowledge is Freedom | Independence Day
New York: We are celebrating the 4th of July Independence Day today here in USA. What exactly is Freedom? It is interseting to turn to Philosophy and Religion to see their perspective.
If our search is for freedom, knowledge is regarded as an endeavour towards the achievement of this freedom. The institutions of the world, whether they are educational, social or political, are instruments for the implementation of this endeavour towards the attainment of human freedom. The only way to resolve the issue of bondage seems to be in the 'knowledge' one has to attain to understand the cause of the bondage ! This may be also regarded as an advancement in knowledge. So, the increase in knowledge is, in a way, equivalent to the increase in the capacity of a person to achieve freedom. But freedom from what, is the basic question. If this question cannot be answered, we cannot also know what knowledge is, and impliedly what education is, because education is the process of the acquisition of knowledge. Truly speaking, knowledge is a percentage or degree of absorption of one's life into the character of one's knowledge. Knowledge is valuable to that extent alone to which it can be accommodated in one's personal life and remains as a basic foundation for one's search for the ultimate purpose which one is apparently longing for. It is very easy to be comfortable in life. But it is difficult to be happy in life. Society can deceive us into the notion that we are well off. When we conform to the standards of social ethics and idiosyncrasies, naturally we are supported by society. But society is only one segment in the vast circle of human endeavour. It is not the whole of the reality that is pictured before our minds.
The moment we move away from 'Exoteric' way of thinking, that is to say, as things appear to us we adjust ourselves to the situtaion. But the things may not be what they appear to be! And we feel we are bound and we have no independence. A little analysis will help if we understand the ground reality of the situation and then react, which will greatly enable us to feel more free and we will move to real Freedom !
Picture Source: Washington DC and Fire works en.wikipedia.org
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