{"id":429,"date":"2012-03-28T03:55:35","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T08:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/?p=429"},"modified":"2012-03-28T03:55:35","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T08:55:35","slug":"what-is-the-true-meaning-of-freedom-who-is-really-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/what-is-the-true-meaning-of-freedom-who-is-really-free\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the true meaning of freedom? Who is really free?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cMost people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.\u201d<br \/>\n<em>&#8211; V.S. Naipal (Trinidadian writer of Indian descent, awarded the Nobel Literature Prize in 2001)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kabir &#8211; The couplet<\/strong><br \/>\n?? ??? ?? ????, ???? ??? ?? ??? |<br \/>\n?? ???? ???? ???, ???? ???? ???? ||<\/p>\n<p><strong>transliterated:<\/strong><br \/>\nHar chale so maanav, behad chale so saadh |<br \/>\nHadh behad dono taje, taako bhaata agadh ||<\/p>\n<p><strong>Translation:<\/strong><br \/>\nHe who stays within the limits of teachings is man, he who explores beyond is a guide |<br \/>\nBut he who soars beyond without limit, he is the true seeker, the saint who finds ||<\/p>\n<p><strong>My thoughts:<\/strong><br \/>\nFreedom is a curious concept. We are free to think of anything in any way at any time; but to be truly free, we have to first learn to exercise restraint.<\/p>\n<p>The musician who wants to be free to create music needs to limit his other activities so as to allow himself to be immersed in his music \u2013 the scientist chasing the elusive solution to a puzzle removes himself from the humdrum of daily life.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom, then, comes from the realization of complete discipline. The first step to freedom is knowledge. Knowledge is what sets us free and on the path to seek truth. Truth enables us to realize the purpose of our existence. Realizing our purpose, when we walk on the path leading to the fulfillment of that purpose is when we find true freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cMost people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.\u201d &#8211; V.S. Naipal (Trinidadian writer of Indian descent, awarded the Nobel Literature Prize in 2001) Kabir &#8211; The couplet ?? ??? ??&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kabir","category-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}