Swami Vivekananda on Freedom (Extracts from Complete Works)
Be at rest, be free, and work. This kind of freedom is a very hard thing to attain.
Give up all fruits of work; do good for its own sake; then alone will come perfect non-attachment. The bonds of the heart will thus break, and we shall reap perfect freedom.
Wherever there is life, there is this search for freedom and that freedom is the same as God. This same freedom is in you and in me and is the only real freedom.
When one realises all this slavery, then comes the desire to be free; an intense desire comes.
[As] the bee culling honey from many flowers remains free, not bound by any flower, be not bound.
We, we, and none else, are responsible for what we suffer. We are the effects, and we are the causes. We are free therefore.
The Kingdom of Heaven is within us. He is there. He is the soul of all souls. See Him in your own soul. That is practical religion. That is freedom.
A perfect, free being cannot have any desire.
The human soul never forgets its freedom and is ever seeking it.
Everything is ours already — infinite purity, freedom, love, and power.
Be free; hope for nothing from anyone.
Why is all the world trying to find, or seeking for, a God? Why? Because in spite of all this bondage, in spite of nature and this tremendous energy of law grinding us down, never allowing us to turn to any side — wherever we go, whatever we want to do, we are thwarted by this law, which is everywhere — in spite of all this, the human soul never forgets its freedom and is ever seeking it.
All nature is working for the enjoyment and experience of the soul. It is getting this experience in order to reach the goal, and that goal is freedom.
One single moment of the madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom.
We, we, and none else, are responsible for what we suffer. We are the effects, and we are the causes. We are free therefore.
What is then worth having? Mukti, freedom. Even in the highest of heavens, says our scripture, you are a slave; what matters it if you are a king for twenty thousand years? So long as you have a body, so long as you are a slave to happiness, so long as time works on you, space works on you, you are a slave. The idea, therefore, is to be free of external and internal nature.
The infinite oneness of the Soul is the eternal sanction of all morality, that you and I are not only brothers — every literature voicing man’s struggle towards freedom has preached that for you — but that you and I are really one. This is the dictate of Indian philosophy.
Freedom, physical freedom, mental freedom, and spiritual freedom are the watchwords of the Upanishads.
Believe, therefore, in yourselves, and if you want material wealth, work it out; it will come to you. If you want to be intellectual, work it out on the intellectual plane, and intellectual giants you shall be. And if you want to attain to freedom, work it out on the spiritual plane, and free you shall be and shall enter into Nirvana, the Eternal Bliss.
[You may] pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there are, [but] unless you realise the soul there is no freedom.
The Kingdom of Heaven is within us. He is there. He is the soul of all souls. See Him in your own soul. That is practical religion. That is freedom.
This Being, this Atman, this real Self of man, the free, the unchangeable is beyond all conditions, and as such, it has neither birth nor death.
When the Purusha finds that It is free, and does not require anything to complete Itself, that this nature is quite unnecessary, then freedom (Kaivalya) is attained.
The man who works through freedom and love cares nothing for results. But the slave wants his whipping; the servant wants his pay.
To work without motive, to work unattached, brings the highest bliss and freedom.
The Self of man being beyond the law of causation is not a compound, is not the effect of any cause, and therefore is ever free and is the ruler of everything that is within law.
Man has freedom already, but he will have to discover it. He has it, but every moment forgets it. That discovering, consciously or unconsciously, is the whole life of every one.
We cannot unmake ourselves; we cannot destroy or impair the vital force within us, but we have the freedom to give it different directions.
He is free, he is great, who turns his back upon the world, who has renounced everything, who has controlled his passion, and who thirsts for peace. One may gain political and social independence, but if one is a slave to his passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom.
The soul then finds That which is true in everything. That which is in every atom, everywhere present, the essence of all things, the God of this universe — know that thou art He, know that thou art free.
Man’s free agency is not of the mind, for that is bound. There is no freedom there. Man is not mind, he is soul. The soul is ever free, boundless, and eternal. Herein is man’s freedom, in the soul. The soul is always free, but the mind identifying itself with its own ephemeral waves, loses sight of the soul and becomes lost in the maze of time, space, and causation — Maya.
The first end of life is knowledge; the second end of life is happiness. Knowledge and happiness lead to freedom.
The idea of freedom is the only true idea of salvation — freedom from everything, the senses, whether of pleasure or pain, from good as well as evil.
We are ever free if we would only believe it, only have faith enough. You are the soul, free and eternal, ever free ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will be free in a minute.
Still the mind but for one moment, and the truth of your real nature will flash upon you, and freedom is at hand: no more bondage after that.
Each one has a special nature peculiar to himself which he must follow and through which he will find his way to freedom.
Everybody is hypnotised already. The work of attaining freedom, of realising one’s real nature, consists in de-hypnotisation.
Everything exists already in the Self of all beings. He who asserts he is free, shall be free.
Nobody attains freedom without shaking off the coils of worldly worries. The very fact that somebody lives the worldly life proves that he is tied down to it as the bond-slave of some craving or other. Why otherwise will he cling to that life at all? He is the slave either of lust or of gold, of position or of fame, of learning or of scholarship. It is only after freeing oneself from all this thraldom that one can get on along the way of freedom.
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